Eckhart Tolle distinguishes between being nice and loving kindness, arguing that genuine change starts with inner consciousness, not outward behavior. The manner in which you act matters more than the action itself. When you embody a deeper presence, compassion naturally flows toward others without demand.
Which means you don't demand that others should behave differently. It needs to start with you. And it starts with— you cannot behave differently if your state of consciousness has not changed. So it starts with— it doesn't start even with you behaving differently, it starts with you accessing a different state of consciousness. And then for the rest of your life, your task is, no matter what you're doing, what you're doing with the rest of your life, It may be important, but it is not absolutely important. It's relatively important what you do. What is absolutely important is how you do what you do. That's very important to realize. All the what is relatively important, yes, The how is absolutely important, but the how means what is it? What state of consciousness do you bring to this, to the doing? What is the underlying state of consciousness out of which the doing arises? That's the question, and. Your task is, no matter what you do, to have the 2 dimensions come together. So that the, the surface or historical I, the person, is rooted in the deep I, the timeless being, the timeless consciousness, which can then inspire and empower the temporary person and the mind of that person. So it transforms even the person, becomes to some extent transformed through it, the person becomes less heavy, no longer dysfunctional, Limited, yes, the person, every person has his or her limitations. But that is the great art of living, is to live from the depth of your being and still able to act in this world and act upon this world. And then you bring into this world these— the only things that really matter. You bring what is sometimes in Buddhism called loving-kindness into this world, a goodwill towards Other humans and other life forms. Empathy, compassion, love, or loving— loving-kindness is one word. Love in a— not conventional love, but spiritual love, deeper love. In the New Testament, in the Greek, original Greek, It's agape is the word for that loving, loving kindness. When the Dalai Lama says, my religion is kindness, he speaks of that quality that emanates from you when you live in connectedness. With the being, with the deep, the deep I, the timeless being, the consciousness, then what emanates from you is what the Dalai Lama called kindness, what some traditions called love, in Buddhism often called metta, and that is That makes the— you then become an agent of the transformation of the world. You know the famous expression, be the change that you want to see in the world? Which means you don't demand that others should behave differently. It needs to start with you. And it starts with— you cannot behave differently if your state of consciousness has not changed. So it starts with— it doesn't start even with you behaving differently, it starts with you accessing A different state of consciousness, then you behave differently. You no longer demand that others should behave differently, and so you become the change, and that's how the transformation of the world also begins.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
