Stop Letting Overthinking Keep You From Experiencing Life | Eckhart Tolle

When you conceptualize, the screen of conceptualization creates a barrier between you and whatever it is that it refers to. And without the screen of conceptualization, the sense of separation begins to dissolve between what you're perceiving and you. So there comes a sense of uniting, becoming one with that which you're perceiving.

When one travels, one finds that.

One wants information about a new place that you've never been to before. So that happens sometimes to us when we travel. Sometimes we have somebody, a guide that shows a new city or something like that happens occasionally and sometimes, although it's quite interesting to learn all these facts about a new place. But if the guide continuously talks and explains, and this building was created by, this architect, was building something.

Get overburdened with conceptual knowledge. It prevents you from experiencing that place more directly in a non conceptual way. And this is particularly important if you go to a place that is like an ancient cathedral or something, or a temple, and you go into that and people travel with.

Digital guides. Sometimes you put it in your ear and it tells you what everything is. It can be highly interesting. And you learn a lot about that place, all the significance of works of art that you see. Let's say it's a cathedral, it tells you who built it, what the meaning of this is and that, and who created that painting, and so on. You gave continuous commentary as you walk through that place for 30 minutes.

Are you really experiencing that place or are you experiencing only through this screen of conceptualization.

That are you really there?

No doubt the information that you're getting is very interesting. And there is a place for that kind of knowledge, but it prevents you from something more immediate and much deeper to experience that place truly, to be there in the state of presence. And in the state of presence you don't actually know anything in the conventional sense, but you sense and interact with and experience that place in a different way.

We had, I don't know where we were traveling a couple of years ago. And there was a forest walk that had been organized by some.

Naturalist and a very highly knowledgeable guide.

A group of 10 people or so. We were taken through this rainforest. And the guide was full of information. But gradually I just couldn't stand the continuous talking anymore. I couldn't.

Burdened with knowledge.

And I kept staying behind more and more. And finally I was like 100 yards behind the group, there were nine people walking. I couldn't hear anything anymore. And it was wonderful.

Then suddenly I found I was really in the forest. Then suddenly, before I was in my Mind. The mind had become a screen through which, in a very distant way, one could still experience the forest. But I wasn't really there. Now, without the conceptualization, of course, I miss out on quite a bit of knowledge, probably. But if I had kept with the group a lot of that knowledge, I probably would have forgotten anyway, soon after.

So.

I give particular importance to this way of knowing. Because our civilization almost completely disregards that of extreme importance. One could call it a unitive way of knowing. Because when you conceptualize, the screen of conceptualization creates a barrier between you and whatever it is that it refers to. And without the screen of conceptualization, the. A sense of separation begins to dissolve between what you're perceiving and you. So there comes a sense of uniting, becoming one with that which you are perceiving. It's the end of that sense of separation which comes through excessive conceptualization. Particularly important in relating to other human beings. When you only relate through concepts is always that barrier. And so any kind of you can have. Obviously, we're all familiar with prejudice. Prejudice is just an example of the inability to relate to another human being. Because the concepts, the accumulated concepts of the mind about this person.

Because of, for whatever reason, racial prejudice or social prejudice or whatever kind of prejudice you have, there's already a formulated view in your mind. The concept makes it impossible for you to relate to the other as a human being. Because all you see is the concept of this. This is the nature of prejudice. All you have is a concept. And you don't see the human being. You see your concept.

And so it's.

An unpleasant thing to do to another human being. To impose not just prejudice, but any kind of.

Dehumanizing them through excessive conceptualization. When you do that, and you can do it to entire groups of people, you call them something.

And by calling them something, you have dehumanized them. You have made them to ciphers, to concepts for entire systems wouldn't do that. When.

You find terrible things happening in many countries when they kill part of their population. Genocide, it's called. That was the word I was looking for. When genocide happens, what precedes genocide is you dehumanize an entire group of people by imposing certain concepts on them.

For example, in communist genocides that happened within communist countries such as Russia and China during the Cultural Revolution, especially Cambodia, when, during the regime of Pol Pot, one third of the population were killed. What precedes that is you impose concepts such as.

Traitors and class enemies, imperialists, whatever concepts they have. So they are traitors. They are class enemies, they are exploiters. This entire group of people, immediately they are not human anymore. You have dehumanized them. And then violence can happen more easily because you're no longer, you're not killing a human being, you're killing this conceptualized entity.

So these things are very subtle and also part of how the ego relates to humans.

So it's very important to have a balance in one's life between the two types of knowledge of knowing and the knowledge. The knowledge and the knowing. Coming back to visiting a cathedral with or without a guide.

Ideally you would go.

The first time without any guide and experience it fully. And the next day, if you're still in the in town, you go with a guide and experience through conceptual knowledge the same cathedral. Now you learn a lot. And on the third day you go back again. And then you experience this in both dimensions. You have learned a lot about it, but you have also experienced it already. And when you go back for the third time already, having accumulated that knowledge, but also having experienced it already, you can bring the two together and find a balance. So you can have the spaces of interacting directly in this unitive way and you can still know things. So that's really the way to go, is to have the balance between the two in all areas of your life, personal interactions and so on.

The.

Humans love their pets, obviously, because.

You can relate to a dog or a cat.

Easily, more easily, without the conceptual knowing. You can just look into the eyes of a dog and the dog looks back at you and you are not formulating any kind of concept about the dog. And you know the dog is not imposing any concept on you. The dog has no opinion about you.

It may sense an energy field, but it doesn't have an opinion.

It loves you. Not interested in what kind of a person you are, what your character flaws. Although it can sense very negative energies, it can sense that.

So animals can free you temporarily from the conceptual mind. And babies can do it too. One year old baby, look into their eyes.

The person, the personality hasn't arrived yet, hasn't formed yet.

Oh my God, how beautiful. They say, oh, and you know, the baby has no opinion about you.

And you feel liberated for a moment.

Sam.