The Negative Impact of Karmic Action | Eckhart Tolle on Karma and Reactivity

Reactive is karmic action. Karma actually means action. So when you react to a situation, to a person, in whatever way you react, then you produce, in Eastern terms, you produce more karma. So it's in any situation. Then what really matters is not the situation, but your state of consciousness that you bring to it. And that's important to remember because the world otherwise will seduce you into believing that what matters is the situation itself. And then you react to that. So that requires then a vigilance on your part, which of course implies that there is already a certain degree of awareness in you. Otherwise there cannot be a vigilance. So we are already taking for granted, we assume all those of you who are here and listening to this. In you there is already a degree of awareness. And that enables you to be vigilant as to your inner state in any given situation. So that your primary vigilance is towards. Okay, it becomes second nature. You become aware primarily of your response to the situation. And you pay more attention to that than whatever it is that you do with regard to the situation. And so you realize attention. So you bring yourself into attention and there it is. Then everything changes as you bring that precious gift into this world. It's amazing. The world is. And you become one with the entire evolutionary impulse of the universe, which is towards consciousness. And then you actually, when you become one with that evolutionary impulse, then you actually find things unfold in your life with greater ease. Ease. Because you become one with that vast movement, something that wants to come into this world. And you transcend the personal, the merely personal. So you can say that anything that arises in your life, any so called problem or challenge, whether to do with finances, relationships, health, living situation, job, I think that's about it. That's where the problems arise. Other people, a lot to do with the problems in your life. Probably large percentage of problems come through other people. They're dreadful. Other people, isn't it? Hell is other people. Example, Sartre. That's from the egoic point of view. That can easily happen. So all those things, whatever is the main so called problem area in your life, the main limitation in your life. Health, finance, relationships, job and so on. Meet it with that state of. In that state of attention instead of the reactive mind, identified state. And then look at the problem from there. And then you may find that sometimes almost miraculously, it shifts. It may dissolve something negative. You may see suddenly a positive side of it. You may find helpful factors suddenly coming in and you didn't know how it. Or you may find that internally you transcend it completely. So your inner state is no longer dependent on the external condition. That is perhaps what is sometimes called detachment. You are free internally from the situation. It may not have changed, but your state of consciousness has changed. Although it does, as I just said, very often as attention arises, that presence arises. Shifts happen much more easily, or there may be a time gap. At first nothing happens, and it could be for a while, and then suddenly the shift happens. So external shifts happen more easily that way. But also, if they don't happen, you transcend internally or action. The impulse to take action arises suddenly, and because you know exactly what it is that is needed suddenly in this situation, and then you change it through your action. But the action was not a reaction. The action didn't come from the reactive mind. It came from a deeper place. It is not reactive. Reactive is karmic action. Karma actually means action. So when you react to a situation, to a person, in whatever way you react, then you produce, in Eastern terms, you produce more karma. When you are free of reaction, you do not produce more karma, which is unconsciousness. You do not produce more unconsciousness in this world, which, in other words, you do not contribute to the problem making that all other humans who are not giving the consciousness to this world, they contribute to the problem making. Even those who have good intentions. Because there are many humans who have good intentions. But whatever endeavor they undertake, they'll find, oh, things happen that they hadn't foreseen, and the good intentions turn into something else. You can see it collectively, good intentions without a shift in consciousness. Just because the mind says, oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a more peaceful world? Yes, of course, but a fair world where everybody is nobody, people are actually equal. And wouldn't it be nice to bring that about, says the mind, don't people don't accumulate possessions anymore? Wouldn't that be nice? And then exploitation comes to an end of wealthy people exploiting all the poor. Wouldn't that be nice? Let's create a society that does that. Okay, how can we do that? Okay, let's work out some philosophical system, how it all fits in. And then we have a book called Das Kapital. And then let's create a society on the basis of those philosophical assumptions. It looks all great at the beginning, and then as you get into it, before you know it, you've created another hell on earth. And it all started with good intentions. Two wonderful books that, of course, I'm talking about the arising of Soviet communism and so on. Two wonderful books that show you how things go wrong in that way. George Orwell, Animal Farm, and another, less known novel, Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, tells the story of how wrong things can go. And of course, we have the famous expression the road, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So there needs to be. All these things are true. The world where exploitation no longer happens. But for this world to come into being, there needs to be a shift in consciousness, and this is why we are here.