Why Accepting Difficulties Makes Life Easier | Eckhart Tolle

Life is difficult. But when you know that life is difficult and you fully come to terms with the fact that life is difficult, it's not difficult anymore. Because the greatest difficulty is the mental resistance to things that arise and the underlying assumption that should not. So once you have then a surrendered relationship with the present moment, because everything arises in the present moment, then it's not really that difficult anymore. And you can, even in the midst of turmoil, still be connected with the realm of being within yourself. So there's always a core of stillness, if only in the background. And no matter what happens, that core of stillness is there, if we want to call it stillness. It's also as we saw and as you know, it's also the source of satisfaction where true satisfaction or a true sense of well being that goes beyond physical well being, a true sense of well being comes from. It's the transcendent dimension. So life will challenge you with its difficulties. Small and big. Small happen probably every day in some form. So you don't get upset anymore when things don't go according to plan. You don't get upset and complain or irritated or angry when people don't behave the way they should behave. And that makes it so much easier when you no longer demand that these things should not be the way they are. Nobody should. They shouldn't cancel flights, weather shouldn't be such a way. They can't fly anymore. The body shouldn't get old. Nobody should have catch an illness. Now a lot of illnesses are produced or you are much more prone to have an illness. If your mind is very dysfunctional because it lowers the physical resistance, it affects the body. What the mind does obviously affects the body. Even mainstream medicine is beginning to recognize your mental emotional state affects your physical state. So if your mental emotional state is very dysfunctional, your body's resistance to illness decreases, the likelihood increases that you catch something. There are other causes of illness. So nobody can be totally free and say, I'm never going to be ill. The body is a physical vehicle with a certain lifespan. And as it approaches the the later stages of his life, when it's just like an old car, things start to go wrong with it. It's another form. And the older your car gets, the more things need to be replaced. And the time comes when it's just not working anymore. So it will be easier for you to deal with the challenges of life if you actually realize that challenges are good, they force you to awaken. And that's what's happening here for a long time. Challenges. The only Thing that challenges do is they make people suffer. And that can go on for a long, long time. I sometimes say everybody has a spiritual teacher, everybody on the planet. For most people, their spiritual teacher is their suffering. Because eventually the suffering brings about an awakening. And then there are a few who are advanced enough who already have gone through their suffering. And then they come into contact with an actual spiritual teaching in the form of wisdom tradition, or an actual spiritual teacher, or even in the form of a book. And they suddenly say, oh, wow, yes. And then evolution accelerates. So for you there's already this acceleration, because otherwise the evolution of consciousness is very slow. Evolution works very slowly. And for many humans it's still the case. That's why we repeat the same mistakes. Politicians and so on, haven't they read any history books? Just go back 50 years and then you make the same mistake again, go back 40 years. So condemned to repeat the past. This is part of karma. And then you reach that stage where an acceleration begins, and you're all at that stage, which is wonderful. So whenever confronted with a challenge, in whatever form, look at it. Be careful that your mind does not weave a whole huge web of useless thinking around it. Then it gets really difficult. And realize most challenges are actually fairly simple. Here's the situation or the person. I can either do something about it. What action is possible now? And with that comes that clear looking. What action is needed now? There's an that presence flows and presence can become. There can be a presence inspired doing. Before there is a presence inspired doing, you need to look at the situation. And when you look, look not necessarily just visually, but put your awareness on the situation. And there is a time span where you are in order to access primordial intelligence, which is in the stillness. Whenever a situation arises, you look at the situation and in the looking, which means giving it attention. There is no thinking. There is just an alert looking facing it. And then how long that is varies. It could be a few seconds, it could be a minute, it could be two minutes. But often a few seconds of giving it alert attention is enough. Then whatever is needed will come to you. Possible causes of action. And then one that's responding to a situation. Or you look and you realize nothing can be done right now, and that's perfectly fine. And while nothing can be done, you accept what is and are still connected and sometimes more deeply connected in the face of even sometimes unpleasant circumstances, more deeply connected with a true source of satisfaction, which you can quickly access if you become friendly with what is just becoming friendly with what is. And immediately it's easier to access the source of satisfaction and that which transcends the ego. The ego is sustained by continuous resistance, denial. It's against it. Whatever it is, I'm against it. And it's usually the present moment, with brief exceptions. So coming to accept the isness of people and situations and realizing this situation cannot be otherwise from the way it is. Why not? Should be. No, it can't be, because it already is. The entire universe, the entire history of the universe has brought about. Because since everything is connected to everything else, anything that happens is connected to the totality. So the totality of the universe since the Big Bang has brought about this event. So that's what is. There's nothing you can do, then you can do something and take action. Yes, but prior to taking action, there's an acceptance of the isness. Then there is an insight into what is possible. And then action, if it is possible, happens, or there is a realization that nothing is possible, then surrender happens. And in that surrender you are internally free of the situation. So in that surrender or acceptance, you can sense the satisfaction arising. Not because something is going well, because it may not be right now, but because you are connected with the source of all satisfaction, all life. And it feels. It's fine. You may be trapped somewhere, and it's fine.