Practicing Presence in Everyday Life — A Free Live Session with Eckhart Tolle

Hello, hello, and welcome to this live session with Eckhart Tolle, presented by Eckhart Teachings and Sounds True. I'm Soleil Howell. I'm a learning director at Sounds True and your host for our time together. Thank you all so much for being here. In this session, Eckhart will be discussing how bringing presence into the ordinary moments of everyday life is the essential shift needed to deepen your experience of sense and purpose. Before we begin, I want to mention that Eckhart Tolle's online course, Doorways into Presence, is now open for registration. In Doorways into Presence, you'll join Eckhart and a global community to learn 14 practices that Eckhart uses to quiet the mind and live more fully in the now. Click on the Learn More button to join the new cohort for Doorways into Presence. And now it is my great honor and privilege to introduce Eckhart Tolle. Hello, Eckhart.

Hello. Thank you, Sunday. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the present moment. Let's acknowledge before anything else Let's acknowledge the present moment. If you're new to this, you might wonder, what does he mean? Where is it? How do I acknowledge the present moment? The first thing, you acknowledge the vivid, immediate reality of your sense perceptions— what you see, In this case, you see the image of this man on the screen, but peripherally you also see the things in your room or wherever you are. So the visual sense perceptions, auditory, you listen to the words, there may be a few other sounds. And then there are other senses that you may or may not be perceiving anything tactile or scent or taste. probably not right now, but first of all, it's mainly visual and auditory. We just become aware of what is, what arises in the present moment as sense perceptions, more acutely aware of sense perceptions. Now, for many people, that's actually fairly rare because they are so immersed in the stream of thinking that there's not much attention left to be really aware of the world that surrounds them. They have enough— yes, they have enough awareness not to bump into things, so they're aware of what's there, and— but they're so immersed in the stream of the thinking, which I call sometimes the voice in the head, They're not really aware of what's around them, and often they overlook many lovely things, a lot of beauty that is there continuously. Even little things that normally one would overlook— every little thing has a certain presence and an aliveness to it. Looking out of your window, sky, trees— you acknowledge the present moment by acknowledging The aliveness that's all around you. It's good. This is the beginning of waking up into the present moment. So the first step is being aware of your sense perception. Oh, whereas a minute ago you might have been involved in highly problematic thinking about something that may happen. Or has happened, but is not here now. And humans forget that the only reality there ever is is the present moment. There is nothing else. Most humans live as if past and future were more important than the present moment.

They are.

not really aware of the aliveness of the present moment, except rare instances. People who engage in dangerous activities or risky activities— mountain climbing, surfing, racing, any sports activities— these activities, because there's a certain element of risk, force you into the present moment. So some people get addicted to those activities because they feel really and truly alive when they're engaged in that dangerous activity. Why? They get almost addicted to the high they get when they are performing whatever it is— mountain climbing or whatever it is— they feel So alive. Why? Because they are not—they are absolutely present every step. They are absolutely—the activity forces them into presence. So that's one. But you don't need to depend on it. You don't need to seek out dangerous activity if unless you—that's what you want to do. You don't need to seek it out. You can actually invite presence into your life without engaging in any dangerous activity. Just be aware of your sense perceptions. The next step is you go a little bit deeper. That's part of the present moment. There's a deeper part of the present moment. The deeper part is you, because without you there would be no sense perceptions. So you become aware of yourself. As the consciousness that makes sense perceptions possible. You become aware of yourself not the historical person, the person that has a past mixed back, some good, some bad things in the past. No, you become aware of yourself not as the person that has a history but as a— the presence that is your consciousness, the consciousness that makes sense perceptions possible. You can sense your own presence, so to speak. It's a very subtle thing, and that's an incredible realization. We'll go more deeply into that during our session. So sense perception is the first step. The essence of the present moment is deeper. The present moment is the space for everything. It's not— the present moment isn't something like an object of consciousness. Everything else is an object of consciousness. Every sense perception— the table, the tree, the plant, the glass— they are objects. Or the sounds that you hear, the taste. The smell, they are objects that arise in consciousness. Consciousness becomes an object of consciousness. Consciousness itself is not an object. It's a space for everything. So it's not a thing. So consciousness is intangible. So being aware of yourself as a presence, not as a person.

