The Process of Awakening | Q&A Eckhart Tolle

Your own spiritual awakening came about spontaneously while you were in the midst of a depression. Now, you teach people various approaches to awakening, such as paying attention to the inner body. But since your own awakening happened on its own accord, not because of techniques or approaches, what makes you think that what you are teaching will actually work for people, since you did not use any of these approaches to awaken? If awakening happens spontaneously, why meditate? Why pay attention to the inner body? Why invite awakening in any way? Why indeed? Now, you may have noticed I have never said to anybody, you should listen to me, or you should pay attention to the inner body, or you should be conscious or whatever. For some people, the awakening happens spontaneously, very quickly. For other people, the awakening is a more gradual process. And all the things are mentioned in the question in paying attention to the inner body. Meditate. Any kind of spiritual work is not separate from the awakening, but it's part of the awakening. It is the awakening consciousness that makes you do these things. It is not. It is not something separate from the awakening process, but part of the awakening process. If you come here more than once, you are awakening once could be a mistake. Or if you read an entire spiritual book that's truly empowered by spirit and you're enjoying it, you're awakening. Now, you could read a few pages and hate it, or you could read an entire book because you had to write a review about it and hate it. That's possible. So there are some exceptions to this, but you're not enjoying it. So we can't separate the awakening from what is happening to you right now. You would not be drawn to this if the awakening were not happening. So in other words, you are awakening. And if you are awakening, then you may feel a pull towards that, but the pull is not so much. The mind may misinterpret it. It may say, I need to become fully awake. But you're awakening already, right? It's already happening. That's why you're here and why you're listening. So we can't really separate that. Another similar question. It's almost the same question as this. Do we do something? These are very two extreme schools of teachings, spiritual teachings. You have to work hard at it, otherwise you won't get it, says one. The other one says, there's nothing you can do. But you're not going to work hard at it just because somebody tells you you need to work hard at it. You work hard at it, if you even can call it that. Something wants to come through here through this form. Something wants to come through you. And so then you take up some spiritual practice. There's an inner urge to take up spiritual practice. That's the awakening. It's happening. It wants to make room. And sometimes the awakening makes room drastically. It just pushes everything out of the way like a volcano. At other times and more frequently, the awakening is more gradually eroding of the egoic layers that cover the splendor that's underneath that which wants to come forth. It's a gradual erosion from within and from without. Sometimes suffering helps too a little bit. So it's undergoing the process of awakening. So you're awakening already. It's not something that's going to happen. Doesn't mean that occasionally you can't be asleep. I mean, spiritually speaking, you can still go back to sleep periodically. Most people do. That's why it's called awakening Process means there's a falling back. All patterns. You don't go like that, you go like. And sometimes this mind made sense of self is also much more focused on the negative than the positive. To be free, you awaken to who you are beyond your history and your life situation. It.