Wisdom In Daily Life with Eckhart Tolle

Wisdom can only come from if you access no thought, the dimension of no thought in yourself. The only thing a wise person has that you don't have. Or that's the wrong way of putting it. The wise woman, the wise man has nothing that you don't have. He or she is simply aware of the dimension of stillness, the dimension of no thought. That's out of which all wisdom comes, which is also in you. So bringing that into everyday life through being aware of the inner energy field of the body, being alert to sense perceptions, another way of entering the state of alert, thoughtless presence. Look around the room a few times a day where you are sitting as if you had just been born into that room. Oh, it requires a high degree of alertness, yes, but that is in you. So periodically, even if it's only five seconds at a time, you bring in thoughtlessness. Not in its usual. Thoughtlessness usually is a negative term, but here thoughtlessness implies more consciousness, more intense awakeness to awaken. And it's not. And then you realize the compulsion to think is just a habit, deep seated habit. And you don't listen to the mind when the mind says, I have no time to be present now, not even 10 seconds. Not true. You're waiting at the elevator, the lift, press the button. Are you projecting yourself mentally to where you want to get? Or are you really there? Are you immersed in thought? Or are you using that opportunity to simply be present with your entire being standing there, not waiting for anything? Because most people spend maybe 70% of their lives waiting for something. There's always the next thing to do that hasn't quite been finished yet. There's always the next thing to happen that I'm just waiting for this. Why not use all waiting periods for being present? And then you step into the elevator and you press ground floor and it's going down. And there is an aliveness in your entire energy field. And it's beautiful. That moment has a fullness to it that is more than the externals that you perceive. Because after all, it's only four walls around you and a light above you and some buttons. So on the external level, this moment has nothing to fulfill me. But if you go deeper into that moment, which is into yourself, it's actually very fulfilling. But you have to step out of that which takes you out of the moment, learning what it means to be present and alert. And then perhaps you arrive at the ground floor and you forget and you go about your business and 10 minutes later you're in your car at the traffic Lights, stopping, thinking, come on. And suddenly remember, oh, the now. This is the now. And then again you look at the red light and the red has an intensity to it. It's quite beautiful that before to notice that you would have had to take acid. Because taking acid for. I'm not recommending this because. But for some people, it can give them a first glimpse of what it means not to be burdened by continuous mental commentaries. But it doesn't really raise your consciousness. It simply amplifies sense perceptions. And the red of the traffic light. Don't do it. The red of the traffic light becomes so intense you haven't got. You can't think about it anymore. It just is overwhelming. Wow. So it gives you a little it. Only I took it once just to try it out, because people told me, people told me, this is like acid, isn't it? And I always had to say, I don't know, I haven't taken it. And finally I said, okay, I need to be able to answer these people, so I'm going to try it once. And so what I experienced was the amplification. Everything was vibrating, there was intensity of smell, hearing the visual, tasting, everything was amplified. Nothing special that I experienced otherwise. But some people say, wow, the world can be so alive. It always is. You just don't know it because of the screen of your thinking. So here this is much better than acid, but there's a slight similarity. Yes, but here you notice it because you become more awake. There's the traffic light and here I am. And you feel the energy field in your body as you sit there. And you become aware of the movement of people and you just look. The movement of cars, you just look. Oh, it's not that bad. Before you were complaining about that moment. What's this? Why am I sitting in this? I should be there, but I'm here. Yes. Can you argue with that? Well, you can, but it's mad. So you accept the isness of that moment and enter that moment more fully. So nobody can tell me that they cannot bring that into their everyday life. Not continuously, yet it's not required. It is more important how often you awaken out of thinking than it is how long you remain in the state of not thinking. That looks after itself. Yes. After a while that will be longer. More important, how often you step out of thinking, becoming alert. There's an intelligence there that wasn't there before and it doesn't need to call the world. You know what you are looking at. Without concepts, you look deeply. You also sense a certain aliveness in whatever you look at, which is no different from the aliveness that is in you. Everything has beingness to it, everything has presence to it. Even so called inanimate objects have a beautiful presence when you are not thinking about them, just looking. So I'm not telling you now. You must live in that state of consciousness. Just occasionally. Bring it in, enter it. Five seconds is fine. Two seconds. See the change in relationships as you are able to face another human being without the compulsive judgments and labels of the mind.