Right now.

The presence that enables the sense perceptions to be. There's something very calming there, very peaceful. That presence is always peaceful. What's not peaceful is the noisy mind. That's not peaceful. Underneath the noisy mind, there's a silent power that's very peaceful in every human being. Many humans can never go there. They don't know it's there. There's a silent power, and that silent power is the essence of you that transcends who or what you are as a person. It transcends your age, your gender, your race, your history, your successes or failures. It transcends all that. There's a timeless being, that presence behind it all, out of which the person arises. So that's the essence of present-moment awareness. And after this, perhaps all questions have already dissolved. But just in case there are any questions left, Suley, do we have any questions left?

I think there may be one or two. Marina is here with us from North Carolina. Marina, welcome.

Hello, can you hear me? Hello, Marina. Yes, yes. Hello, Eckhart. Hello. I can never thank you enough for what you have done for me and what I guess you're doing for everyone here today. Thank you. Thank you. I first read The Power of Now in 2001 and immediately intuitively felt that there was something extremely important there. But it still took me quite a long time to actually realize what stillness is in experience, and longer yet to feel it within myself, and then as myself in the capacity of this still boundless space. After this realization, I felt surprised. When there is a shift from this little me, the mind-centric little me, to the Formless Awareness, or Deep I, as you call it, initially there's great bliss, especially if there is agitation or degree of agitation in the mind before that. But after a while, if I sustain it and go deeper, I start experiencing a feeling that as if there is really basically indifference. At this state, there is indifference in a way of detachment, I suppose. And it's peaceful, but there is no joy as such or love that I've come to expect from reading books like yours. So I guess I can describe it as this still, silent openness without really any characteristics at all beyond that. So I don't know if this is normal or if I'm not going deep enough, or why do I experience it like that?

