Why Life's Hard Times Make You Stronger | Eckhart Tolle

God is the source of all life.

The transcendent source of all life.

It has no existence in space and time. It does not exist, because exist means to be manifested. God is the source of all life.

That we perhaps can say.

Now we could compare that because we live in this sense perceived universe in our dimension, we could compare God to the life giving principle that we all.

Share, which is the sun.

And there's no coincidence that many ancient cultures worshiped the sun because obviously without the sun, all life would immediately disappear.

The very warmth in your body ultimately derived from the sun calories.

So the sun continuously emanates almost, one.

Could almost say, yes, it has a.

Lifespan, but relative to our lifespan, it's eternal.

So it's an analogy.

The sun continuously emanates. It emanates, and what it emanates, it gives life. So in this analogy, God is like the sun, but it is the transcendent source of all, not inhabiting this dimension that we know. But it is, let's just. It emanates into this dimension and gradually creates this dimension, which is still in the process of being created. The universe as we know it is still being created. The eternal source of all life emanates.

Something into this world. And that is consciousness. Consciousness is the light of God.

And this, when you get, when you sense the essence of yourself as consciousness, then you are aware of the light.

Of God in you.

And if you are, I do not recommend, however, that as some mystics have done in.

Christianity, in Sufism, in other traditions, they suddenly discovered that and they.

Were so overpowered that they actually said, I am God. I don't recommend that because people won't like it. And you don't need to say that. It's like the ray of sunlight. If the ray of sunlight says I am the sun, it's both true and not true. Yes, it is obviously still connected to the sun.

It's inseparable from the sun, and yet it's not the sun.

So depends how you look at it. But the wonderful thing is when you.

Realize the essence of who you are.

It goes far beyond the essence of who you are. Because when you realize this, the essence of who you are, you're realizing the essence of the universe.

That is a miraculous thing.

And so it's not. And ultimately there isn't you and the universe, it's a oneness. You and the universe are one.

So when you realize something, the essence, this perceived universe, is realizing something through you.

When you awaken to this dimension, the.

Universe is awakening to this dimension of itself. It's a miraculous thing.

So it totally transcends who you are as a person completely.

And yet that was the entry point. The entry point was the unhappy little person. The unhappy little person was like the seed.

And the seed became more and more.

Unhappy as a seed. And when the seed became sufficiently unhappy, it started to break open. And then something else emerged out of this unhappy seed.

So let's be grateful for the unhappiness that has brought us here and the frustrating person that you have lived with for many years. Because that was the seed for the awakening of consciousness.

And the suffering was the seed.

And the universe continuously is evolving into greater awakening. And it evolves not through. And this is, I hope you don't.

Regard it as bad news.

Your comfort.

Zone, which is a wonderful place to be from time to time.

But your comfort zone is not the place where awakening happens. And perhaps you all know that, because your comfort.

If you were totally in your comfort.

Zone, you would now be watching TV with a beer. I feel so comfortable. Or you have another smoke. Very comfortable. But life doesn't allow. Very soon challenges you again.

And through the challenges, the deepening happens.

And even here, as the awakening happens, through the challenges of life, the awakening.

Deepens and the challenges continue to come. But there's a difference.

Before you are awakened, life's challenges, which are unavoidable. Before you awaken, life's challenges, are transformed by the unawakened consciousness into unhappiness. And there's an underlying erroneous belief that.

Life should not be challenging me. Why all these difficulties? Why does life throw one thing after.

Another on my path to make my life? Is life out, or you might call it God? Is God out to sabotage me? Is there some weird thing at work that just.

Why is it always me?

Always things go wrong and that happens.

And I solve a problem here, another.

One pops up there. That's how life, how evolution happens. The difference is you can now face a challenge. And there it is. I accept this moment as it is and then see if you can take any action if it's necessary or not or possible. Accept this moment as it is is.

A very powerful portal into the transcendent state.

I accept this moment as it is then, because you might as well, because it already is. I think it's much more wise to accept it than not. The ego's very survival depends on non.

Acceptance of what is.

It's antagonistic to what is. And that strengthens the ego when you accept this moment, because it is this moment and it is already Then the portal opens up into a place of alert stillness. That's also where you contact, that also contains a deeper intelligence, not just your conditioned mind. This is the intelligence of the one consciousness. So you enter immediately, you enter the transcendent. Just a simple practice, as I sometimes put it. Make the present moment into your friend, not your enemy.

That's already a very powerful spiritual practice.

Become friendly with the present moment, no.

Matter what form it takes.

And immediately there's a deepening in you. And immediately you feel, in the depths.

Of your being, you feel the deep I in that alignment with the isness of things. So that's a very powerful spiritual practice.

And then when the challenges come, they are no longer transformed into an unhappy me. No, the challenge comes and you look. And then another aspect of what we are here talking about is it activates.

The deep I as a deeper intelligence. And this deeper intelligence can deal with things in a much more intelligent way. Action arises, insight arises. Intuitive realizations arise from this deeper. From the deep I, the unconditioned consciousness.

And wisdom arises.

Wisdom is. Intelligence itself is not enough to save us. I mean, we've developed intelligence.

In a.

Focused way through science, for example.

It's just a focused application of conceptual.

Intelligence is through science.

And it's not going to save science, which is a focused application of intelligence is not going to save us without.

Wisdom, it will destroy us.

With wisdom, fine, it won't work.

And wisdom can only arise to a.

Human being who has some access to.

The deep, the deep I, the consciousness, the unconditioned.

That's now one other thing that arises when you have access to that and you're rooted in the deep I able to use both dimensions, form identity and essence identity. Able to have one foot in the form identity, one foot in essence identity, so to speak. And then you have a balanced life. And then you don't get frustrated with the things of this world because nothing lasts for that long. If you expect to be made happy by the things of this world, you condemn yourself to continuous frustration, suffering. So the world is not here to make you happy.

The world is here to make you conscious.

And when you are conscious, you become.

I wouldn't say happy because it's somewhat superficial term.

There's a joyousness in the depths of.

Your being that has nothing to do.

With what's happening out there or not happening out there. There was a. I can't remember the exact.

I'm not good at quoting.

There's a French writer, the Camus, the. Perhaps the most significant thing he ever wrote was he said something like, in the depths of winter, I realized deep within myself an invincible summer. So what that was referring to was that dimension of depths. So it's an analogy. In the depths of winter, in the middle of winter, I realized within the depths of myself an invincible summer. That means this came out of a. Perhaps it wasn't a permanent realization in.

Him, but in the moment that he.

Wrote that or he was writing about something, an experience, and it was the experience of the deep I that is the invincible summer in you.