Turn Your Mind Into Your Greatest Ally | Eckhart Tolle

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0:41Eckhart Tolle:Now, I recommend the following practice, because you're standing there or waiting there, you might as well practice. Ask yourself, how would I experience this situation if I did not add any interpretation or any thought to it? how would I experience this moment if I didn't add any thought to it if I did not interpret it in any way if I just allowed this to be as it is without burdening it with this baggage of thought so okay let's say you're standing in this line and it's very irritating so how would I experience this if I did not in other words if I did not in my mind say this is bad and all the other thoughts that come after that because when you say this is bad then the next thought comes my life is bad and we get a whole string of associated thoughts that are negative how would I experience this moment without adding any thought to it ok so there you stand and this would bring your attention into the present moment and so your The tension moves into the present moment, and in this present moment, you're standing there and you're breathing, you're looking around, people moving, whatever the room is you find yourself in.

2:07You're breathing, you're perceiving things, people, and suddenly you may find that this moment is actually free of suffering.

2:21Eckhart Tolle:The suffering did not arise, was not caused by the external circumstance. It was caused by the narrative in your mind about this circumstance. That's a huge distinction. And this is when you begin to live consciously when you realize this. Until you realize that, you live unconsciously, which means in spiritual terms, to live unconsciously is to be totally identified with whatever your mind is saying. I call it the voice in the head, the narrative in your mind that tells you about how bad things are, how they should be. They are, but they shouldn't be. They should be different. But they are as they are always in this moment.

3:10Eckhart Tolle:You can't change this moment. And so you become aware. This was discovered, by the way, 2 ,000 years ago by not very well-known ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus. And he said, most of your suffering is derived from what your mind is telling you about a situation, but not from the situation itself. And that's an enormous realization. and that can be the beginning of an awakening to see that the narrative in your mind is mostly what causes the suffering it is possible of course that an external situation may cause physical discomfort obviously that's possible your legs are hurting or back is hurting or it's too cold or too hot physical discomfort of course that's possible but that is not suffering in the sense in which we use this term right here Now, the psychological suffering, unhappiness is another word you could use.

4:16Eckhart Tolle:It's a generic term for any form of negativity inside yourself. Unhappiness, suffering. So you begin to realize that most of that arises from a mental narrative about a situation or about your circumstances, but not from the circumstances themselves. and then you can begin to practice every time you feel upset is arising some form of anger is arising some form of negativity uh blaming people in situations and saying this shouldn't be happening or something is not happening but it should be happening or they should do this or They shouldn't do all kinds of narratives in your mind. So your spiritual awakening is you're beginning to be aware of what your mind is saying.

5:14Eckhart Tolle:The stories that you're telling yourself about situations, but also the stories you're telling yourself about what you call your life. because there are millions of people in this world who live with a very painful sense of identity. They perceive their life as a bird. So they live with this heaviness, and they don't realize this heaviness that they call my life is actually a narrative that they tell themselves, and they say, that's me, all the things that have happened to me, the dreadful things in the past that people did to me or circumstances did to me, or maybe even the bad things that I did.

6:00Eckhart Tolle:So you get a very heavy identity built up, and that becomes your sense of self, and people don't realize it's a story you're continuously telling yourself in your mind, but you're so identified with the story that you don't exist. You're outside of the story. So that is what in some spiritual traditions is called the self. The Buddha called it the self, which is the mind-made sense of self, which the Buddha said, which ultimately he recognized that that mind-made sense of self is ultimately a kind of fiction that you live through. So now, when you realize that this is the case, this means that at this point of realization, another dimension of consciousness has arisen in you, which is not your mind.

7:07Eckhart Tolle:We could call it awareness, or we could call it presence. So when you realize what your mind is doing, that is not part of the conceptual mind that works through stories and words and concepts. It is a deeper, or you could say deeper or higher, dimension of consciousness that suddenly has arisen. I often call it presence, but another good word for it is awareness. so awareness is the ability to know what your mind is doing and then the wonderful thing is at first it's just glimpses when you detach from the mind you say oh wow and then you have more moments when you're not suffering because you allow this moment to be as it is i have a brand new book called make money easy and if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier.

8:16You want to make it flow. You want to feel abundant. Then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of The Daily Motivation Show. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness.

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