Okay, right. Thank you for your question. Very good question. It's very hard to talk about that space of stillness, and, uh, people will use different words to describe it. It is true that, um, many people experience it primarily as an absence, an absence of mental noise, an absence of thinking, and a kind of emptiness. Some people call it an emptiness. That can last for quite a while, but It's a little bit like this transition from being a— let's put it like this— the transition from being a thought-based entity, as most humans are, to being an awareness— presence and awareness is the same thing— to being an awareness-based entity. That is a shift so that Before that shift happens, you derive your sense of self, your sense of who you are, from the movement of thought, the narrative in your mind that you call me and my life. And this narrative is a mental concept that, um, very rarely is a comfortable place. It's always looking to enhance itself, to protect itself. That's all part of the ego, the egoic self. So then there's a shift, and the moment comes when you realize there's another dimension to who you are. And then you can step out of thought for— as far as briefly, you step out of thought and you realize underneath thoughts there is something vast. There's a vast space or spaciousness, and that is awareness. It's also consciousness— consciousness before it becomes a thought, before it incarnates into a thought and incarnates into the world. So at first it's perceived as an emptiness, and in fact there's a In Buddhism, because it's all every spiritual teaching points to that. The Buddha in Buddhism, we have the term sunyata as the the essence of the state of consciousness that Buddha points towards. Sunyata is usually translated as emptiness. I would prefer to have a different translation. I translate sunyata as Spaciousness. Emptiness sounds a little bit negative. There's something missing here. That's the connotation. So I call it spaciousness. So at first, spaciousness is just an absence of thought. There's nothing there, and there's kind of blank. But it is true that there's no suffering in emptiness, and there's no Loss of consciousness. It's not a state that is where you move below thinking to move towards sleep. It can sometimes happen when you become present and you want to stay present for as long as possible. Before you know it, instead of being above thinking, you fall below thinking, which is when you get tired and you move towards sleep. So it is not that state that is halfway between wakefulness and sleep that is not presence, although that state is quite pleasant for many people. Everybody experiences at night when they go to bed, they're tired, and there's a short transition between wakefulness and sleep. And that state actually feels very good because you have fallen below thinking. There's still some consciousness there. You're moving towards sleep, but because you have fallen below thinking, the problem-making difficult entity, the ego, the mind-made self, is not active anymore. You're too tired. You can't think about your problems anymore. You cannot think about your problematic self anymore. So you become free of yourself. as for temporarily, as you're moving towards sleep. Many people seek that state also by taking certain drugs. People are longing to become free of themselves. This is the, the conceptual self, the ego self that is so heavy and so problematic for virtually everybody. Everybody is longing for liberation from ultimately themselves. They don't put it like that, but they want to become free. So many people go to drugs. It is true that drugs, if drugs are used in a— certain drugs are used in a sacred setting, that's a different matter. We don't need to go into that now. They can give you glimpses of what is there beyond the mind. But drugs usually take you, tend to take you below consciousness. Quite pleasant. I mean, people smoke the, this dried leaf of a plant. They smoke it and they feel, ah, first, first, and can relax. I can relax now. The world feels better now. Why? Because you can't think that much anymore. So for a little while, you feel something that's beyond thinking that feels so good. But then you fall below thinking. This is not our path, and that is not the evolutionary path of humanity, is not to regress to the state where non-human life is in the pre-thinking state. We don't want to regress. The dog is in a pre— the dog has consciousness but is in a pre-thinking state. The dog doesn't have an ego, except certain dogs who have lived for so long with people who have strong ego that they begin to develop the first signs of a dog ego. That can happen. But most dogs don't have an ego. They're much more relaxed. They can relax into the present moment. They experience much more joy than a human. The wagging tail is a sign that the dog experiences joy, and it wags a lot. Humans, not so much. So, but we don't want to fall below thinking. We want to rise above thinking. This is presence or awareness. You've risen above thinking. You're, you're not asleep at all. You're— Very awake. So it's a state of the awake is an important term, spiritual term, because in many spiritual traditions you use the term awakening, spiritual awakening. The term Buddha means the one who is awake. Buddha is not a name; it's a it's it's it's a term. It's a name given to a person who is awake. When people ask you, who are you? Buddha Gautama Siddhartha was his name. He said, "I am Buddha," which means I am awake. Awakeness is awareness. So as you this transition from thinking to awareness, at first it's a little bit. This this period can take quite a while. Let's use an analogy that let's say you are in a very noisy place. discotheque. I don't know if discotheques still exist, or nowadays they're called clubs or something. I'm not sure, but very noisy places. So you're in this noisy place for hours and hours, and finally you step outside. Now let's imagine that noisy place, discotheque or club, is outside of the city in the middle of nature somewhere. So you step out of that noisy place, you close the door behind you, you walk into There's a forest there. You walk into the forest. At first, there's nothing much there. You can't see because you've been bombarded with noise for so long that you have not yet developed the ability to be aware of these very subtle noises that are there. At first, there's nothing here, and you might feel, I want to go back into the disco. At least something is happening there, but there's nothing happening here. Because it's just, it's, you might say it's boring here, or it's, oh, it doesn't feel good. But if you stay there, and in the analogy, it might take minutes or half an hour before the inner, that noise, the memory of the noise subsides and you become aware of a very small subtle quality of what surrounds you, that stillness. There may be a few subtle noises in that stillness, and then you become aware of the stillness itself. That transition can take quite a while. You gradually become aware that that stillness is not just the absence of noise. It is also a presence. With presence— absence would be a negative term, presence is a positive term— there's a presence there in you, a silent presence. And then you become aware of that. There's a silent presence which you experience. That's one could say, not just with your head, you experience that silent presence with your entire body, with your entire body, which is the— not the physical body, but the animating presence in the body that becomes part of, of the experience of this, that silent presence. So incorporate your body, which is not the physical, but the intelligence that gives life to the body. You can feel the aliveness that pervades your entire body, and then with every cell of your body, you can sense that presence, that presence that is within you but also surrounds you. So become aware of the aliveness within your body, which is non-physical. There's aliveness. It keeps the physical— it's the organizing principle behind all the functions of the physical body, an enormous intelligence. that keeps the body going in its incredible complexity, that is there always. And then that is incorporated, becomes an essential part of your realization of presence, an entire body realization. Sometimes with your eyes closed might be a little easier. And then you feel the, the inner body, and you feel that you're pervaded by this silent presence, but it's also around you. And then even the distinction between inner and outer disappears, and there's just a silent presence. But that presence is very powerful. It's not the power, the noisy power of the mind. It's not the noisy music in the discotheque. It's— there's a silent power in that presence. And at first you may not realize that, but the more you go there, it can take quite a while to go deep enough, so you realize. That silent power is the intelligence that's behind everything, that underlies all physical manifestation, and out of which you can create. That silent power can flow into your mind once you— because you don't have to stay totally motionless or still all the time. you can stay connected with that silent power even in daily life, and it can flow into your mind, and then your mind can be used very creatively— no longer the noisy, useless, problem-making mind, but creative use of the mind. So all this one could talk about for a very long time. The important thing is there is a subtle thing there in that what at first appears like an emptiness, and then you begin, as you tune into this emptiness, you realize there's something very, very powerful there. The ancient Chinese called it the Tao that pervades everything. There are many, many words you could use. In some Buddhist traditions, it's called your— you realize your Buddha nature. In mystical Christianity, it's the realization of Christ consciousness. Uh, it's all, all the same. So, um, go there. Very subtle place, very subtle. And then gradually you realize there's not just an absence, but there's also very powerful presence. So I could go on and on, but let that be now. I hope that helps a little bit.

