Transcending the Ego for Lasting Fulfillment | Eckhart Tolle’s Wisdom

through thinking you cannot be aware of those spaces between words because thinking is object Consciousness the space between words is takes you to space [Music] Consciousness so the entire secret of our gathering here of all spirituality is just one thing all the things that happen your financial situation your health situation your relationship situation your work situation your living situation yes these things matter relatively speaking but there's one thing that is more important that matters absolutely and that is your state of consciousness and whether or not you have awakened to what we could call it sounds a little abstract but it's not we could call the Transcendent dimension of Consciousness in you the Transcendent dimension of Consciousness now I'm not going to immediately Define what that means because actually it cannot be defined it can be pointed to this is what these words are for but these words are not a substitute for it the words Point famous phrase in Buddhism it's the finger pointing to the Moon but the finger is not the moon so there's nothing that I say tonight that you need to believe on a conceptual level I'm not asking you people to believe anything whatsoever there is what I sometimes call the the two levels of consciousness the conceptual I sometimes call that object Consciousness these are all the things that happen in your perceptual field and in your mental field thinking emotions sense perceptions things arise things pass away things come and go sense perceptions ideas thoughts opinions feelings emotions all belong to object Consciousness one object after another happens you you perceive things ah oh there oh and then thought objects arise continuously a stream of thoughts oh now for most people the stream of thoughts has such a gravitational pull that they get completely dragged Along by this continuously proliferating stream of mental activity I sometimes call it the voice in the head it never stops speaking it continuously comments on where you are what you're doing or takes you somewhere completely different in the so-called past or the so-called future one thing after another one damn thing after another to paraphrase Churchill Char was talking about history history is was one damn thing after another and that's true but for many people their conditioned mind the experience of their conditioned mind is just one damn thing after another because it never leaves you alone it goes so most humans who are not awakened or even Awakening are completely trapped in their object consciousness they are confined by it and not only that they are completely identified with all the rising thoughts and emotions continuously go through their mind and there's no separation between the thoughts and the emotions that accompany the thoughts and you you don't you're not even there when you're totally identified with a voice in the head you are spiritually speaking asleep or another word for it is unconscious so an unconscious person in ordinary usage unconscious means of course you've completely lost you don't know what's going on and this is unconscious in conventional usage unconscious means in spiritual usage unconscious means means completely and continuously identified with a stream of thinking and the emotions that go with a stream of thinking what does it mean to be identified it means you derive your sense of who you are from every from the stream thinking every thought is imbued with a sense of self so you're identified it gets it it has you in its grasp and therefore if you say people conventionally say I think I think what do you think as if thinking for most people we a voluntary activity whereas for most not you but those who are not Awakening yet which is the majority of the population still on the planet for most that is they are completely identified with a stream of thinking they are spiritually speaking unconscious and that is a terrible thing because then everything that you perceive reality itself as you perceive it goes through the filter of your mental emotional conditioning from the past so you never see anything as it it is perceive anything clearly and most importantly there is never a sense of inner true inner spe peace spaciousness Joy sense of aliveness sense of connectedness with something that is deeper than your historical person you're always at the mercy of of what goes on out there and the reactive patterns of your mind so you're completely unaware of the possibility of realizing the other dimension of Consciousness which is not object Consciousness but space Consciousness I call it sometimes space Consciousness now what is space consciousness you cannot Define it because it's beyond Concepts you can know what space Consciousness is in this very moment by becoming aware of the gaps between words when I speak I'm just slowing down a little bit so instead of being told importantly interested in the words you're also interested although that's probably not the right word you're also giving attention to the empty spaces between the words because they are needed without the spaces there could be no sounds sound needs the space to exist oh that's interesting to be aware of the gaps between [Music] words or in this room in this Hall to be aware not only of the objects in this room the objects that make up this room what's in it the bodies the objects that which confines and defines the room the ceiling the walls the floor this is the room you're not only aware of that that would be in this analogy object Consciousness you're also aware of the space in this room now the space isn't something that you say oh it's there or it's there but it is the most important part about of this room is the space and it's a wonderful space but you cannot Define it it has no actual you can't even say that space exists because exist means to manifest to stand out exist X means out from Latin exist means to be manifested but space does is not doesn't manifest it enables everything to manifest in the Physical Realm without space these things could not be here so in space is prior to existence space is prior to manifestation and that's very interesting so there is something in you which I sometimes called space Consciousness that is prior to who you are as a person your personality and you can know it not conceptually but immediately and experientially by becoming aware either of the spaciousness outside of you or becoming aware of spaces between sounds spaces between words now how do you do that how do you become aware of a space between two words there is know how because it's too simple for how quite simply there's a there's an attention in you a field of alert attention and this field of alert attention is aware of the space between words you notice that silent space what does it mean to notice that silent space it means in this brief moment of noticing or noticing the space in this room in this brief moment you're not thinking you're just awar