Staying Present When Something Goes Wrong: A Meditation with Eckhart Tolle

When things go wrong, little things like last Sunday or bigger things, it's always a good test for your degree of presence. So it gives you a reflection of how present you are or how non present you are when something goes wrong. Is there so you can look back. It might be the case with you, maybe not. If you look back to last Sunday, was there a reaction of whatever kind of. Against what is? And what is was that Eckhart wasn't there. He didn't make it. Well, I was here, but didn't reach many of you. So Edgar didn't make it to our appointed meeting. What was your mind saying? What did you verbally say? Comments to people around you or what did your mind comment about it? That's an interesting thing to look at. And accompanying the mental commentary, what was the emotion that went with it? And some of you, I'm sure, were already so present that there was no sense of upset, disappointment, anger, irritation, some kind of mental complaint. And perhaps it was just. Perhaps some of you just went into meditation, just became present and realized you don't need Eckhart to be present. Oh, wonderful. But if there was a reaction, then it's very useful retrospectively. Usually I don't like, as you know, don't like to go to the past. But from time to time can be helpful to look at a past reaction in which perhaps you lost consciousness, you lost presence, and you don't beat yourself up. No, you just see, oh, that's interesting. There was the mind talking and there was an emotion going with it, and I was completely that. I became that. It took me over. So whenever something goes wrong, big or small, you either react against it in one way or another. In other words, you are against what is ultimately a dysfunctional state, which in extreme forms becomes insanity, normal insanity. I mean, so the reaction against what is all complete alignment with what is. And there you are. That means whenever something goes wrong, you either react or you go deeper into presence, deeper into yourself. You can notice that with little things, when little things go wrong, you go a little bit deeper to a place where you don't need the external to be this way or that way, because you already sense the fullness of life at this moment. You already sense yourself as consciousness and nothing needs to be added to that. So it's sometimes, it's only when things go wrong, quite often it's only then for many people who are not yet able to voluntarily enter presence, only then the possibility of going deeper opens up for them or they become reactive. So another example, you're standing at a street corner meeting somebody for waiting to meet somebody for an appointment and he or she doesn't turn up. So you stand there 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes what happens during that time inside you in your mind and what is your mind saying about it. And then of course, the emotions that go usually are reflection of what the mind is saying about it. It's an interesting thing to look at. What is it that your mind is commenting? And are you totally identified with what your mind is saying? Or do you realize, oh, these are just judgments that are coming up and there is the possibility, the opportunity for letting go of all interpretations at that moment as you're standing there at the street corner, the person isn't turning up letting go of all interpretations and just be there as the field of presence. So to do that you go deeper within where the whatever happens on the surface of life doesn't determine any longer your state of consciousness, your happiness or unhappiness. And it's a wonderful sense of freedom if you can be free of externals. And then at some point you call the person and say where are you? Or where were you? And then there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation why he or she couldn't come. Or in which case all your mental commentaries which were perhaps negative are revealed as totally invalid, totally inaccurate, it was a total misinterpretation. That's possible. Or it could be that your mental commentaries were justified and that person says oh, I completely forgot I was doing something else. What's the reaction then in you? Am I of so little importance to this person that he or she forgot about our appointment? That's an interesting thought. And that thought can lead to many other thoughts. On a purely practical level, of course, if it happens several times and this person doesn't turn up, then you simply arranged meet with this person anymore. And can you do this without any negativity around it? That's just what is a very powerful state to immediately be with what is. That's what is. Instead of mentally saying it shouldn't be or strengthen your ego by complaining about it the same as saying it shouldn't be. Because the more you can complain about somebody, somebody or something, the more the stronger the inflated ego becomes. Huffing and puffing I call that so the more you can huff and puff about people and what they do or this person and that the ego feels bigger and bigger. It's like a balloon. The more you huff and puff, the bigger you get. Can you live without huffing and puffing? Any complaining about others what they do, what they fail to do. Huffing and puffing. If you make a commentary in order to point something out so that something practical can be done about it is a different matter. But huffing and puffing is not like that at all. It has nothing to do with changing the situation. What it changes is the way in which you deal with the situation, which becomes dysfunctional. So you can tell a person's presence by observing another person. If that person never complains about anybody, that's a good sign. Presence doesn't complain about anybody. It's still relatively rare that you meet people like that. But perhaps you already on your way, or perhaps you're already at that state where you have relinquished all that futility of complaining about other people. Normal step forward. So let's welcome the many ways in which things can go wrong in your life. Not wrong means, of course, with quotation marks. Go wrong doesn't go wrong. It's the mental interpretation says it's going wrong. But we're using that conventional label, things going wrong to point to something very important. Expectations are not being met, you're not getting what you want. Something happens that shouldn't be happening, or something fails to happen that should be happening, like last Sunday. As you know, there are always two levels to this I'm speaking and pointing out something that is helpful in your daily life. At the same time, there is an underlying presence here. So that's why we call it meditation. It's not a conventional meditation, but as I speak about becoming aware of a certain type of dysfunction, at the same time, there is a presence there. So it works on two levels here. And that's also why the. The pauses are important when there are no words. So that next time there is a something goes wrong, little or small, little or big, there's either already such presence that the reaction doesn't even arise, or there's a reaction. And then there is the recognition immediately after, a second after, or a minute after. There's the recognition that there is a reaction. And there's a recognition that the mind is creating its story around the simplicity of what is. And there's the recognition that you don't need it, you're better off without it. You're more effective in what you do when you're free of that. So there's a choice of then being present instead of reactive. And then the reaction subsides and presence takes its place, arises, the reaction goes. And then that's an enormous thing when you suddenly realize in the very same situation a minute ago, you were upset and reactive and then recognized it. The recognition comes of course from heightened presence. And then you became the presence instead of the reaction. And then the reaction crumbles. And then in the very same situation, in that minute later, you're free of upset and you feel empowered. It means externals no longer control you. So as I said, let's be grateful for all those occasions when things go wrong. There is always an opportunity for going deeper. And if it's something big that goes wrong, something truly huge, something big crumbles in your life, then you will have to go even deeper. So the depth increases. When you just let go of a little upset, you go a little bit deeper. But when something big happens, some big loss in your life, then you have to go even deeper. It's always miraculous to suddenly discover that you can be free of externals. As far as your inner state is concerned, it.