Eckhart Tolle: THESE 3 Habits Are Blocking Your Abundance (& How To Break Free From Them) EP 1463

35:55That's the starting point. So you're not arguing with the isness of things because that's insane. You cannot argue with what is. And this constant arguing with what is, this actually amplifies the ego, the egoic consciousness. The ego loves to argue with what is. It needs to. It loves enemies. And the ego makes the present moment into an enemy. Right. Can you see how insane that is? You make the present moment into your enemy because that's all you ever have. It means you make your whole life into an enemy because your whole life is the present moment. Right, right. So I sometimes say make the present moment your friend, not your enemy.

36:45Make the present moment your friend. Then your whole life begins to change because what we call future is just an extension of your state of consciousness in the present moment. So if your state of consciousness is negative, it is very likely that you will experience much more negativity in the so-called future. Right. If you're in the present moment, you're in a place of acceptance, of positive acceptance, then it's very likely that the so-called future, I always say so-called future because the future as such doesn't exist. it's always when it comes it's now yes so the so-called future reflects your state of consciousness in the present moment so that's really a very important realization so that is how the absolute importance of your state of consciousness here and now what is your state of consciousness now rather than thinking that something else is more important than my state of consciousness So in any situation, you're faced with any situation, what is the state of consciousness with which you face the situation?

38:05Are you in a state of resistance or negativity towards the situation? Because in any endeavor that you undertake, inevitably, obstacles will arise in anything. Yes. You want to create something new. Obstacles come in many forms. sometimes in the form of human beings who don't like you to do what you're doing, or it can come in the form of other structures that are in society, the rigid structures. So you get all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles or whatever the obstacles are. So how do you face an obstacle? What is your state of consciousness when an obstacle arises? Do you immediately become angry?

38:50Do you become despondent, or do you start complaining in your mind, and talking about others, how awful this situation is, and complaining? Or are you able to just immediately say, this is what is? So you face the obstacle, not in a state of resistance, come from a state of power. This is what is, and then when you are in that state of presence, very often a right action arises spontaneously. And you find yourself doing the right thing because you're not making the situation into an enemy. And this is very important. If you want to achieve great things, a huge obstacle for people is to start complaining and building up stress when things go wrong.

39:45In other words, things should be happening. So they become negative. They become unpleasant. They become unpleasant to people, colleagues and people they work with. And a lot of negative energy can build up in a company and so on. And that is not some of the most effective people in this world. There are perhaps a few. they don't work with negativity. They work immediately with a positive attitude. They don't make the present moment into an enemy. They might never have heard any spiritual teaching, so perhaps that is some kind of innate wisdom that they have, or maybe they've learned this lesson in a vast lifetime.

40:36Who knows? So the importance is always start with the present moment. And again, what problem do I have now? Is there a problem here and now, just this moment? Well, actually, no, not really. The problem isn't here. The problem is in the mind, but it's not here. That's a place of power. and then you become aligned with the power of now the power of the present moment which is the power of consciousness itself beyond the ego far powerful the ego is only it's like the reflected light like the moon reflects the light of the sun and the ego reflects the light of consciousness it's only it's not power There's no power in ego itself.

41:33In the same way, there's no light in the moon. It's just reflective light. Wow. Yeah, that's powerful. This has been fascinating so far. I'm sure we could talk about consciousness and suffering for hours, but I want to get to a few other concepts here. One of them being about the law of attraction, because you mentioned kind of synchronicities and serendipities and kind of this idea of when we align ourselves, to consciousness and to more harmony thoughts, to more peaceful thoughts. In my experience, things just come, you know, the right things that I'm intending, it's, they happen very quickly and unexpectedly.

42:19Um, I would love to hear your thoughts on your definition of the law of but also maybe the three habits that you see people doing the most that hurt them from attracting effortlessly using the law of attraction. Right. Well, the main mistake perhaps that people make is not coming from a place of fullness, but coming from a place of neediness and putting too much attention on what is the undesirable conditions that they want to get rid of. but mentally almost continuously focusing on the undesirable condition like not enough money, for example, which is a problem for many people. So let's use money for the example then, the law of attraction with money.

43:19How could we attract more wealth or financial abundance in our life using the law of attraction? Yeah. Well, first of all is the acknowledgement of abundance that is already here and now. And not focusing on the lack of abundance that is here now, which you could find by thinking about it, but to actually focus on where is the abundance that I can find here and now. And that is all around you. It is in nature. When you look at the abundance of nature, the multiplicity of life forms, the wonder of nature, the abundance of evil, or let's say you're in a city, you can look at, appreciate all the things that you see around you.