I wish you could. It does. Thank you so much, Eckhart. So just return to this and spend as much time in there as possible.

Yes.

Because it's the next step.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next, we'll go to a written question from Ekke in Sydney, Australia. And the question is, I struggle to maintain a regular meditation practice. How can I incorporate meditation into my everyday life in a way that feels natural and manageable?

Right, thank you. Yes, many people ask that or similar, similar question. Maintain regular meditation practice. So on the one hand, we have regular meditation, and many people have a meditation practice where you—it's a formal meditation. You sit down. You may have a technique, which could be some people have a mantra. I don't normally use that, but it's fine. Some people. Breath awareness is a wonderful meditation technique. So you become aware of your breathing. Inner body awareness that I just mentioned is another meditation. But so there's— it's a wonderful thing to have a meditation practice where you do formal meditation once or twice a day, as long as you don't overdo it. But more important than that is to incorporate presence into everyday life, because there are many, many people— there are many— I've met many people who are very good meditators. They've meditated for 20 years every day and quite often find that state of consciousness that maybe they can access while they're meditating does not operate in their daily life. The moment they go back into their daily life, they are just as unconscious as everybody else. They're just as reactive, as problem-making. And so it's more important— it's a good thing if you have a meditation practice, it should be highly recommended, but it's not enough. You need to have a daily practice, the everyday practice. And we could— whether we call that meditation or not doesn't matter. We could call it presence practice. Um, I'll give you a few hints what, what that might be. The easiest one and the most obvious one Is a moment of conscious breathing in your daily life. I sometimes say just one conscious breath several times in the during the day is is good, is helpful. What does it mean? One conscious breath. What is a conscious breath? Breathing, as you know, happens all the time. You breathe unconsciously, you're not even aware of it. So consciousness, you become aware that you are breathing. And what does that mean? It means your attention is on the, on the activity of breathing. You can feel the inflow of air And the outflow. Inhalation, exhalation. Your attention follows the inhalation, the exhalation. The moment you become aware of your breathing, almost automatically it tends, tends to deepen a little bit and become a little bit slower. It almost happens automatically when you become aware of your breathing. The breathing deepens and becomes a little slower. One conscious breath—I sometimes call it a mini meditation—one conscious breath creates a little bit of space, a little bit of stillness in what is in what is otherwise a very noisy place, which is your mind. Because when you pay attention to your breathing, you cannot be doing much thinking at the same time. You're taking attention away from the stream of thinking, and a little bit of space arises while you are aware of your breathing. So one conscious breath many times during the day is a great help, and in fact, 3 conscious breaths is even better. If your mind tells you you don't have time, that's a lie. Everybody has time for one, two, or three conscious breaths several times during the day, unless you're dealing with an emergency. Then, of course, that's. But if it's not an emergency, even the busiest person has time to take some conscious breaths every day. When they don't believe your mind is lying, not now, I have too much on my mind, I can't do it now. No, that's a lie. So that's, that is very helpful. Any activity to perform, routine activities, perform them consciously. Washing your hands, Feel all the sense perception associated with the act of washing your hands. Scent of the soap, feeling of the water, the cold, the warmth, or the, the coldness of the water, the tactile feelings. Make it a conscious thing rather than a habitual unconscious thing. Having a sip of tea or water or whatever it is. Take a take a conscious sip of water like now. Very different from unconscious drinking. You can actually taste the water. It's so nice that I do it again. Your attention is on the sensation of taste, sensory perception of taste. So you've taken attention away from useless thinking and you've created a space. It's a present moment practice. Anything you do habitually, if there's stairs in your where you live or where you work, the staircase. Instead of rushing up and down the stairs, do it consciously. Use your staircase as a practice, presence practice. Each— every step is conscious. You're conscious of every step. You don't need to count the steps because then you're adding thought to it. Just thought one step at a time. There's only ever one step. That's true also as for the rest of your life. There's only ever this moment. Nothing exists except this moment. So you might as well give it your fullest attention. Yes, future has a certain importance. You know, you need to do things, plan things, etc., etc.

