A short spoken teaching by Eckhart Tolle that argues that external conditions (relationships, jobs, activities) can only fulfill temporarily because identification with the thinking mind creates persistent dissatisfaction. Using the ripple-on-the-ocean analogy, Tolle describes awakening as realizing a deeper, content-free presence (Atman/Buddha-nature/Christ within) beneath the personal self, which allows one to enjoy life without demanding permanence from transient things. He frames retreats as opportunities to access that depth and advises regular practice of presence in daily life.
Chapters
The conditions in your life, they can fulfill you for a while and then it's no longer fulfilling. This happens to relationships, it happens to jobs that you find, activities. Unless you go deeper, nothing is fulfilling for very long. You are not a set of problems that you need to resolve. So let's go back to that beautiful, very simple realization that you don't need to remember anything about what your mind tells you, who you are. It doesn't mean that you now have lost all your memories. No, they are still there. If you need them, they come back. Whatever analogy you want to use. I used to say the filing system, when you need it, you can pull it off, but they don't use it anymore. So it's a computer analogy you use now. It's there somewhere in your computer. It's all still there when you need it. Of course it's still there. But does it have to be there always when you don't need it? That continuous the problematic self talk. Does it need to be. Do you need to be burdened and walk around every day of your life burdened by the problem making? Well, it's pretending to be problem solving, but it's really problem making of your mind. And to carry around with you the heavy entity, the me, which goes, and you're trying to get to a point, at some future point, you think, I'm going to be liberated and free of all that. And then I will start living. And many people, even if they don't verbalize it as I do right now, the underlying mindset is when I can free myself from all these problems, then I can start living in that. Of course, when you are 25, you can still believe that. When you're 35, you say, yeah, it can still happen. And when you become 45 and 50, okay, maybe I'll really start living when I retire. And then you begin to live for the retirement, okay, only another three years now. And finally the day comes. And then on the first day of your retirement, you sit at home and say, What now? Who am I without my function, my social function? But nobody's telling me who I am anymore. What am I going to do now? And then you try golf. And you drive around in the golf baggage. And for a few weeks it feels good that you can drink. And then that dissatisfaction returns. The same mindset is still there despite your retirement. In fact, you become more aware of the dissatisfied mind now that you don't have that many external problems anymore. And yet there's still the heaviness of the mind, the discontent. So that's not the way to go. So the wonderful news is there is a dimension in you that we could call the dimension of depth or the transcendent dimension, where you as the person become something else. Where the person can only really often compare the person that you are to the ripple on the surface of the ocean. That's the person. But the ripple is one with the totality of the ocean. If the ripple doesn't know that, its existence is problematic, fearful. You fear every other ripple. Or you want to incorporate them into your life. Maybe if we come with me together, we'll be a bigger ripple. Marry me, And you will make me happy. And I will make you happy. It has been tried many times. So to lead a satisfying existence as a ripple that only knows itself as the ripple and not as the ocean is very frustrating. You can't. It doesn't work. So the ripple needs to realize that it is much deeper than just the ripple. There's a depth to the ripple where it's no longer a ripple, where it's connected with everything and with every other ripple, where it's connected with the heart of the universe, not just on a human level. And that is true awakening. And after that, and when that is realized, and the ripple can sense that it's a stillness in you, a presence that has no particular content, then the ripple becomes relatively happy. It doesn't mean in the world, on the surface of ripples, things still can go wrong. Still things can disappear and break down. And ripples never last for very long. That continues. And yet you feel you can actually enjoy your ripple identity and enjoy the surface of life also. It's actually quite nice here. Look at all those little ripples. And ripple means whatever you perceive in this analogy. Ripple means whatever life form is there in your perception, including yourself. And whatever, whether it's humans or whatever you perceive in this existence, it is the manifestation of life, of the one life that has manifested as a multiplicity of life forms. And each life form is inhabited by the one life. And manifestation of the one life or the one consciousness. So when you realize that, and that's the beginning of that realization, is to sense the I that has nothing to do with your past or your future or your name or anything your mind is saying, your simple presence. That means the ripple is becoming aware of something much bigger. And suddenly we have a relatively happy ripple. And can enjoy every moment of its ripple existence in a sense of wonder. Because it's no longer demanding that things that are not permanent should be permanent. And it's not demanding anymore that the surface existence of things should satisfy me. You're here to satisfy me. You're here to make me happy. You're here to fulfill me. The surface of the ripple can't do that. The conditions in your life, they can fulfill you for a while and then it's no longer fulfilling. This happens to relationships, it happens to jobs that you find activities. Unless you go deeper, nothing is fulfilling for very long. And so this is why we are here. And this is the meaning of retreat. It's a retreat from yourself in order to find what the Buddhists would call the no self, or what other teachings would call the deeper self or the Atman or your Buddha nature or the Christ within whatever term you want to use to point to it. And that's why we are here. So all the external things here are helpful. It's easier here to connect with the depths of who you are and realize the depths of who you are. Of course, when you leave here, then you get challenged again. It's not that you don't get challenged here too. And especially if you are still very much identified with the mind, you find many challenges wherever you go. This isn't right. Don't like that. He doesn't look very spiritual to me. Or the opposite. All these people are so much more spiritual than me. Do they know that I'm not spiritual? So the practice is to voluntarily, as much as possible, relinquish identification with the thinking mind and your usual self. And what very much helps with that is just bring just as much as you can. Don't walk around as a heavy personality and person and no, walk around as a light, a field of conscious perception like a little child that goes and look at everything. In other words, presence, presence, practice. Here it's more easier than in your usual surroundings. Presence, practice, present moment practice.
