Transcending the Doing Mindset | A Guided Meditation from Eckhart Tolle

I may have mentioned before that one obstacle to meditation, especially for people who practice formal meditation regularly, they may not realize, although whatever method they use, whatever meditation practice they use may be good, potentially helpful. There tends to be, however, always an underlying unexpressed thought, feeling perhaps that you are doing a meditation. You do many things every day and one of the things you do is you're doing your meditation practice. I'm doing my meditation practice. But what is the aim of meditation? It's supposed to take you into a realization of being. Now, we live in a culture, westernized culture, which is not confined to the geographical, so called west these days, Westernized culture, many places on the globe, we are predominantly focused, almost many people exclusively focused on doing. So it seems normal that you include when you start meditating and even continue their practice, becomes part of the idea in your head that this is something that you have to do. You there's a doing idea involved. Doing involves time. Doing has an aim. I'm here, I want to get there, or I'm doing this in order to achieve that. All doing involves time. So with the idea of doing comes the idea of time that you are that you need to get somewhere. With your meditation practice, for example, I want to become enlightened. Or maybe you're not as ambitious as that. I want to still my mind. Now, meditation is a practice that is meant to give you access to a particular state of consciousness. I call it presence. To help you realize that apart from doing. And of course doing is not just external doing, running around on the computer. Doing also is thinking. Every thought you think you're doing, something you're doing, you're thinking. Meditation. The aim of meditation is to bring you to a realization of being. So to help you access another dimension within yourself. It's not thinking, it is not to do with external activities. But you don't go to sleep either. So it's the realization of being. To become aware of your own presence, so to speak of presence or your presence. These are just words. Right now, instead of thinking we are doing something, I would suggest that an alternative access point to the state of consciousness that is present is to let go of all doing or any idea that you have to get somewhere, improve yourself. There is a place for that that exists on another dimension that also operates in your life, getting better at things. And so. But then there's something else where any kind of doing doesn't really help. If I'm not saying let go of all your meditation practices, if they're used correctly, they can take you into Being also. But for many people, there is an underlying continuously arising obstacle created by the idea that you are doing something and need to get somewhere. So instead of taking you into being, it just creates more doing, being and doing. Those two dimensions need to be present. And it's not just meditation is there to help you access being, but in the rest of your life, which is most of your life, 98% of your life, even if, if you meditate a lot, 95% of your life is still something else. It's not the meditation there. There needs to be a balance between being and doing, not as separate things, but coming. And this is why here I'm not using any technique and I just want to invite you to become aware of the fact that you, ah, I wouldn't say that you exist, of course you exist, but exist, the word itself comes from the Latin. Ex means out. Exist means to stand out. Now that's your body exists, your psychological self, with its conditioning and thought processes and emotions exist. It's there, it manifests whatever is manifested, not necessarily just through the senses, because the more important part of you, you can't see through the senses, that the invisible self, the psychological self, exists, stands out, is manifested. So it's not so much becoming aware of the fact that you exist, but becoming aware of the underlying being that gives rise to your existence, something deeper. Becoming aware of yourself right now, as I speak of the essence of who you are, not as a physical body, not as a psychological entity with the past personality, conditioned by the past. But is there anything deeper than your personality that's conditioned by the past, consists of all thought processes and emotions and opinions and viewpoints, likes and dislikes and so on. Is there something else, something deeper, something without which all those other things could not manifest? Yes. You can't define it, you can't understand it. There's nothing to understand there. If you examine your historical self, your psychological self, then you may need understanding. You might need to go to a psychotherapist to figure out things that you had not been aware of your psychological self. But here, in that immediate realization of being I am, there's no doubt about that, that there is a consciousness. Prior to whatever arises in that consciousness, there is a presence, a consciousness. Even when I don't think exactly. It's only really when there is a moment of not thinking that I become aware of that consciousness that I am. I become aware of awareness, which is not how it is. It's just language. Awareness, which is who you are. Consciousness, which is who you are, becomes Aware of itself. There's no duality anymore. Can you feel yourself, your consciousness, your beingness, the I am, without adding anything to the I am, which would be your name, your age, your gender, your position in society, your knowledge, your memories, These are all things you add to I am. But I am is the essence. You can sense that in your daily life. In the background. Then you are always connected with being. You're rooted in the deeper dimension. Then all the comings and goings in your external life and all your doings may still be important, are still important, whether you gain something, you lose something, whether you're healthy or ill, rich or poor. But then there's always something deeper. And from that deeper dimension of beingness, where you can sense your essential reality as that and not the psychological personality. That means you have found that which is of primary importance. And then you deal with all the things that are of relative or secondary importance, which is everything else in your life. So you are both who you are in this world. The person, the historical entity, the physical, psychological entity. Yes, you are that. But more fundamentally, you are the consciousness, without which the person would not even be. Would there even be a world without a consciousness perceiving the world? Molecules, atoms and empty space make up this body, this room, everything, wherever you are, molecules, atoms and mostly empty space. It's not a world at that level. It's not a room. And then consciousness comes and suddenly there's a. But molecules in atoms themselves may also be just primordial manifestations of consciousness. And ultimately humans will realize, first of all through spirituality, through spirit, your own spiritual realization. At some point, perhaps even through science, we're not there yet, that all is consciousness, that the entire universe is an expression of the one consciousness, vibrating, so to speak, at different frequencies, from so called inanimate matter to plant life, to animal life, to human life and other dimensions of existence. In the same way you can have water that can be solid, it's ice, seems to have nothing to do with water. It's very hard. Then water exists as a liquid. Water can also exist as vapor. The same thing, at least at different frequencies. One could say in consciousness. This is just an analogy for consciousness. You are essentially consciousness. And then there's a temporary appearance of you as a person. And that's fine. That's part of miracle of manifested existence, where consciousness breaks up into countless streams, coming all continuously from the one source. To realize yourself as consciousness, Jim, you need to become aware of the space between thoughts. When I stop speaking for brief moments, are you able to stay so present that you do not add any thought to this moment. You add nothing to it. There's just a sensation of. Yes, there is. Still. If your eyes are open, you can still see the screen and can see me or the image of me and hear the words. Or if your eyes are closed, you can still hear the words. But what else is there? Something deeper, more vital than whatever appears in your sense perceptions. Something without which there would be no sense perception. Oh, yes. Just a stillness at first. A seeming nothingness. I like that English word, nothingness. The word nothing consists of no thing, an apparent no thingness. When you're not thinking. And if you were in a place where it's very totally quiet, nobody is speaking, and your eyes are closed, you can become even more aware of the no thingness. It's just a presence, an underlying presence. It has nothing to do with who you are on the level of the person. No, it an alive stillness.