Why Did Eckhart Awaken? | Eckhart Tolle

Perhaps that is, this has become the teaching. So the understanding of what happened to me gradually became the teaching. And I realize it's not complicated at all. And I realize many humans are ready for it.

You said this happened, this peacefulness, awareness happened to you spontaneously. And I wonder, why did it happen to you? And exactly how did that happen? And.

Okay, the first one, I don't know if I'll be able to. The first part of it, I don't know if I'll be able to answer. Just happened. Well, I can say that it happened because the egoic sense of self got eroded. And what happened was a disidentification from thinking. This is what happened. But I didn't know that that's what happened when it first happened. It just happened. I couldn't have explained it. The last thought that I was identified with was, I can't live with myself any longer. And then I looked at the thought, well, there was myself. Who am I? I didn't know that at the time when this thought came, who am I if I can't live with myself any longer? Who is the self? And who am I? I didn't know at the time that I had voiced an ancient question that has been used in meditation for hundreds or thousands of years. The question, who am I? Its spiritual teachers in India have used that question to take people into realization since ancient times. And the question arose spontaneously in my mind, who am I? Because it seemed strange, I no longer know if the sentence I cannot live with myself any longer seemed so strange because there seemed to be two people there, the I and the self. And that was so strange that I was wondering, who am I if I can't live with myself? And that simple question, who am I? Led to a realization of the essence of I, of what I means. And the I I realized is not my thoughts. So the I disidentified from the unhappy self that was telling itself unhappy stories all the time. And so the sense of I was no longer lodged in thought. It removed itself from thought because it just couldn't stand it anymore. Simple as that. That's why it happened. It couldn't stand it anymore. It removed itself. It was too painful. And all was left was that the sense of I ness or beingness or presence, which is inherently peaceful, which has no problems in it, is timeless. And that is the true source of everybody's identity. The true source of the is the being, is the formless. And then the self that consisted of thinking, identification with thinking couldn't survive the sense of self that was no longer invested with the identification. So the unhappy me, as I called it later, dissolved. And what's left was just the I presence. It seemed so simple, but even that I couldn't have explained at the time. It took years before I could verbalize something like this, I'm saying now. But it is basically a very simple thing. It's a very. In a way, it's a very natural thing. And it could well be that at some point in human evolution, perhaps soon, there could be a natural thing that happens to people when they reach adulthood. I would suggest that as you grow up, you're a teenager, it seems a natural stage to still be, perhaps to still be identified with the ego. Having to grow, identified with thinking and so on. And then you become an adult. And then to outgrow that. And then perhaps ancient cultures, as you know, had rituals and ceremonies. And in ancient Greece, you had the mysteries that people underwent. They were kind of workshops, I suppose, but where transformation of consciousness happened. And so that could happen in a more enlightened culture. As people reach young adulthood. They are perhaps these are the new mysteries that we can create. Mysteries was a. What described. Not everybody here may know. What in ancient Greece was called mysteries was a kind of initiation process. People were not supposed to talk about it. So nobody knows exactly what they did. But it was some kind of deepening of the human being. There were things going back to ancient times to Egypt and to India. So we could have this modern mysteries where people step out of identification with egoic self and simply realize the I. The I ness, perhaps that is, this has become the teaching. So the understanding of what happened to me gradually became the teaching. And I realize it's not complicated at all. And I realize many humans are ready for. Was a surprise when I realized that. I first realized it when the power of now came out. And without any advertising or anything, More and more people started to read it in the first few months. At first, when the book was finished, I thought a few people may respond to it. And that's fine. If nobody wants to buy it, that's fine too. I said, I will go and sell tomatoes to make a living. Why I said that, I don't know. It just came. And then I realized far more people are ready. They actually went into the book and understood it or realized the truth of it because they were ready to hear it. It was already. It wasn't totally new. They were ready to hear it. Yes, yes. It's always a recognition when you read Listen to true spiritual teaching. Something in you already Knew it. It's not totally new. And that is the power of the spiritual teaching is the presence in you that's already there recognizes the truth when it sees it. And then you feel it. You respond, yes, it's always a recognition. It's never somebody telling you something new. You can read other books, you get lots of new facts that you had never heard of and say, wow, that's interesting. Yeah, it may be interesting, but it won't transform you. Only things that you recognize as true actually then bring out that level in you, that dimension in you. And that's the power of a spiritual book. And I didn't realize how many humans actually were ready for that. It's only when they start writing to me. At that time, people were still writing letters, writing to me and saying, I bought five copies for my friends or relatives. And then somebody else said, I bought three copies. And people said, wow, it's amazing that so many people seem to be ready for it. So that's good. It's happening. It's a relatively simple process. And theoretically, yes, there is still, of course, the old consciousness still has its gravitational pull upon people. But everyone who is here or wherever you are listening to this, seeing this is part of the transformation and contributes to the awakening. So it is very significant thing that as you awaken and most people who join us here or here in this room or at home are already undergoing the awakening process. In a few people it comes very suddenly, but that's rare. In most, it's a gradual awakening and then it doesn't go like that. It goes more in a spiral. You go. This presence arises and then you fall back and then again it's, oh. And so it gradually goes. It grows slowly with setbacks.

Why do you think it happened like a psht for you?

Well, for some reason it happens for a few people like that, but it seems to be rare. I cannot tell you why that is. There was. It's better. It's good not to look for an event. I almost regret telling people how it happened to me later because it makes people to look for an event. And in a way what happened, or I describe it as something happening. It's not real. It's more of a non event than an event because it's a. It's a. You kind of disappear in that the form, the form self, the form identity kind of dissolved. So it's more of a non event than an event. It's better not to look for it. It's not an. For most people, it may come as an occasional glimpse. You have the famous satori. In Zen, satori is a flash of enlightenment when you suddenly go, wow. But that doesn't necessarily last. If you have a satori, it doesn't mean that the next day you're still conscious. But it's a nice thing when it happens. It's a flash of realization. So the Zen master tries to sometimes bring about in you the flash, and that's good. But it's not, of course, it's not the permanent state that comes gradually. It's an adventure in consciousness, and we can enjoy it while it happens.

Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, let's ring the bell. You want it to go on? Yeah. Well, it's in. It goes on in you. Now, Sam. It. Oh, it's now. It's already now. Thank you. Thank you. It.