The Power of the Present Moment and Conscious Living | Eckhart Tolle

ultimately their opinion they are beginning to defend their identity sense of identity is derived from the movement of [Music] thought and so whenever somebody questions something that's connected with your thinking it is regarded as an attack on your identity Why not start with a good spiritual practice especially for people in the back rows and it may sound a little bit funny but it's actually a very powerful spiritual practice uh and that is to become aligned with the present moment obviously this is I'm Mr now so I'm talking about the present moment become aligned with the present moment and uh re refrain from complaining for example that you are too far away mentally po very powerful spiritual practice so then you become [Music] okay with the isness of things and the isness of things happens always in the present moment you might have noticed nothing ever happens that's not now one could almost say the word happen must imply present moment and most people completely underestimate the incredible importance of the present moment and of living in [Music] a harmonious relationship with the present moment and you would be surprised how many people in this world live almost constantly in an antagonistic relationship with the present moment and that of course causes a lot of unnecessary suffering and unhappiness so one of the most important things in life to be aware of is your relationship so to speak with the present moment and this is now of course is the present moment welcomed or appreciated or at least accept it for the way it is because it already is the way it is that's the weird thing about the present moment it's already the way it is no matter how you argue in their mind with it the isness of things is already the case and that's all there ever is in your entire life your entire life this is not something to just understand intellectually but to grasp at a deeper level your entire life unfolds in the present moment that's all there ever is that's all there ever is is this moment and most people live as if some future moment whether it's a minute from now or tomorrow or next year they live as if some future moment were always more important than this moment that isn't implied they don't tell themselves oh the next moment is more important than this one no it's an assumption an underlying assumption it's a mindset and that mindset is a form of con conditioning cultural conditioning and that mindset by implication if not literally always says there something more important coming and I'm on my way to [Music] it and that is a dysfunctional way to live because you're never Fully Alive you you never feel at home you're always looking for your home in some future moment or when you get old enough and you realize there's little future left then you think about the past more than the next moment this is why many old people talk continuously about the past so coming into alignment with the present moment brings about a shift in Consciousness and this is so simple and yet so profound now this shift in Consciousness is what our evening here together is all about it is about a transformation of Consciousness in you and the reason why you're here most of you is that this transformation of Consciousness is already happening it's a process for most people it's already happening in you and you're here because you know that this or you hope that this is an opportunity for deepening this sift in Consciousness or accelerating the shift in Consciousness there are other terms we could use we could say it is about an Awakening of Consciousness it is about a spiritual awakening and this is a term that in several spiritual traditions is used and has been used for a long time the term of awaken which implies that the ordinary the normal state of consciousness of most human beings is a kind of dreamlike state it is a kind of sleep but people if you tell that to somebody says what are you talking about dream I'm completely awake this is just nonsense and then I might say have you noticed that there is a voice in your head that almost never stops talking and commenting and analyzing and interpreting and judging and liking and disliking liking and it all the time it talks and talks it's in your head and if he talks out aloud and there's nobody there then you're crazy but it's it's in your head and there's it talks about you about other people it has comments about thinks a lot about the future sometimes totally imaginary things that they going to go wrong especially at 3:00 in the morning when you're in a warm bed you can start thinking about all the things that are going to go wrong in your life and that's the voice in the head and most people are so identified with the voice that they they are they become the voice they become the compulsive OB almost obsessive thoughts that continuously roll through their heads and if I say to somebody have you are not awake they say what what the hell are you talking about and I say that's it that's the voice that keeps you asleep identification with that voice is a kind of hypnotic trance that you live in on a daily basis what the voice says varies from person to person from culture to culture that uh the it's the conditioned mind and the way the mind has been conditioned depends on the surrounding culture that you grow up in if you had grown up in a totally different part of the world somewhere in Africa or in uh Asia or Saudi Arabia or South America you would have different types of thought to not not all of them would be different but there there's a different type of uh conditioning that goes with that particular culture but what everybody has in common no matter what the voice says is that they are identified with the voice which means apart from The Voice they are not there apart they are the voice they are their mental POS their mental positions you notice it for example when you start discussing something with someone and you have a disagreement which happens very quickly of course when you start talking to somebody you then quickly you find something to disagree with and you then might notice in the other person it's always easier to notice the unconscious in the other person you might notice in the other person defensiveness and aggression arising and emotion arises they're getting upset because you're questioning their their opinion their Viewpoint which they they don't even know it's a Viewpoint to them it's the truth that's how it is and you question it and they what they are beginning to defend not ultimately their opinion they are beginning to defend their identity because identity is bound up with thought identity sense of identity is derived from the movement of thought that's and so whenever somebody questions something that's connected with your thinking very quickly it is regarded unconsciously of course this this is why we call that the unconscious state it is regarded as an attack on your identity it's almost as if somebody was