Try this for ten seconds and see if that is still true | Eckhart Tolle

Time will eventually consume the you that lives on the horizontal dimension. Time will kill you, undoubtedly. You, the you that lives on the horizontal dimension. And this is one of the deep meanings of the symbol of the cross, is the intersection between the horizontal dimension and the vertical dimension. Who are you without reference to past, to any past in you? Who are you without reference to any future? When you let go of that— don't worry, it'll come back flooding in very soon. But for a moment, let's just— you don't have— there's no need to remember anything, your email address, your unhappy childhood, whatever, or your wonderful childhood, whatever, nothing. You've just arrived here. Who or what are you? By the way, don't look for an answer on a level of thinking. When I ask, who are you without the past? The answer is not to be found on the level of thinking, but more on the level of— there isn't really a word for it— sensing, one could say, perhaps. What— let's put it slightly differently. What is left of you without reference to any past? Of future. What is left of you when there's no attention on any of that? Just what is there? What is that? And don't think about it. Let's put it again slightly— I'm using the signposts— the same question put slightly differently. Uh, what does it feel like to be you, or to be I, because everybody says I? What does it feel like to be I without any memory or anticipation? What is left? What does it feel like? Is there, is there an inherent... Sense of something that you cannot define or name. Yes. You're— you now, right now, without reference to past, you no longer know Who or what you are, but you know that you are. I am. You don't know who or what you are because that's all thought activity. But more fundamentally and deeper, you know that I am. The beingness of you, a subtle, silent, but powerful sense of beingness or presence is left. You cannot define it. Perhaps at first you feel it very slightly, but there's a— within you, underneath the person, dwells a silent power. And that ultimately is the power of now, that silent power that is in every human being, but in most humans undiscovered. In most humans, it's only a potential. It's latent or potential. One another little— for some people, a little signpost, which is another word that might be helpful: stillness. Being— becoming aware of a field, that field of stillness when there's no thought activity, but you are fully Awake. Awake. You are present, but you're not thinking. It's a moment of just pure presence, and it's beautiful. At first, it seems like, oh, nothing. But if you stay with it— perhaps you're aware of your breathing, might help a little— and you feel The indwelling presence. Some people feel that presence with every— the entire body. Yes. The inner— the animating presence that pervades the physical body, but it's the invisible presence that holds it all together. The vast intelligence that inhabits your body and keeps the unimaginably complex functions of the body going every second. So there's a stillness that pervades your entire being. That is— now I'm giving you another signpost. I call that sometimes the deep I. I meaning the pronoun I. The deep I. The person. Is the surface I, the personality, the person that is the surface of your being. And it's fine, it has its place. It's only problematic if you believe the illusion that that's all there is to who or what you are, the surface I. Then the surface I becomes really— The problem. problematic because it looks for solutions to its continuous sense of insufficiency. It looks for fulfillment and solutions where they cannot be found. And where's that? The surface I lives on the surface of reality, one could say, and I sometimes call that the horizontal dimension of life. On the horizontal dimension of life, past and future are all important. Let's see. Past, future all unfold here. This is where the person lives, where you as the person lives. There's no escape from past and future. There's no escape from time. Time will eventually consume The you that lives on the horizontal dimension. Time will kill you, undoubtedly. You, the you that lives on the horizontal dimension. And this is one of the deep meanings of the symbol of the cross, is the intersection between the horizontal dimension and the vertical dimension. The vertical dimension opens up the moment you give full attention to the present moment. And the moment the stream of thinking that otherwise occupies your mind continuously subsides for just a moment. As we did the practice we did just now, the stream of thinking subsides and there's inner— you become aware of inner stillness, a silent presence. That is, the vertical dimension opens up. So here you are, horizontal, vertical. And here you live at this intersection. Between, one could say, the world or the temporal world and the transcendent or spiritual dimension of life. So the spiritual is the vertical, inseparable, completely inseparable from present moment. There's no other portal into the spiritual dimension except present moment. Awareness. The present moment is inseparable from— it's the portal into the transcendent dimension.