Yes.

But don't let it absorb all your attention, all your consciousness. Lose yourself in the future. Lose yourself in the past. The primary focus of your consciousness needs to be the present moment. Then everything else works better. The so-called future unfolds more harmoniously, more easily, more powerfully if you give your fullest attention to the present moment. The so-called future is an extension of the present moment. When it comes, it's the present moment. If you want to have a better future, have a better present moment. If you do not have a better present moment, you're not going to have a better future. It never comes except as the present moment. You have the power to change your life by changing your state of consciousness in this moment. By acknowledging, honoring, giving your fullest attention to whatever arises in this moment. Not transform this moment into an enemy. Not regard this moment as an obstacle that you need to overcome. This is how most people live. They don't really want to be here. They want to be there. They always want to be there. They never want to be here. dysfunctional way to live. So make the present— as I sometimes say, make the present moment your friend, not your enemy. Don't reduce the value of the present moment to just a stepping stone toward some imagined better moment. And yes, it's good to have goals, to pursue goals, to have goals and aims, Yes, that's good, but don't lose yourself into that mental projection. Even when you're working towards a goal, the most important thing is the step you're taking at this moment towards your goal. So give that your fullest— you know where you want to go, yes, but you're not distracted by this mental projection. You give your fullest attention to this moment, then whatever you do Yeah. Has more power, and it will change your entire life if you have a friendly relationship, an accepting relationship with the present moment. Most important thing. So that I needed to say, uh, some people really needed to hear that. Thank you. I don't know what the question was or whether I answered it. I hope I've been a little bit helpful.

Very helpful, Eckhart. Very, very helpful. Next we have Jessica who's here with us from Argentina. Welcome.

Hi, Jessica. Can you hear me? I can't hear you. Is your mic on? I still can't hear you for some reason. Oh, can everybody else hear you?

Keep speaking, Jessica. I think you'll come in. You're—

Hello, Eckhart. Oh, now I can hear you. Okay, hello. Hello. So is it how late in Argentina? Is it nighttime now?

Yes. Hola. Hola, ¿cómo estás? Hola. Hello.

Hello.

I was hearing you, and when I hear you, I remember. And it's like I need to remember one time and another time and another time. And thank you for that. So, My English, it's not that good, so I, I will read it.

Okay, okay.

Eckhart, I have noticed that deep peace and stillness can arise when I have the courage to face my pain body directly, stay open to it, and allow it My question is, is going through the pain in this conscious way part of the evolution toward a deeper and, and more lasting present? Or can we simply disidentify from the pain body, step back and observe it, without entering into the pain itself? In other words, what leads to a peace that is not temporary but— sorry, in other words, what leads to a peace that is not temporary but can become more stable over time?

