The Supreme Art Of Living with Eckhart Tolle

It is therefore vital that you have space in yourself. Be aware of space in yourself. Stillness or space, just two different pointers to the same thing. No thing at this moment, at this moment. Is there space in you now, if you're not bored while you listen to these words, there is space in you. So don't try to figure out. Don't try to figure out whether or not there's space in me. Through the mind, say, okay, let's see, how do I know where there's space in me? A very simple criterion to use is if you are not bored or angry right now or irritated, there is space in you. The dimension is there. That's because it's only from there that you can sit here and not be bored or irritated or angry. Now, if you are bored or irritated or angry, you can either walk out and be irritated, bored and angry somewhere else, or even there. You can say, oh, I feel bored, irritated, angry. And who knows that? How do you know that? Well, I am aware that I am bored or irritated or angry. So are you the boredom, the anger, or the irritation? Or are you the awareness of the boredom, the anger or the irritation? I'm giving you another chance. So before you walk out, you can try that. Now, I assume that most of you are not bored, irritated or angry from sensing the energy field. And so there's the why are you not bored, irritated or angry? Because there's a stillness or space in you now. Oh, and you haven't disappeared as a form identity. You're still sitting there in the chair. Yes, here's the body. There may even be occasional thoughts, occasionally in and out, and then again under that, all of that is there may even be a little bit in your stomach, says, oh, I should have had breakfast. Am I picking up somebody's thought, I should have had breakfast other than I wouldn't be hungry now. Okay. And again, the stillness underneath it and between it. And so your life then is continuously a movement of being there as a form identity, but knowing yourself essentially as the space, then you are free from being trapped in the form and making your life a misery. Because no matter how hard you try and what you do, you can do all the right things. But if the valley is missing in your life, then the most vital dimension is missing from your life. And no matter how conscientious you are and do all the right things and are tidy and your life is arranged logically. And maybe you have a life plan for the next 15 years, for every year you know what you want to do. Nothing wrong with that. And you'll still be creating misery. Because no matter how hard you try, if that the vital dimension is missing, Your life is one dimensional. And then even the greatest success, who knows, one or two of you in three, four years time or five years time, maybe we'll reading about you in People magazine. And there are worse magazines than People. People is actually People is not so negative. There are many others who love talking negatively. And then you taste the what success is like and fame. No. Am I saying don't seek success? No. The beautiful thing is you can still play in the world of form. And you play more beautifully when you realize it is only a relative truth. And anything that you achieve as this mountain is only relatively true and valid. And it will come to an end. And everything you achieve as a mountain will have its other side to it. Everything you lose, there's loss and gain. There's always the interplay. You may gain many things and they will produce their own challenges. And you'll see the other part of success. And so no matter what you do, you will never for long find that now your life is actually great. It's working. It's all working. Now that on the form level never really happens for very long. But that doesn't matter when you are in touch with the formless. However, I am not saying that if you are in touch with the valley, that it does not affect the world of form. It does. You will notice that first of all, the sense of heaviness and seriousness, which is ultimately fear, goes out of your life. And when you're no longer dealing with situations and people from that place of seriousness and heaviness and ultimately anxiety and fear, then the world that you experience, or what you experience as the world changes because a different quality flows out. It is that quality that comes from the unmanifested. So there tends to be a great improvement in the way in which you experience the world. Because you experience in a more gentle way. Even the so called problems are experienced in a more because you are not giving them that. You are not feeding the so called problems with your reactivity and your heaviness and your fear. Because the more fear you bring to the challenges, the greater the challenges become. Or the so called problems become through your reaction. And it's only from the place of being the valley that you can be in a state of non reaction. When challenges arise in the form of people or situations, people can be very challenging. Situations can be challenging. But if every challenge brings out the fear and you cannot be without fear as long as you identify it with a mountain. Because you want to survive as this thing. That fear only goes when you're in touch with the space. And then you don't need to react. Respond when necessary, yes, react, no. And many problems are dissolved when you simply don't react. Because quite often there's nothing much you can do. Anything you do, in many cases, not all. Sometimes action is required, but in many cases, anything you do, you only add to the problem.