Embracing Uncertainty: Eckhart Tolle Explains The Power of Not Knowing

if you place excessive focus on the imperfection or areas of unconsciousness you can no longer meet this person in a space of openness I always start with uh not knowing what to say that's the reason for the silence and I recommend that you do that too before any creative activity or anything just become comfortable with not knowing which means not thinking which does not mean you're going to sleep or unconscious or it could happen that you suddenly drop below thinking it happens to some people here now normally to sit in front of an audience and not know what to say could be a nightmare in fact some people have nightmares of that kind they're sitting somewhere and suddenly the curtain opens and it's a theater and the looking I forgotten my lines public speaking for many people is one of the most stressful things and that's because they can't go become comfortable with not knowing the big difference is becoming comfortable with not knowing and feeling I don't know but I should know let very uncomfortable remember what the great philosopher Socrates said they call me the wisest of all men for the reason that I'm the only one who knows that he knows nothing nobody really has truly understood what he meant people thought he was just pretending not to know but I'm convinced that he was referring to the state of not knowing which is also of course the state of not thinking but awareness out of which his the whole philosophy emerged the creative use of Mind emerged out of the space of no mind if you have no access to the space of no mind then the your mind will not be creative in any way in other words it's just you can only have to rely on what you have Acquired and you will be uh moving within the conditioned Realm of the Mind whatever the mind has been conditioned by that's all you have then another area where it's very helpful this not knowing is not to uh formulate uh conclusions uh on uh limited insufficient evidence to come to conclusions that become uh rigid thoughts in your mind concerning for example other people or yourself or what you call your life such as for example let's say you have a relationship a intimate relationship then he or she betrays you in the conventional narrative and then you immediately the mind jums to this conclusion I'm never going to trust any woman or man again never that's a ter youve just would have constructed a dreadful prison for yourself so you you have a thought that suddenly dominates your mind in order to to I'm not going to suffer again in that way this is no more these conclusions are can become self-made presence and then you you walk in and you shut the door and you there you are stuck in that mind pattern never again being able to relate openly to a man or a woman and then you've other weird weird conclusions that people arrive at some of them are so-called prejudices and so [Music] on they're very rigid uh mental formations that deprive you of openness towards reality so it's good to be with relation to other people also frequently not to be very careful with formulating conclusions about other people individuals or groups of people uh remain as much as possible in the state of not knowing conceptually and yet there is a deep knowing there but it's not knowing that creates separation between you and the other so it's easy to find uh um imperfections in people when you start working with them or living with them and uh if you place excessive focus on the imperfection or areas of unconsciousness then that can obliterate the the totality of that person for example let's say somebody lies to you about something for whatever people lie for different reasons maybe even to not to hurt you or whatever who knows what the reason is and then you find out and then you say oh he's a liar I know what kind of a person that is now he's a liar he lied to me to [Music] me of course that makes it much worse the me and once you formulated an opinion or a judgment of that kind you can no longer meet this person in a space of openness because immediately the Judgment you formulated is there between you and and you relate this is becomes part of the screen of conceptualization through which you then relate to that person now if you formulate a judgment about an entire group of people as political group of people religious group of people all whatever they are are like that all WR then when you meet an individual representative of that group you will no longer be able to meet him or her because you're meeting your mental image that you have created so the true meeting is no longer part possible very dangerous traps in your mind created by your mind by unconscious mental activity what is conventionally called which is fashionable these days identity politics and stuff like that is also dangerous because you you have entire groups of people and anybody who belongs to that group you don't no longer look at the individual human being say anybody who belongs to this group is like that it could be a political racial group or whatever it may be so is is all to do with forming mental screens so that that make communication almost impossible through communication