In this lecture Eckhart Tolle argues that the central error most people make is misunderstanding the concept of presence. He defines presence as directing one’s attention to the present moment rather than being lost in past or future narratives, and distinguishes it from merely being awake. Tolle describes a deeper layer of stillness that lies beneath spoken words and mental chatter, noting that many experience external silence while their inner mind remains noisy, destructive, and toxic. He points to the widespread dysfunction of human consciousness, citing 20th‑century history and contemporary news as evidence of collective mental illness. According to Tolle, humanity now stands at a critical evolutionary juncture—a potential "quantum leap"—where a large portion of people can shift to a higher state of consciousness through sustained presence, while the rest may be drawn in later. He emphasizes that ancient spiritual traditions from India, Christianity, Buddhism, and others all identify the same two facts: a fundamental dysfunction in ordinary consciousness and the possibility of transcending it through presence. The purpose of life, he suggests, is to embody this shift, moving beyond the noisy mind into a deeper dimension of awareness.
Chapters
We are at a stage historically, a very critical stage in human evolution, a stage that could mean the destruction of humans, or it could mean a shift. I don't want to use it. It's become a little bit cliché, quantum leap. The most important thing in your life is to access that dimension of consciousness which we can call presence. Thank you. And there may be some of you, probably not many, who are not familiar with that term and may be asking, I'm always present, am I not? At least when I'm awake, I'm always present. Not in the sense in which we're using this word. To be present means to have your attention in the present moment instead of past and future. You can still use past and future for practical purposes, but the main focus of your attention is here and now. Now, if you can gradually begin to live in that way, that the present moment assumes in your life a greater importance than your past and your future, then you are engaged in the awakening process, which is a shift in consciousness. And most of you are here because you're already in the awakening process, except a few who were dragged here almost against their will by a friend or relative. And that's okay, at least you got here. And let's see whether you find this evening to be a revelation. Or excruciatingly boring. That depends whether you can access in yourself that dimension, discover that dimension. And although I will be talking probably all the time or most of the time, there is that dimension, one could say, in the background to the words, the background, there is that dimension of presence. So while you're here, if you can sense not only— we're aware of the words, which are verbalized thoughts, But if you can also be aware of something that is, so to speak, underneath the words, we could call it— another pointer we could use to point to it would be to call it stillness. Stillness. Is stillness behind the words? Is stillness in between the words? Normally, people are not aware of stillness at all. And even when they go out into nature, where there is usually a high degree of stillness, Even then, many humans are still engaged with their noisy mind. The voice in the head does not stop speaking. So they might be in external silence, but internally there is no silence. There's continuing mental noise, a lot of which is By the way, not only unnecessary, but actually destructive, harmful, and toxic. And this is our challenge at the present stage of human evolution. Our challenge is. To go beyond the noise-making mind into a, we could say, higher or deeper dimension of consciousness. And that is a new evolutionary stage for humans to reach. That is the purpose of your life is to embody this shift in consciousness. And significantly, we are at a stage historically, a very critical stage in human evolution, a stage that could mean the destruction of humans, or it could mean— The beginning. a shift. I don't want to use it, it's become a little bit cliché, quantum leap, but that's really what it is. A shift in human consciousness is possible now for the first time on a larger scale. Not that all humans will necessarily become part of that shift. But a significant percentage of humans will be, and then the others will be drawn in eventually. And this is what the ancient spiritual teachings have all been pointing to, the possibility of entering a different state of consciousness. Whether it's— teachings from India, teachings from the deeper meaning of Christian teachings, Buddhism, all— they all point to 2 facts. The first fact that they point to is that there is something not right with ordinary human consciousness, although it has achieved wonderful things. There's no doubt that there is a significant element of, let's put it mildly and say, dysfunction. There is a significant element of dysfunction in human consciousness. And if you doubt that, read a history book. I suggest the 20th century. And you can see how insane a lot of that is. Or if you don't like history books, turn on the TV tonight and watch the news. And most of what you see is manifestations of that dysfunction in human consciousness. Hmm. It is very unlikely that in the news tonight you will hear about a group of people who came together in a city called Cape Town, entering the state of presence and being part of an evolutionary leap in human consciousness. If you turn on CNN or whatever station you have here, It's unlikely that they will be talking about that. They'll be talking about the dysfunction, but it's not recognized as a dysfunction. It's regarded as, this is the important things that are happening now, and they are all bad. All these, they're all bad. So all the ancient, since ancient times, The great teachers pointed to 2 facts. One is the fact of this dysfunction, which we could call by other names, uh, well, insanity, a mental illness that periodically, uh, emerges collectively and creates havoc on a collective scale and then subsides a little bit and then emerges again. Mental illness that also in an individual person's life, you experience significant elements of dysfunction, unnecessary ultimately, Not recognizing that, for example, that all the things that I regard as bad in my life are mostly in themselves neutral, and the way in which I create a narrative about my life which in many cases is very negative for many, that creates an enormous amount of suffering. We may be going into that a little later.