Thank you. Thank you for your question. Pain body, that's an interesting topic, very relevant for many people. Just very briefly, for those of you who don't know what we're talking about when we say pain body, it's a term that I use to describe emotion Painful emotion that lives in you. Usually it begins to form through painful childhood experiences. Painful emotions arise and they don't disappear completely. Emotions, painful emotions gradually accumulate inside you. over the years and they refuse to go away. They're not always on the surface. Sometimes you may not be aware that, that you are carrying painful emotions from the past inside you, and then at other times suddenly you've— they come to the surface and you experience a very painful emotional episode. So the pain body, as I describe it, um, is like an emotional— emotion, of course, like everything else, is an energy form that lives in you. Emotion is energy of a certain vibrational frequency. And here we are talking about toxic emotion, negative emotion, fear, sadness, anger, heaviness, that heaviness that lives in you. And because this is an energy form, emotions have accumulated, a ball of emotion has been formed, an energetic ball. And this is like a little entity that lives in you. It's almost as if you were, the human were possessed Reluctantly, I use this expression. I want to spook anybody, but it's like you're possessed by an entity that lives in you, and that is your pain body from the past. It has a life of its own, so to speak. It is an— it is an energy form. It needs to— it wants to survive in you, and it needs to feed on Periodically, it needs to feed on further experience of pain, which means it needs to experience drama in a relationship. For example, it gets addicted periodically to experience of drama in a relationship because the drama feeds it. The drama, emotional drama, is the same vibrational frequency as the pain body. So it cannot feed on joy. Uh, or anything good, it's a different frequency. It needs the drama to feed on. So people get addicted to emotional drama that comes periodically, and then the pain body takes on more food, and then it goes back into dormant state. So it becomes active, then goes back into dormant state. Some people have very heavy pain bodies, other people have lighter pain bodies. Now here, and now we come to what to do with it. A keyword that, uh, Jessica used, uh, disidentification. Uh, when you have— now the, the pain body, when you're not conscious of the pain body, it takes you over. When it, when it needs to feed, it comes back to life. It takes you over and then it rises up into your mind, then all your thinking is done by the pain body. In other words, all your thinking becomes negative and destructive, and it completely distorts your interpretation of reality. All the thoughts that you have about your life, about somebody else, will be deeply negative. which is pain-body, thinks through you. So you— that means you become completely taken over by it. You have to— and you don't even know what's happening. And the important thing is to have enough awareness. The key: enough awareness to know it's there when it arises, Mm-hmm. so that you don't identify with it. You identify with it and it takes you over, and you have to do what it wants you to do, which is participate in a drama, often with your partner or some other situation. Uh, if you've had— if you're in a relationship, then you may, uh, realize that periodically you go through episodes of drama in the relationship. It comes and then it disappears and then it comes back. Sometimes you don't even know why it starts. You can't even remember how it started. It just, uh, has a life of its own. So awareness is the key to able to identify the pain body when you first notice it arising in yourself. So by being aware of it, The pain body can no longer use your mind. It's still there, but you are shining the light of awareness on it, and you can see, oh, there it is. And you feel it's not pleasant. You feel the energy of that emotion. It could be deep sadness, it could be anger, fiery anger, uh, Any, any, any heavy emotion, and then you are able to stay aware while it's there. It's still there, and you experience the emotion. Yes, it doesn't go away immediately, but by staying aware, the pain body cannot renew itself anymore. It cannot act out through you. You're not suppressing it. It's not that. You're simply recognizing it. You're not saying, oh, I don't want to feel this. No, you completely accept that this is what you're feeling right now. It's not pleasant, but you are much stronger than it. So you— there's an awareness that arises, and you see, oh, there's the pain body. It might even still manage to force you to say something, but there's a little awareness in the background, and they can gradually— through being aware of it when it arises, it cannot renew itself anymore. And so gradually it tends to diminish. And important thing is to stay aware. To accept it, it's there because it's part of the present moment, so you might as well accept it. Important thing: never, let's say, deny or argue with your experience of the present moment. If it's the present moment, you might as well accept it. Don't reject it, the pain body. It doesn't work. You accept this. This is what you're feeling right now. Always accept your experience of the present moment. That's an amazing realization. If you can no longer resist your experience of the— because why? Because it already is. You don't argue with what is. You can't— it is. And yes, you can take action if you want to change it, but the foundation for, for powerful action, effective action, is acceptance of what is, and then action happens. So pain body gradually loses Its power. But what happens is, through staying aware— and it could take not just— in many cases, it's not a few months, could even take a few years of being aware when it arises. Think that is, and feel it. It might also arise, by the way, if you're not in a relationship Let's say you live alone. It may arise suddenly one day. The emotion is there and you