Staying Conscious in the Face of Adversity | A Special Message From Eckhart Tolle

– I’d like to share
with you a short passagefrom the Bible. It doesn’t happen very often
that I read from the Bibleas part of a teaching. This is from the New
Testament, and it is a parablethat Jesus tells that is very profoundand absolutely relevant
to the present time. So, here we go. Everyone who listens to these
words of mine and does themWill be like a man building
a house who dug deepand laid the foundation on the rock. The rain fell, the floods
came, and the wind blewand beat against the house,but it did not collapse. It had been set solidly on rock,and everyone who listens
to these words of minebut does not do them will be like a foolwho built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods
came, and the wind blewand beat against the house. And it collapsed and
was completely ruined. So, let’s understand the
deeper meaning of this. Everyone who listens to
these words and does them,means obviously anybody
who listens to the teachingand practices the teaching. And of course Jesus’ teaching
is find the Kingdom of Heaventhat is within you, not
anywhere else in space or time. Find the transcendent
dimension, the Kingdom of Heaventhat is within you, which
is a deeper dimensionor higher dimension of consciousness,accessible to everyone. And the man that’s
building the house is you. The house is you. The floods come, the rain comes
beating against the house,obviously means some form
of adversity you encounteras you you inevitably will in your life. Some form of fairly extreme adversity,whether it’s at a personal levelor as we’re experiencing
now, on a collective level. Now if you haven’t gone deep enough,because remember you are the house. If you haven’t gone deep
enough, you have not foundanything beyond the
conceptual thinking mind. Then the floods, the rain,
the wind, the adversity,whatever it may be in this
case, we know what it is,will devastate you. And even if you do not fall
ill or contract the virus,the fear will consume
you as it’s consumingmillions of humans at the present time. And why do you fear, what is fear?Fear are certain thought
forms you project yourselfinto some future moment. And you’re not present. Because if you were
present, you would realizethat in this moment
there’s nothing to fear. Only when you leave this moment,fear arises as a thought form,which then creates an emotion. So what does it mean thento dig deep and to find
the foundation on the rock?What is that rock?The foundation for the house that you are,you are that house. And I’d like you to take
into a little meditation nowin order to illustrate and to enable youto experience it firsthand
what it means to dig deep. For a moment, just become
aware that you’re breathing. Become aware of yourself. Not the conceptual self,not become aware of your personal historyor become aware of some
imagined future moment,but become aware of yourself
as the conscious presence,a field of conscious presence. And thinking does not help you there,thinking is an obstacle. So you go deeper than
thinking, and you can becompletely awake and presentand yet with very little mind activity. And that is the beginning
of the realizationof your deep identity. What I sometimes call
your essence identity. And your essence identity is inseparablefrom the present moment. It is the timeless, eternal present. It is a deeper dimension of consciousnessthan the one that you
ordinarily identify with. And that is the meaning of
digging deep and findingthat unshakable foundationthat is deep within you, within everyone. Adversity is a wonderful opportunitybecause adversity forces you to go deeper. Adversity forces you to
awaken to the deeper dimensionof who you are. Why does adversity force you?Because life becomes almost unbearablewhen you live only on the surface,the surface of sense perceptions
and your conceptual mind. And then you listen to the newscasts,and you read all kinds of things. And everybody’s in state of fear. That is the house built on the sand,that when the floods come, the wind comes,the storms come, the house collapses. Meaning, since you are
the house in this parable,you are devastated, in a
state of extreme anxiety,extreme suffering,
although nothing actuallyhas happened yet unless
you contract a disease,and this is something we’ll
talk about next time, right?Is the house, your house,
the house that you are,are you living on the surface?Is your house built on sand?Or are you able to digand find the foundation within yourselfthat frees you from fear?Now, when things are going well,it’s unlikely that, most
humans can’t be botheredwith going deeper, what for?If these things out going okay,I’m looking forward to my next vacation,weekend is coming up and whatever it is,a nice meal is waiting for me. Everything, comfort zone,
you’re in your comfort zone. I’ve never heard of anybody who awakensin their comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong with comfort. Enjoy them when they are
there, they last for a while,and then some form of adversity arises,either on a personal level
or on a collective level. Minor forms of adversity
and occasionally huge formsof adversity, potential calamities. Whether it’s you’re suddenly confrontedwith the fact of
