In this teaching, Eckhart Tolle explains that genuine meditation is not a technique or a scheduled activity but the direct realization that one is inseparable from the present moment – the "being" or "deep I." He argues that any form of seeking, which projects the mind into the future, inherently blocks this realization. While regular meditation practices can be helpful, when they become another item on a to‑do list they reinforce the same time‑bound mindset they aim to dissolve. Tolle emphasizes that the present moment is the only portal into the dimension of true presence; nothing else exists beyond it. He clarifies that spiritual practices are not pointless, as they can serve as a bridge that eventually allows a seeker to drop the practice and simply "enter the now." To illustrate, he recounts the Buddha’s journey: a privileged youth who, after years of extreme ascetic practices, finally abandoned seeking under the Bodhi tree, relinquishing time and concepts, which led to awakening. The teaching concludes that while the deep realization could not be attained at the very start of the Buddha’s path, the relinquishment of seeking is the essential step toward true meditation.
Chapters
True meditation is the realization of being, the realization that you are now totally inseparable from present moment. Any kind of seeking implies future and becomes a hindrance. The important thing to realize, especially for spiritual seekers, is that the spiritual dimension, or the deep I, is not something that you can look to the future to find. You cannot find it in the future. So, So as a spiritual seeker, the fact that you are a seeker already implies that you won't find it, because seeking implies time and future. If you meditate, which is a lovely thing— meditation can be wonderfully helpful— but if you approach it In a wrong way, then you believe unconsciously that you are doing your meditations. Every day you do your meditations between 6 and 6:30. I'm doing my meditation, okay? After, at 6:30, I have to do something else. To do my meditation, Okay. Now, even after 20 years of doing a meditation, it might have improved your life, but if you're not doing it rightly, then it would just be another thing that you add to all the doings in your life. Because true meditation is the realization of being, the realization that you are now totally inseparable from present moment. Any kind of seeking implies future and becomes a hindrance. So to go deeper You need to use, one could say, the most obvious portal into that dimension, which is the present moment. The present moment that the human habitually overlooks, that keeps the human going as a human. It continuously overlooks The most vital thing there is, the present moment. The only thing there is, the present moment. There is nothing else. So, and it's the opening into the deep I, that the present moment is a portal into that dimension. And so it— doing doesn't get you there. Because it already is. Does that mean that all spiritual practice is pointless? Not necessarily. You may need spiritual practice to take you that point— to that point where you can drop it Enter the now. It's exactly the story of the Buddha. He was a young man, and although he lived in very luxury surroundings with all sensory satisfactions, he realized at an early age that the ultimate destiny of humans is to grow old and become ill and die. And he saw that and said, is that all there is to human life? Then he left his sumptuous surroundings and became a spiritual seeker, and he practiced all kinds of extreme practices— fasting, austerities— for several years. He became so good at every spiritual practice that many disciples came. They came to him and said, he's so good at this, And after a few years, something happened to him. He realized he's not there yet. Despite all his practices, he still hadn't realized the deep I, as I call it. And that was the moment when he just sat under a tree, the famous moment Buddha sat under a tree, said, that's it, I'm done. That's my free translation of the ancient sutras. He said, that's it, I'm done. I'm done seeking. No more. And they said— and the disciples said, he lost it. And most disciples left him. He didn't mind anymore. And that was— Then came the awakening. Wow! But only because he relinquished time completely, he relinquished everything, he went into being itself. And so the question may arise, couldn't he have done this at the very beginning before he tried all these extreme spiritual practices? Couldn't he have realized The being before all that and saved himself all that trouble. Apparently not.