44:13You don't need to necessarily own it or buy it, just appreciate it. So this, the appreciation of the goodness of life that is always all around you, even if you have no money, there's still the goodness of life is all around you. You see it all around you. The sunshine, I mean, the sun is the ultimate symbol of abundance because it gives energy of itself almost eternal. I mean, eventually the sun will die, but as far as we are concerned, it's virtually eternal. it pours out energy continuously. At some point, we will realize that even on the level of energy, the universe is infinitely abundant.

45:05So we will no longer need things that we're using now, fossil fuels and those things we have access to other forms of energy that are more helpful. But the abundance is all around you. Let's say you walk past in the city, you're walking past a flower shop, and you look at, wow, such beauty, appreciation. Even to seeing a beautiful man or woman, or even a beautiful car. I love that. Not, why don't I have that car? Why does he have that car? It's all egoic, much narratives that make you unhappy to appreciate. Nature, of course, is very powerful. And then you do appreciate the aliveness in your body, that you're breathing, and you can actually feel that your body, many people can't feel that.

46:03I call it the inner body awareness. You feel that every cell of your body is pervaded with a sense of aliveness, energy, and you can feel that. That is abundance. So there's abundance of life all around you. You can feel the life within you also. And so we could, some people call that gratitude. I call it more appreciation. The appreciation of the abundance of life that is always around you. That's a wonderful starting point. Okay. So you're not focusing on lack. You're focusing on abundance. Even when you don't have any, if you feel like you don't have anything, you can find abundance around you.

46:47Yes, and acknowledge it, the good things of life. Acknowledge, but even the seemingly insignificant things, like when I look out of the window, sometimes there's trees out here. Right now I can look out, I can see there's a slight breeze and the branches are swaying slightly in the wind. It's beautiful. And there's the tree in all its majesty and stillness. It's been there for 100 years. And that's wonderful. I don't need to own that tree. I mean, owning in that sense is ultimately a bit meaningless anyway. Yes, I own this house where I am right now, but at some point I'll be gone. And so what does it mean?

47:34The house with it, somebody else will own the house. only as a secondary. I'm not saying to let go of ownership. Sometimes you can give stability to your life on the practical level. But there's something more important. So this appreciation, or if you want to call it gratitude, some people recommend, I think Oprah said that she has had for many, many years a notebook or journal where she writes down every day things that she's grateful for. And these are usually seemingly insignificant things, but it's important not to overlook that. And I don't think she's writing down, I'm grateful that I have a private jet, or I'm grateful that I have$2.5 billion in the bank.

48:28that's right she writes down the small things that every day for my garden i'm grateful i get to plant a flower today i'm grateful that i get to go on a walk with my friends i'm grateful that i woke up today yes yes the next thing is uh the second thing i could say is uh giving to give energy to other people. Appreciation itself is already a form of certain outflow of energy. When you appreciate this tree, beauty, there's an energy connection with the tree. The consciousness connects you with the tree. And kindness is part of giving. kindness to another person, not because you want anything from that person, but because it feels so good to have this sense of, we could call it, goodwill that flows out of you towards another person.

49:31Even if you just hold the door open for somebody, or it's a remark, or it's lovely, Lovely, I love your dress, or whatever you say. If it's genuine, or to say an encouraging word to somebody, or to whatever it may be, a smile, a smile at somebody. Even that is a form of giving. This connection with another. Kindness is a very powerful thing. So you are giving. You're not, the more you give, it's in the law of attraction or nature. As you give, it must come back to you in another form. But it doesn't work if you give out of obligation that you feel you should be giving. Or it needs to be a genuine sense of wanting to give and feeling how good it feels to give.

50:32Not because mentally you feel you always need to help people because otherwise you don't think of yourself as a good person or something. That's all mind stuff. But to experience how good it feels to give. So we have on the one hand appreciation, gratitude and appreciation. giving every day in whatever form. And the next thing is that obviously Jesus already, in one sentence, one could say, told us the essence of manifesting and how it works. And he said, whenever you pray for something that you want, believe that you already have it and it will be given to you. There's the key. Now, the important thing is he did not say, believe that you will have it.

51:49He said, believe that you already have it. Now, this may not be immediately clear to people, how do I do that? How do I believe that I already have it when I know that I don't have it? Right, right, right. How do you get that belief of having it before knowing, feeling, tasting, smelling the thing that you want? Yes. So you feel the thing. it is already a mental reality in your mind. How do you feel now that you have it in your mind? How does it feel? And this feeling is really where our manifestation lies. But what is that feeling? Because that feeling of having it already and feeling this deep sense of satisfaction is really connecting with the deeper power within yourself, which is the power where all sense of aliveness originates there.