start to think very negative thoughts about your life. You suddenly get very depressed. A very dark energy comes over you. Oh, you don't know what happened. And then you interpret your entire life in very negative terms. It's all so dreadful. And all your opinion of other people, all these people, it's all awful. Some people even are driven to suicide when they're taken over by the pain body. It's a— So what happens then is if you live alone, you cannot have drama with your partner. Then the pain body will feed on your thoughts, because thought is energy too. Every thought is an energy form. So the pain body, if it cannot feed on the emotional reaction of your partner, it will feed on your thoughts. So it will make you think one negative thought after another, and that could take hours. In some cases, it can take days. before you get out of it again. It's a horrible way to live, and people don't know what's happening to them. They don't realize there is the accumulation of old pain, emotional pain, that needs to feed on more pain by creating painful thoughts. And when you— if you've ever met a person, been with a person who is in the middle of being possessed by the pain body and you want to explain to them what's happening to them, they won't hear you in the middle of it. They won't hear you because you'll be talking to the pain body. And during those times, they don't want to be free of their negativity. During those times, they are addicted. to their negativity, but because it's the pain body in them that is addicted to the negativity. The pain body has taken them over, and then you become the pain body, so to speak, and then you get addicted to the negative feelings, but you love them. Many therapists have met their clients, they experience that their Very often people love their suffering. They get attached to it. It becomes part of their identity. It's terrible. And so if you ever want to— if you're experiencing another person going through a painful— a pain-body episode, as I sometimes call it, While the person is in the middle of it, you may not be able to help very much because they won't hear you. When they come out of it, and then you can retrospectively say, by the way, that's the same with a child because children already have pain bodies. Some children have terrible temper tantrums. They scream and throw themselves on the floor and And to parents say, what is this? What is this monster? What happened to them? There's already the pain body in them. In that moment, while it's happening, you cannot tell the child what's happening to you. But afterwards, the next day, say to the child, yesterday when you threw yourself on the floor and you were screaming, what was that? What was that inside you? What did it feel like, that thing that suddenly made you scream? You might even ask yourself, what this thing— can you paint it? What is this energy? What— or you can say, what is it called, the thing that takes you over and it makes you scream and throw yourself on the floor? What, what What name is it? Does it have a name? By doing that, the child can begin to develop awareness rather than being taken over. Everybody should learn that at school. That should be so important to teach children at school, not to be taken over by their emotions, but to stay aware, especially difficult period for a child, an adolescent is— yes, at the period of adolescence, when many adolescents experience extremely toxic and negative emotions. That's fairly common. And so, and then nobody ever taught them what— how they can handle that. It's— so I hope as humanity's awakening that schools will teach awareness at a very early age. That's so important for humanity. You might have heard the term emotional intelligence. It's sometimes used, the term, that really— that what that really means is to have enough awareness to be aware of your emotions so that you don't become the emotion. There are people, highly intelligent people, some who have zero emotional intelligence. In other words, not enough awareness to be aware of the emotions, and then the emotion uses you. So as you become aware, then gradually the energy that was the low vibe— let's put it like this— the low vibrational frequency of the energy in the emotion gets released, and the energy that was trapped in the— the emotional energy was trapped in you— through shining the light of awareness on it gets released, and it becomes transmuted into higher energy frequency. It becomes part of your presence. That is the true meaning of the medieval concept of alchemy. Alchemy was the attempt of humans to transmute base metal into gold. But Carl Jung and some others, the psychologist Carl Jung, realized that what they really— what they were really talking about is an inner transmutation. Of the base metal of suffering into consciousness. So this is a transformation of the suffering, the energy that was in suffering gets released, transmuted into higher frequency, and this is why sometimes people with very heavy pain bodies Awaken more easily than people with very light pain bodies, because if you have a very heavy pain body, some of your life is a nightmare. While the pain body comes up, it becomes a nightmare. If you're in a dream that's Relatively okay, your motivation to awaken might not be that great. But if you periodically get trapped in your nightmares, your motivation to awaken is much greater. So I had quite a heavy pain body. Retrospectively, I am grateful for having had that pain body. Because that's what's the power behind the awakening process. I need it to awaken. Can't stand it anymore. Oh, that's a good point to reach. Now, when you reach the point, I can't stand this anymore, you can either go the negative way and you might even commit suicide, not to be recommended, or you can go the positive way, which means awakening. And use your suffering for awakening. And then one day you will be grateful for having gone through that. So that is the— basically, uh, how the pain body can be used as a vital part of your spiritual practice. Well, thank you for asking that question. Very important.

