Eckhart Tolle argues that seeking the spiritual dimension he calls Being actually blocks it, since seeking places you in time and away from the present moment. He tells how the Buddha stopped practicing and surrendered under the tree, which led to awakening. True realization comes from conscious non-thinking, not from meditation as a habit or routine.
The important thing to realize, especially for spiritual seekers, is that the— this spiritual dimension, or the deep I, is not something that you can look to the future to find. You cannot find it in the future. So as a spiritual seeker, The fact that you are a seeker already implies that you won't find it, because seeking implies time and future. If you meditate, which is a lovely thing— meditation can be wonderfully helpful— But if you approach it in the wrong way, then you believe unconsciously that you are doing your meditations every day. You do your meditations between six and six thirty. I'm doing my meditation. Okay. After at six thirty, I have to do something else. To do my meditation. Okay. Now, even after 20 years of doing a meditation, it might have improved your life if you're— but if you're not doing it rightly, then it's just another thing that you add to all the doings in your life. Because true meditation is the realization of being, the realization that you are now totally inseparable from present moment. Any kind of seeking implies future and becomes a hindrance. So to go deeper You need to use, one could say, the most obvious portal into that dimension, which is the present moment. The present moment that the human habitually overlooks, that keeps the human going as a human, continuously overlooks The most vital thing there is, the present moment. The only thing there is, the present moment. There is nothing else. So, and it's the opening into the deep I, that the present moment is a portal into that dimension. And so it— doing doesn't get you there. Because it already is. Does that mean that all spiritual practice is pointless? Not necessarily. You may need spiritual practice to take you that point— to that point where you can drop it Enter the now. It's exactly the story of the Buddha. He was a young man, and although he lived in very luxury surroundings with all sensory satisfactions, he realized at an early age that the ultimate destiny of humans is to grow old and become ill and die. And he saw that and said, is that all there is to human life? Then he left his sumptuous surroundings and became a spiritual seeker. And he practiced all kinds of extreme practices— fasting, austerities— for several years. He became so good at every spiritual practice that many disciples came. They came to him, said, he's so good at this. And after a few years, something happened to him. He realized he's not there yet. Despite all his practices, he still hadn't realized the deep I, as I call it. And that was the moment when he just sat under a tree, the famous moment Buddha sat under a tree, said, that's it, I'm done. That's my free translation of the ancient sutras. He said, that's it, I'm done. I'm done seeking. No more. And they said— and the disciples said, he lost it. And most disciples left him. He didn't mind anymore. And that was— Shoo! Then came the awakening. Wow! But only because he relinquished time completely, he relinquished everything, he went into being itself. And so the question may arise, couldn't he have done this at the very beginning before he tried all these extreme spiritual practices? Couldn't he have realized The being before all that and saved himself all that trouble? Apparently not. And that may be the case with you also. You may need— it may take you to that point where you are not ready to surrender to the now, one could say. Now, The most important aspect of realizing the Being, the deep I, the I, is there needs to be a moment of cessation of thinking without loss of consciousness. Cessation, ending of thought activity, which most people have the voice in the head never stops talking, and they're identified with it. They are the voice in the head, and so their whole sense of self is in it. So people are very reluctant in many cases. To let go of this stream of thinking because their self is in it. The self is in every thought that arises in their head. There's a self. Their thought processes are imbued with a sense of self always. Me. Identified with thinking, identified with emotions, That is the state of being spiritually asleep. Now you awaken. When I say identify with thought or identify with emotion, the important question that arises is, if you are not your thoughts and emotions and even sense perceptions, who is the one that does the identifying? So if I say humans identify with thinking, they identify with emotions, They derive the meaning, they derive their sense of self from that, but who is the one that is doing the identifying? And that would be the true being of you. Ah, okay. Now this— now we reach a point where concepts become difficult because in order to even have a glimpse Of you as the one that has been doing the identifying, perhaps up to this point. You as the one that's doing the identifying, in order to realize that, the stream of thinking must come to, even if for a short moment, come to a stop. But you're not falling below thinking, you're not becoming unconscious at all. You're highly conscious, but no thought activity. Even if it's just 20 seconds, you don't count it, that thought. Just thinking subsides. And what is left of you if you're not thinking, telling yourself who or what you are, remembering anything? Now, let's do a few practical things. Let's imagine or pretend for a moment that you do not have a past. There's nothing to think about your past. Let's say the past is gone, or it's so unimportant that you don't even need to go there. And you don't have a future either. Let's say you just actually just arrived here from the transcendent realm. Shoo! Now the question is— important question is, who or what are you without reference to your past? Don't answer that with words. Words are not the answer. Well, I could translate it into words, but that's the thing of what Pointing to the moon is not the moon. Who or what are you? No past, just no future. There's just this moment. There's nothing to think about. There's just you, this moment. Let's say, okay, you're perceiving this room. You hear the voice of the man sitting on the chair. You feel your body on the chair, and this is the present moment, and you're perceiving it. Who am I? Ask yourself, whom am I? Who is perceiving this moment if you are not interpreting it through thought? Don't interpret. This moment through any kind of thought activity. It's not necessary. Just be present in this moment without adding any thought to it. Just awareness or presence, same thing. Just the awareness of you. And then there you encounter the beautiful state of not thinking but being fully conscious. At first, it's very brief. You may not be able to sustain it for very long. Don't make an effort. Effort doesn't help. Just presence, a certain intensity of presence, but there's no willpower behind it. It's something much more gentle, the gentle, relaxed presence.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