mortality, some great loss,serious illness on a personal levelor on a collective level. War, civil strife, civil
war, financial collapse,invasion of your country, all
kinds of things can happen. And at the present time,
we are experiencingthe so-called pandemic. Collective adversity, not
affecting just one person,but now affecting
millions at the same time. And this is an invitation to go deeperbecause if you don’t,
you suffer unnecessarily. Millions are in a state
of fear and anxiety. But use this as an
opportunity to either awakenout of the mind identified
state of consciousness,that continuously projects
itself into the future,that you have no control over. It is never present, this mind identifiedstate of consciousness. It’s the house built on the sand. It’s an opportunity to
come to this realizationthat you are much deeper
than you had known before. You’re forced to go deeper
because you can’t standthe suffering anymore, the unhappiness,or whatever you want to
call it, the anxiety. And so the most vital
thing in any situationis the state of consciousness with whichyou meet the situation. And you should pay more attention to thatthan to the newscasts and whatever it isthat you listen to and watch. Yes, you can do that also. But what is your state of consciousness?That’s something you
can do something about. There’s not very much that you can doabout the external situation. You can take precautions,
you can help other people,to the extent which it is possible. All that’s good. You do all the things that you need to do. And perhaps many people are
now forced to stay at home,and they have to, you have to be suddenlyon a private retreat at home. Now that’s an opportunity too. So use this precious time that
is here because it is partof the awakening
consciousness of humanity. It seems almost paradoxical
to say that somethingthat on the surface looks very negativeand looks like an obstacle to
the well-being of humanity. And, yes, it’s an obstacle
to the well-being of humanityon a purely physical level,
perhaps temporarily, yes. But something that looks like an obstaclefrom a conventional point of viewis actually an opportunity for youto awaken to a deeper,
or we could say higherlevel of consciousness. Humans don’t awaken when
they’re in their comfort zone. They awaken when they are taken
out of their comfort zone. Not everybody does, it’s an opportunity. If you do not awaken when you’re no longerin your comfort zone, you suffer. You’re unhappy, you’re
anxious, you’re fearful. You haven’t found the rock. Now, the difference between this parableand actual life is in this parable,the man had already dug
deep, and he had alreadybuilt his house on the rock,
and then the floods cameand so on, and the house was unshakable. In real life, often it is
the case that the wind,the floods, the rains, all
beating against the house,which means adversity
arising in your life. The adversity forces you,
if you haven’t alreadygone deeper, it forces you to go deeper. And so it’s not too late
to start digging nowin the face of adversity. Many of you already in
the process of awakening,probably most of you listening to this. And what’s happening to us
now is a wonderful opportunityfor you to go deeper, a deepening of that,an acceleration of the awakening. So, as much as possible,
especially wheneveryou feel yourself drifting
off into a fearfulstate of consciousness and
a fearful emotional state. Whenever you realize
that, realize that in thispresent moment, there’s nothing to fear. And you have to verify this for yourself,whether this is true or not. When you fear something,it’s of some imagined future moment. Am I going to catch this disease?Am I going to die?Is a loved one going to catch it?Is a loved one, my child, my parent,are they going to die?You imagine it, it could happen,but right now, it’s not happening. So whenever you feel yourself
drifting off into fear,realize, okay, I have
lost the present moment. And I lost myself in my
mind, in the thinking mind. And then the emotion
reflects that mind activity. So the moment you notice it,okay, I’ve lost the present moment. I am lost in the mind. Come back into the present moment. A few little things that are helpful:Be aware of your breathing. Be aware of the inner
energy field in your body. The body is alive, and this
energy, this life energythat pervades the body, feel that. You’re breathing, you feel
the aliveness in the body,you’re aware of sense perceptions. You look around, yeah, present. And then you become aware of that presencethat is inseparable from who you are,that presence that is
inseparable from who you are. That’s an amazing realization. There’s more to you than the person. That presence is deeper than the person. And you needed the
adversity either to find itor to deepen that which
you had already found it,but it was not yet a deep realization. So this is a time of great opportunity. Use it, don’t waste it. There’s a saying that goes:When the ego weeps for what it has lost,the spirit rejoices for what it has found. So what looks bad on the surfacehas an essential function. I will speak to you again soon. In the meantime, be here, be present. Don’t lose yourself in the mind. Don’t lose yourself in fear. Find and be rooted in this rockthat is your essence identity. Thank you.