The Advantage of New Surroundings - A Special Meditation with Eckhart Tolle (Binaural Audio)

It can be a helpful thing to be in unusual surroundings because it's easier to be more present in unusual surroundings. That's the advantage of traveling. And that's why, as I have written somewhere, many people feel more alive when they travel. And when they are at home, their surroundings are so familiar that they lose presence completely. They don't see things anymore. They go from where they live to their office or wherever it is done it so many times they don't see it anymore. And you would be surprised even at home, your usual surroundings, you might have a painting on your walls and haven't looked at it in the past three years. Might be very beautiful, or your garden or the plants in there. So this is the familiarity can lead to a kind of semi sleep like state. And when you're traveling you go, oh. And the good thing is you might not even have a name for all the new things you see. At home you know what everything is called, but here you see things, you might see a weird animals, the mind stops because you can't name it. And that's a wonderful thing. Or you see trees that you haven't seen before and you go, ah. Or you might say to your friend, look at that. And you might notice in the moment of looking at that you are not naming it in your mind because you don't know what it's called. So there is a moment, a few seconds of just being present, be the presence rather than the naming person. So it helps to be wide awake to your sense perceptions because that is one way of coming into the present moment, which is why we are here. Because there is more to the present moment than we realize. Most of the time there is more to it. It's the access point to the deeper dimension within yourself. So as a general theme, underlying theme, I recommend surprisingly, that you practice being in the present moment.

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Although you've been taken out of your usual surroundings, you have carried with you something else. And of course that's your mind that travels with you wherever you go. That is perhaps the meaning of the book that somebody wrote. I believe the title is wherever you go, there you are. So wherever you go, you carry your mind and the conditioning of your mind with you. So that is the challenge here to transcend the conditioning of your mind, the habitual way of interpreting, the habitual way of reacting to things. Habitual mind patterns. If a mind pattern in you is that you, you frequently and very quickly become discontent with where you are, if that's a pattern in you, then that pattern will arise here also. If your mind pattern is one that loves complaining and finding fault with things, then it's very likely that very quickly this mind pattern will appear here also. So you get surprising things, things that your expectations are not met in various ways. And that is a challenge to the mind, to the conditioned mind. Because the conditioned mind wants its expectations. And if they are not met, it gets uneasy, restless, irritated, angry. Starts talking about what's wrong, either silently in your mind or to others. And if others can agree with you, then it's even better. Or you can go on the Internet and then you get 1,000 people agreeing with you. I'm not saying if there's something really wrong, you shouldn't do something to rectify it. So if something is leaking in your room, say, no, I'm not going to say anything because I'm not supposed to complain. Complain. No, of course. Say there's something there that needs to be rectified. That's not a complaint, it's just information. Complaint means there is an emotion behind it, and the emotion says, this should not be happening. Then it becomes a complaint, or it's your fault. Then it becomes a complaint. If it's simply presenting information, it's not a complaint, it's just a fact. And then the question is, can anything be done about it? If yes, good. They say there's nothing we can do. Do you go on insisting that this is very bad and create suffering for your or do you simply accept this is what is.

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This thing, that this is very bad and create suffering for yourself, or do you simply accept this is what is.

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