An Important Lesson on Overcoming Challenging Times | Eckhart Tolle @ NYU

why is the bird so alert because he needs to be alert because otherwise thing could suddenly pop up and eat it so the bird goes this is a wonderful beginning of Freedom inner Freedom when you when you separate the interpretation from the actual thing it could be a person it could be an event or just a simple sense perception and suddenly you experience the very same thing that before was an unpleasant experience as actually not bad at all you let's go back to the simple you're standing in a lineup in the supermarket and it's just not moving and you get very irritating all the things that you should be doing and you shouldn't have come at this time and why are these people so inefficient can't they H and suddenly you're just standing there and you're breathing and you're looking around is that so bad no it's no longer bad because your mind isn't telling you that it is bad it is as it is now you might say that's very that's very little but what happens if something really bad happens what happens if you come home and suddenly see the house that you live in has gone up in Flames what happens if you suddenly lose your home and you sit on a park bench what then it still applies the same still applies are you adding a narrative to it or are you taking this one oh there's the house it burnt down no this of course an advanced more advanced lesson but you have to master this little simpler lessons first then you get to the more advanced lessons because you will experience everybody does big loss at some point in your life of whatever kind whether it's loss of a relationship loss of a loved one Financial loss loss of your job loss of reputation who knows his easier to the internet these days to lose your reputation one wrong tweet you can destroy your whole life so you could experience all that and you will all these things will happen in as you remember life is not meant to make the world is not meant to make you happy it's meant to make you conscious by challenging you and by challenging you at first the challenges become unhappiness then you begin to realize it's your the most of the unhappiness is derived from unconscious things thought processes and then suddenly gradually you awaken oh and then the mind the world continues to challenge you but now challenges actually help you and they intensify The Awakening they no longer bring unhappiness occasionally you might still fall back into unhappy real actions but you're no longer drawn into continuous re unhappy reactivity H the world is here not to make you happy on and that's a oh my God that's so good to know because I'm uh if I hadn't told you that maybe you would have gone through the next 40 years thinking the world would be here to make you happy and it didn't happen very frustrating the world is here to it's the world challenges every life form continuously its life is precarious and challenging even for a blade of grass that that grows it's challenging for a tree it's chalenging for an animal it's chalenging for the cat for the deer for for every every life form is continuously being challenged it so it needs but what that does for example to to a bird it brings about an an alertness in that life form the challenge brings about an alertness have you observed how alert a bird is a bird goes there's an incredible alertness there why is the bird so alert because he needs to be alert because otherwise thing could suddenly pop up and eat it so the bird goes enormous enormous alertness and this is how gradually Consciousness grows through the through being challenged and the more you suffer 90% be coming from your mind then gradually you are being forced into Awakening because you can't stand yourself anymore you can't stand living with this unhappy self anymore and suddenly and then you realize what the Buddha was talking about when the Buddha said uh the self is the is the illusion the self is the ultimately is an illusory entity and the Buddha said there is no self It's Just an Illusion and as long as you live as long as this self but in Buddhism is called self which is the conceptual self the Mind Made self as long as you derive your identity from that life to again quote the Buddha life is suffering all life is suffering so the basic teaching for example of the Buddha is life is suffering but the second part of the teaching of the Buddha is the the possibility of the end of suffering that's the whole of Buddhism is there in that so the Buddha said I teach suffering and the end of suffering which means I show you how suffering arises and I I show you how suffering can end