No Willpower to Listen to Spiritual Teachings? Watch This! | Eckhart Tolle

What part does willpower play in the awakening process, if any? Don't I use some willpower to motivate myself to follow your teachings? I must listen to Eka now. I don't want to, but. So it's not willpower. Because if you use willpower and you listen because you think you should be listening or you are a spiritual person and you should be listening to a spiritual talk to just prove to yourself that you are spiritual or you are determined to awaken. No, there is something in you that wants to listen and that responds. And that in you that wants to listen has nothing to do with willpower. It's an energy field that rises up and whatever. The only way you can listen to any spiritual teaching is from that deeper level, not from the conceptual mental level. And whenever you listen to a spiritual teaching, it's always from the deeper place. It's always a recognition of what you already knew deep down. So the truth is always recognized because it comes from. You listen from the same place from where the teaching arises. And so it recognizes itself, the truth. You already know it, even though it may not. It may be too deep for you to access it for yourself. Then you listen to a spiritual teaching and suddenly the truth that is in you is called forth and drawn out into responses. Oh yeah, and you immediately. That's it? Yes. Why didn't I know that before? Of course you did know it before. Because now you recognize it. Now there's something else in you that does not want to listen. The egoic entity. It's not getting me anywhere, is it? Been doing that for years. Where is it getting me? Nowhere. The story in the head. And then you believe in what it says. And sometimes it can stop people temporarily from going to the spiritual teaching. But then if that goes on for long enough, you start to suffer more and more. And finally the suffering becomes the thing that awakens you again. That creates a gap or the opening in you. And you're ready. Ah, now you want to listen again. Can't stand the suffering anymore. So willpower is not it. Now, it may sometimes look to. At first sight, it may look. When I say be present. You can choose to be present. When there's a certain level of presence in you already, you can choose to be present rather than to drift into. Back into your mind. And there is an alertness associated with presence, but it is a relaxed alertness, not a tone. Tight alertness. It's not. It's not a. No, it's a. You see the difference. It's easier acting. It out than talking about it. It's not. It's not the tight, almost fearful alertness that is, or even some anger behind it. It's a relaxed alertness. So it's almost. It might seem incompatible, almost relaxed alertness, but it's not. So the alertness has an intensity to it and. But that's not willpower. The non relaxed alertness has an element of willpower in it, and that's not it. You can sometimes see in paintings or drawings of Zen masters that alertness and in Zen masters, that particular way in which they teach, that's partly culturally conditioned because everything comes through the particular veil. The teaching is the same no matter what cultural veil or conditioned veil it comes through. But the way it manifests can be conditioned by a culture, or in the case of a teacher, it can be conditioned by the energy field of the teacher. Some teachers are seem more forthright and aggressive almost. It's not really aggressive, but it might look so to the ego. So there's a fierceness sometimes to the alertness which is sometimes required to break through all the mental stuff you need to go into. Now, whether you look fierce at the same time doesn't matter. You can, but if you look the greatest drawings of Zen masters, at first sight, they look fierce. If you look more closely, you see that behind the fierceness there's a compassion and a gentleness. And of course, those can only be done by artists who are masters, who can capture what the inner reality of the Zen master, which is both the fierceness and behind it, is hiding compassion. The same applies to meditation practice. Willpower is not a good way to ensure that your meditation practice is successful. In other words, it doesn't work because willpower in meditation is the famous lid on the boiling kettle. You're holding it down, forcing yourself to be still instead of surrendering into the present moment, so that stillness arises naturally, forcing yourself to be still. And then that may work for a while. And when the next episode of unconsciousness happens, which will be soon, when you go back into your normal life after the meditation, you come downstairs into the kitchen, and before you know it, you're shouting at somebody and everybody is disturbing your serenity. It.