Transcending the Doing Mindset | A Guided Meditation from Eckhart Tolle

I may have mentioned before that uh one obstacle to meditation especially for people who practice formal meditation regularly they may not realize although whatever method they use whatever meditation practice will use may be good potentially helpful there tends to be however always an underlying unexpressed thought feeling perhaps that you are doing a meditation so now you do many things every day and one of the things you do is you're doing your meditation practice I'm doing my meditation practice but what is the aim of meditation it's supposed to take you into a realization of being now we live in a culture westernized culture which is not confined to the geographical so-call West these days the westernized culture is many places of the globe we are predominantly focused or almost many people exclusively focused on doing so it seems normal that you include when you start meditating and even continue their practice becomes part of the idea in your head that this is something you you that you have to do or you there's a doing idea involved doing involves time doing has an aim I'm here I want to get there I'm doing this in order to achieve that all doing involves time so with the idea of doing comes the idea of time that you are that you need to get somewhere with your meditation practice for example I want to become enlightened or or maybe you're not as ambitious as that and just I want to still my mind now meditation is a practice that is meant to give you access to a particular State of Consciousness I call it [Music] presence to help you realize that apart from doing and of course doing is not just external doing running around or on the computer doing also is thinking every think every thought you think you're doing something you're doing you're thinking meditation the aim of meditation is to bring you to a realization of being so to help you access another dimension within yourself it's not it's not thinking it is not to do with external activities but you don't go to sleep either so it's the realization of being to become aware of your own presence so to speak of presence or your presence these are just words right now instead of thinking we're doing something I would suggest that an alternative access point to the State of Consciousness that is presence is to let go of alloing or any idea that you have to get somewhere improve yourself there is a place for that that exists on another dimension that also operates in your life getting better at things so but then there's something else where any kind of doing doesn't really help if I'm not saying let go of all your meditation practices if they're used correctly they can take you into being also but for many people there's an underlying continuously Rising obstacle created by the idea that you're doing something and need to get somewhere so instead of taking you into being you it just creates more doing being and doing those two Dimensions need to be present and it's not just meditation is there to to help you access being but in the rest of your life which is most of your life 98% of your life even if you if you meditate a lot 95% of your life is still something else it's not the meditation there there needs to be a balance between being and doing not as separate things but coming together and this is why here I'm not using any technique and I just want to invite you to become aware of the fact that you are I wouldn't say that you exist of course you exist but exist the word itself from comes from the Latin X means out exist means to stand out now that's your your body exists your psychological self with its conditioning and thought processes and emotions exists it's there it manifests whatever is manifested not necessarily just through the senses because the more important important part of you you can't see through the senses that invisible self psychological self exists stands out is manifested so it's not so much becoming aware of that fact that you exist but becoming aware of the underlying being that gives rise to your existence something deeper becoming aware of yourself right now as I speak of the essence of who you are not as a physical body not as a psychological entity with the past the personality conditioned by the past but is there anything deeper than your personality that's conditioned by the the past consists of all thought processes and emotions and opinions and viewpoints likes and dislikes and so on so is there something else something deeper something without which all those other things could not manifest yes you can't define it you can't understand it there's nothing to understand there if you examine your historical self your psychological self then you may need understanding you might need to go to psychotherapist to figure out things that you had not been aware of of your psychological self but here in that immediate realization of being I am there's no doubt about that that there is a Consciousness here prior to whatever arises in that Consciousness there is a presence a Consciousness even when I don't think in exact it's only really when there's a moment of not thinking that I become aware of that Consciousness that I am I become aware of awareness which is not how it is it's just language awareness which is who you are Consciousness which is who you are becomes aware of itself there's no Duality anymore can you feel yourself your consciousness your beingness the I am without adding anything to the I am which would be your name your age your gender your position Society your knowledge your memories these are all things you add to I am but I am is the essence if you can sense that in your daily life in the background then you are always connected with being you're rooted in the deeper Dimension and then all the comings and goings in your external life and all your doings may still be important are still important whether you gain something you lose something whether you're healthy or ill rich or poor but then there's always something deeper and from that deeper dimension of beingness where you can sense your essential reality as that and not the psychological personality that means you have found that which is of primary importance and then you deal with all the things that are of relative or secondary importance which is everything else in your life so you are both who you are in this world the person the historical entity the physical psychological entity yes you are that but more fundamentally you are the Consciousness without which the [Music] person would not even be would there even be a world without a Consciousness perceiving the world molecules atoms and empty space make up this body this room everything wher where you are molecules atoms and mostly empty space it's not a world at that level it's not a r and then Consciousness comes and suddenly there's a world but molecules and atoms themselves may also be just primordial manifestations of Consciousness and ultimately humans