Why People Can’t Be Alone Anymore | Eckhart Tolle

You are alone, waiting for the elevator. And immediately is always temptation to fill this moment up with something. Some people cannot tolerate being alone in a room and not be doing anything. Because all that thinking knows is concepts, thoughts. From the point of view of the egoic self, it requires courage not to run away internally, so to speak, and to seek refuge again in thinking. Not to run away when you touch that dimension of no thought, pure awareness. The egoic self, of course, is afraid of that. So in the moment of transition there could be fear. I don't know who I am anymore, I don't know anything anymore. And yet there is a deep knowing in that. But it's non conceptual. You know yourself very deeply, but not through any concepts. Yet this gnosis, direct knowing, You know your being. And again, when I talk about it, I say, you know your being. You know, yourself is a duality which doesn't actually exist. It's only when we talk about it, it's. You're constantly challenged when you go back into the world. Well, this is the world too, but your usual world. You're constantly challenged by the world. To lose yourself in stuff, in things, in objects, in thoughts. Ultimately, it all boils down to the mind and you're being bombarded. That's a challenge. To stay present even when you are bombarded with all kinds of extremely important things that you need to give immediate attention to. It's amazing how lost humans are. Most humans completely lost in their minds, which is the world. And even when they go for walks. I've seen people walking in the forest with things on their headphones. I don't know what they're listening to. Music perhaps, or Talk by Eckhart. But when you're out in nature, let go of that. When you find yourself alone, no matter where, The temptation immediately arises to fill that moment up with something. Whether you are alone in your room or whether you are alone sitting somewhere. Maybe you're in a cafe and sitting in a waiting room somewhere, airport, doctor's office. You're alone, waiting for the elevator. And immediately, always temptation to fill this moment up with something. Some people cannot tolerate being alone in a room and not be doing anything. There's something missing, as they say. In the past you had opportunities that you could pick up a newspaper or you could turn on the radio, the television. And some people do that immediately, the moment they get home. Just can't tolerate silence. Or you can be completely in your mind, you're not even there. You just let's do something. But nowadays you don't. You're not confined to the radio or the television. The most obvious thing that you interact with is your devices. Any moment when you have a moment of being somewhere. Almost all humans these days, they get out their phone in order to clutter their mind. Of course, sometimes it's helpful, sometimes there is an important message. Sometimes it's good to be able to communicate with someone. But a lot of the time it's normal in clutter, totally. And not just unnecessary, but extremely harmful. It takes away continuously obscures presence, clutters your mind more than it ever, ever was the case in the past when it was already cluttered. And it's an addiction, So be conscious of that, so that you learn to enjoy a period of being alone without necessarily doing anything, filling this moment up with something, as the famous French philosopher said. Perhaps it was Pascal. He said all the troubles of humanity are due to humans inability to sit quietly in a room. That seems at first an exaggeration, or to say all the troubles of humanity are due to human inability to sit quietly in a room. If you don't look more deeply, it seems, well, that can't be true. But what does that mean? The inability to sit quietly in a room means to have lost touch completely with the dimension of being. And that is the cause for all the troubles of humanity. Even Pythagoras, already 2600 years ago, said. The reason for all your problems and troubles is you are disconnected from yourself. But even then it was a already happening, but not to such an extreme degree as now. And this is not just something that yes, on an individual level, it's vitally important because. It brings a dimension to your life that is the only place where fulfillment can be found. And true. I'm reluctant to use the word happiness because it's deeper than happiness. So it frees you from suffering on an individual level. But as far as civilization is concerned, if the bulk of the population has lost touch with that, doesn't even have a glimpse anymore of it. Sa.