You Are the Consciousness of the Universe | Eckhart Tolle 20 Minute Meditation

So thinking is a wonderful thing if you are not possessed by it. If you are able to use thinking, it's a beautiful, amazing tool for creation. But if thinking becomes the basis for your sense of identity, in other words, the narrative in your mind of who you are, the story of me, then thinking becomes a kind of prison. Or to use a different analogy, thinking becomes then almost like something that possesses you and you don't even know it. And when you make the statement, I think I am thinking, it's not quite accurate. It would be more accurate to say, thinking is happening to me. If you can't stop it, that means it must be happening to you. If you don't even want to stop, it must be because you are almost addicted to it. You think you would die without it. So if you can't stop thinking, then you are not thinking. Thinking is happening to you. Or you could say you are being thought. You are not thinking, oh, by the way, while I speak to you. And many of you know this, but it's easy to forget too, since this is a kind of meditation session, although not a conventional one. While I'm speaking to you, be aware of the silent gaps between sentences, between words. Be aware, notice them, be aware of them. Because the meditation part of our session together here is in the silent gaps. The rest is just the words that point us towards the silent gaps, that point us towards stillness. When you become aware of the silent gaps while I speak, breathe like now. And now. And now. While you notice the silent gaps, acknowledge them. You may also notice that you are not thinking while you notice the gaps. And that's meditation. In that way, I can talk you into the meditative state. But you have to be aware that our session has two dimensions, the words and the space. The space is the silent gaps. And not only the silent gaps, it's also an underlying silence, or stillness would be a better word. So you notice those gaps. That's meditation. And that's in the moment of noticing you're not thinking. And as you practice here, when you go into your daily. Back into your daily life, you may notice silent gaps within yourself between two thoughts. The space of no thought between two thoughts. Don't need to measure it in time. Who knows, three seconds, four. So you have now you have then access to a deeper or higher, depending how you want to use the word dimension of consciousness. It. And when you notice the gaps between two thoughts in yourself in daily life, then they deepen or you become more aware of them and they get a little longer. Another word for the Gaps between thoughts is a stillness to realize that behind all thoughts there is a realm of stillness. And you become aware of it when one thought comes to an end and the other one hasn't started yet. Suddenly you come aware of what is beyond thought, consciousness. And then you begin to embody that dimension in your daily life. And then you become a two dimensional being. You are a person and you are an expression of consciousness which transcends the person. It's the consciousness of the universe of which you are in your personal self, temporary expression. You are the universe being conscious in you. You are the consciousness of the universe. That's a very significant thing. It doesn't matter what you have achieved or not achieved as a person. More fundamentally, you are the consciousness of the universe. You are a focal point of that consciousness. Of course, the consciousness of the universe pervades all space. But you are a focal point of that consciousness. Appearing temporarily under the guise of a person. Not for too long. Then the person evaporates like a soap bubble. It goes pop. Many people have a problem with self esteem, with thoughts arising that say, I'm not good enough. I'm not as good as those people or that person. Not as good looking, not as physically strong, not as knowledgeable, not as intelligent, not as popular. But when you. Of course you could work on self esteem on the level of the person. With limited success, some success. Yes, you can repeat affirmations. I am good enough. I am good at everything I do. I'm getting better and better every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better. No doubt that was one of the first affirmations that somebody came up with a long time ago, when books started to appear about positive thinking. Yes, it is a positive statement. Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. But who is it? I am the person now. The person. Yes, things can get better and then they get worse and then they get better again and then something else happens. So the person exists within the polarities of gain and loss, good and bad, up and down. That's inevitable. There's nobody who can continuously be successful. The life will put obstacles in your path of different kinds. That's how it is. So you can get better up to a point, but not continuously. There are polarities, but there's a deeper dimension in you that exists beyond the polarities of good and bad, gain and loss. This dimension is not dependent on the polarities, good and bad, gain and loss. That's a transcendent dimension. And then you are in touch with something which we could call, if we wanted to use the terminology used by the ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, the good. The good is the. Sometimes the good, as they use this term, means perhaps something like God. It just happens to be that the English language, good and God are very similar words. Perhaps that's no coincidence, but that's only in English. Well, in some Germanic languages too. So you feel there is a good deep down, a something. It's not something. Let's just call it something. Language always refers to things, something that is beyond the polarities, that there's a good that's also there. Even when you're experiencing great loss. And sometimes, particularly in those times when you experience great loss, you feel that which is beyond the polarities of good and bad. There's a deep peace that's nothing to do with a person, it transcends the person. But when there's no cessation in the continuous stream of thinking, then you are unaware of that dimension. It People don't realize how much of a burden they carry through overthinking, excessive thinking, purposeless. How many people are making themselves unhappy continuously through unconscious mind activity, judgments, interpretations, negative interpretations of themselves, of other people, of situations. It.