Thank you. Yeah, I was very little. I remember you told us that we can keep close to us one of your books, El Silencio Habla. So if I have the book close to me, During the day, I can remember. Oh, right. What you say, remember what what you tell us to do because important to for awareness to remember. No. Very good.

Very good. So that book, El Silencio Habla, is the Stillness Speaks. Stillness Speaks is a title. That's a good book. Did I write that? Well, maybe consciousness wrote it. And it's a book not to be read once and then put aside. You can just read a few lines at a time and it puts you into a presence that's That's the purpose of it, not to convey new information.

Right.

And it has a certain— or any book that was written from a point of spiritual realization has a certain power to it. It's how it gets into the book, I don't know, but it does. It happens. So very good. Thank you. Thank you. So, Lei, I think we are— one hour is up according to time, although it's only been a timeless moment.

Yes, we have—

Is that your cat?

Did I hear your cat?

Yes, he's saying hello. It is time. Thank you, Eckhart, and thank you so much everyone for being here. On behalf of Sounds True and Eckhart Teachings, this has really been a wonderful time. We appreciate the questions, and this is not your only opportunity. If you join Doorways into Presence, you will be able to submit more questions for Eckhart. He will join us for another live question and answer session along with that wonderful course. It is now open for registration. You can learn more by clicking the Learn More button on your screen, and the course includes 14 practices, live practice groups, a helpful online workbook, and much more. There's also a special bonus, which is an audio program led by Eckhart, if you register by tomorrow. So again, click the Learn More button. And as we bring our time to a close, Eckhart, I'd love if you could just guide us through a few conscious breaths, moments of stillness, as we end our, end our time together.

Let's Thank you. The cat wants it also.

Thank you so much.

Conscious breath. Breathe into the— follow the breath with your attention into the abdomen, belly. And at the end of the in-breath, the abdomen rises slightly. Then you hold it for just a few seconds, and then you begin to breathe out. At the end of the out-breath, there's also a sensation. You hold— you stop for For a few seconds before you start breathing in again. So let's— you're breathing in, into the abdomen, hold it, and slowly breathing out. And hold it there. Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out. Hold it. In. Hold out. Hold. I'll say one more thing. When you hold it at the end of the in-breath, you feel the energy in the abdomen. A very point of power. In Japanese, in Zen in Japanese, it's called the hara, which is the abdominal region. You hold very powerful energy there. And at the end of the out-breath, you hold it. There's also powerful energy, but very different. Deep peace. I'm inclined to say I would regard the energy that's there at the end of the in-breath. In the abdomen is the essence of yang energy, creative energy. Yang is masculine. At the end of the out-breath, this deep yin energy, the feminine, deep peace, and the yin. The feminine energy is also the access point into the spiritual dimension. The yang energy is the power of creation, creativity. With the yang energy, you can create, but if you are not in touch with the yin energy, nothing that you can create has real power, and it will be futile. So the power of the feminine is it all. That is a portal between this dimension and the spiritual dimension. It's the feminine, which is the that's the end of the out-breath, total silence, and then out of that gradually comes the in-breath. And that the power comes from the, the unmanifested. This is the transcendent dimension. Then the power of the in-breath, the creative power. Out-breath, merging with source, merging with the transcendent source of all life through the power of yin. These are the 2 movements, and you have to move between the 2 in your lifetime— returning to source and creating in this dimension. You have to somehow dance between those 2 dimensions, yin and yang. Yin is the doorway into the spiritual dimension, the feminine. You have to access that within yourself. Even if you're a man, you need to access that within yourself. All right. Thank you. Thank you.