The Art of Presence - Eckhart Tolle | A Guided Meditation

Remember to turn off your. The ringer on your phones so that you don't get disturbed. And let's just settle into the present moment, which is not something perhaps that you would normally do, because there's always something else that's more important or pretends to be more important. And then you forget that the only really important thing in your life is the present moment, because there is nothing else ever. You have to really realize that fully to see the implications of that. And how one could almost say devastating it is to realize that there's only ever this moment. But most people live as if other things, past and future, were more important than this moment. It's an unconscious pattern. So meditation is about becoming present. And the word itself implies, of course, now, present moment. So we sometimes speak of present moment awareness. I sometimes call it presence. And that is what meditation is all about, discovering that dimension of consciousness in yourself. And usually meditation techniques are designed to get you there. But our meditation is a meditation that does not really have any particular techniques. I'm just inviting you to come into this present moment with your attention directly. Just drop into the now. This is something you can only verify or realize for yourself, that you can actually almost sense, one could say, the presence of the present moment, although it has no shape or form. So you can become conscious of the present moment itself. What does that mean? First of all, you become more conscious of sensory perceptions. An alertness arises that normally is not there. When you are trapped in the continuous stream of thinking, then that alertness that is synonymous with presence or awareness is just not there. So the normal state of consciousness is to be trapped in this continuous stream of thinking, a lot of it quite useless. And repetitive. Thinking can be a powerful thing. But Most people's thinking, 99% of it, is repetitive, useless, often negative. It's mental noise. And when you identify with that, when you are. When there's that voice in your head that never stops speaking, and you don't even know that you are not that voice, so you think you are the voice. You become the voice. That is a dreamlike state. And you can observe people around you often who are in that dreamlike state. You can see it in their eyes. They are not here. All their attention is absorbed by their thinking. They are just a little bit left just so that they know where they are going and not bump into pornage. But so you can see how many people are most of the time not really present, because almost all their attention is absorbed by this continuous noise of thinking. And so they go. And when they look at you, they don't really see you. At best, they see you through the screen of thinking, which is judgments that they may have about you. So there's never a clear perception of anything. Everything is filtered through the thinking, through the judgments of the mind. And that's traditionally in spirituality that's called being asleep. And that's why the term that is used in various ancient spiritual traditions for enlightenment or whatever you want to call it, is awakening. So there is an alertness that is suddenly there when you become conscious of the present moment. At first you might notice it as suddenly becoming more aware of your sense perceptions. Listening, looking, seeing, hearing. You might also find that alertness is there when something new suddenly arises in your field of vision. Somebody comes into the. Something appears, or in your hearing, a sudden noise. And when a sudden noise appears and or suddenly somebody comes in or comes around the corner and you suddenly look or listen and there's an alertness behind the looking and listening. And for those few seconds, when that new thing arises and you give it your full attention, for those few seconds, three, four, five, maybe two, there's not a thought in your head. Thought then comes in after a few seconds and it may for some people only be a couple of seconds and then immediately interprets what it is that's there. But there is always a moment when something new arises, when there is clear perception and just an alertness in the background. And that's an interesting moment because that is a natural way of presence arising in you. But usually it's so short lived that people miss it. So it's a good thing to discover that you actually already meditate for brief moments. You are in the state that we call meditation, perhaps didn't even know it. And sometimes there may be moments when you just sit somewhere and you suddenly become completely comfortable with that moment as it is and an inner peace arises and you feel there's nothing missing here. And this can happen where? Before your mindset, why am I still waiting here in this waiting room? I've been sitting here for an hour and why are they keeping me waiting? And so on the mind and suddenly there may be a shift and you say, well, I'm here at this moment, I might as well be here fully. And suddenly all that noise of thinking subsides and you realize actually there's nothing really missing in this moment. I'm breathing, looking, listening, feeling alive. And it's fine when the mind is not telling me that it's not fine. And you'll be surprised how often the present Moment is fine when you really check it out. But whereas the mind would habitually tell you that it's not fine, it's not good enough. Something is missing, something shouldn't be there, but of course it is. And when you argue with what is in your mind, that's called unhappiness. In whatever form it comes. Irritation, impatience, anger, sadness. So meditation is learning to align yourself internally with the present moment and become aware of the present moment. So first of all, through sensory perceptions. So I just said that sometimes those things arise naturally. You suddenly, either something new comes into your field of vision or you're hearing and an alertness is there for a few seconds. Or there may be a moment when you are relaxing into the present moment. And I'm not talking about becoming tired, because that's not where we are going. We are not going towards sleep. We are going towards a heightened sense of alertness, which is what the meditative state is. Or let's do away with the term meditation altogether and just call it presence. There's a heightened state of alertness that is very different from the lowered alertness that when you moving towards sleep. So that is not meditation. And even when people talk about relaxation, usually often it's associated in people's minds with kind of, you're gradually moving towards sleep. I'm so relaxed now. Or if you go to a hypnotist, you might say, and your eyes are becoming heavier and heavier, and we are not going that way. That's nice. It gives you a little bit of relief from your mind. But here we are exploring the possibility of a higher state of consciousness, heightened alertness. So I'm talking you into it as we sit here. And as I speak, you may find that shift already happening in you that as you sit here and now, you are becoming aware of this moment as it is and no longer needing it to be different. So if you thought you were here to meditate so that eventually you can reach a meditative state or some kind of peace that you don't have. Now, let's forget about that and just be with this moment as it is and accept that this moment is as it is. Of course, it always is as it is. So you might as well accept it. So you become comfortable with it, aware of what you are looking at. You see this man on the screen. You hear the voice talking. There is the room or wherever you are. Peripherally, you are aware of that. And it's fine. This moment is as it is. And what else is there apart from your sense perceptions? What you see, what you hear. Is there anything else? While you may feel a sense of aliveness in your inner energy field, the body you may feel as you sit here, just a distant sense of that. Yes, there is this. I can feel that the body is alive. So some attention moves there. An all pervasive sense of aliveness in your body, in your legs, your hands, your arms. It's a very subtle thing.