52:56It's a deeper sense of aliveness that comes from consciousness itself. So you might believe it might differ from person to person. One person might think, okay, what I want is a big house overlooking the ocean or whatever, and then you feel yourself, you're already there experiencing that. But another person might think, well, what I want is to have this great company that does good things in this world. And how does that feel? But you might find that the feeling is actually basically always the same. Whether your mind says, but so how's overlooking the ocean? Now, why? Well, the other person says, well, this is the company that I'm well ahead of that's doing great things in this world.

53:53The feeling is basically the same feeling. And the feeling is a feeling of fullness of life. Yes. A completeness. That is power. So when you feel this feeling of fullness and then you associate it with a mental image, that is the power of manifestation there. but the feeling itself is beyond the mental image and is beyond whatever form you are able to manifest in this world because that is the feeling of the inherent sense of aliveness that comes when you go deeper into yourself and experience the presence that you are and this to know yourself as the presence is inherently joyful and powerful to know yourself as so.

54:46And that is, you manifest from a place of fullness, not from a place of lack. The fullness is already there. And that also means if for some reason it doesn't manifest, because not everybody's desires manifest. I mean, I don't know if it's still happening. L.A., for example, if you go to any good restaurant in L.A., it's more than likely that the waiter or waitress will be actors waiting for their big breakthrough. It's just not possible for so many people to have the big breakthrough in LA as actors. Some may do, a few may do, but most probably won't. But they probably have other breakthroughs that perhaps are much more important than what their ego tells them is important.

55:39And to add to that, I love this, what you're sharing here, because I want people to really feel this and understand this and embrace it. Because when we try to manifest from lack, it's going to be this needy energy, which was your first point that kind of kills the dream of the law of attraction. and when we manifest from a place of fullness like you spoke of like feeling a feeling of fullness wholeness excitement abundance joy inside of us and if it doesn't happen if that dream doesn't come to us in the next year or five or ten years then we've lived a full rich life every moment till that moment.

56:20Like we've, we've lived a full year of feeling excited and passionate and good about ourselves. And that energy is magnetic. You will draw in great people, partners, relationships, opportunities that maybe you couldn't have dreamed of because the energy you, you gave into the world, like you talked about. And I think that's the big point for me is the dream and the idea you have, maybe your ego wants, maybe you won't have it. But man, you'll live a great, beautiful, rich life in the process of pursuing it. Very good point. In other words, the journey is what matters. The arriving at some destination is the end point, but it's secondary.

57:06It's always the journey. It's always now. That's what matters. and so sometimes what you wanted to manifest does not happen but something else manifests that could be even better in fact in many cases it's much better than what you are absolutely yeah i was i always wanted to be a professional athlete and i played professional football for about a year and a half before i got injured in the injury i broke my wrist and i was wearing a cast and I had a surgery and I had a cast on for six months. And it took about a year and a half for me to use my, my wrists again from the injury. And during that time I was in a state of extreme sadness and a loss and a grief of this identity that I once had in this dream that I once had that I was working so hard for my whole life to manifest, to create.

57:58And then all of a sudden sudden this injury broke the, the, my abilities to do that. And I remember thinking, what am I going to do with my life? Like, what's the point? 23, 24 years old. I'm like, what am I supposed to do now? And it led me into this journey that I'm on now of doing this interview series and podcast for the last 10 years that I'd much rather have this life than the life of a professional athlete now like and sometimes like you said going back to the beginning of this if we can accept and surrender in the positive way to see what good can come it may be challenging in the moment but it's been a blessing since then yes that's a lovely story that's uh that's how it actually works and another uh thing to mention is let's say you do let's do let's say you do manifest what it is wanting to manifest.

58:56When you come from this place of fullness, you do not have, yes, you have an appreciation of what you have achieved, but you don't have an excessive attachment to what you have achieved. So, let's say you are able to manifest that you have a house overlooking the ocean and you manifest it there you have it and one day uh you get you when you get home you find your house is falling into the ocean it's gone right right so the whole thing that you worked so hard for to achieve is suddenly gone but this place of fullness that that enabled you to to you manifest that is still there. It's beyond outer forms.

59:47Yeah. And you feel full in life. Maybe there's a moment of sadness during that, but if you're not attached to the physical things you've manifested, I'm sure if I lost my home, I feel like it's a sanctuary. It's a beautiful, peaceful space. But I've lived in two bedroom apartments for most of my life, And I felt like those were peaceful places for me. I'm sure I'd be sad for a minute, but then I could also create the sense of fullness in the next space. Exactly. And I have this, let's see, for a long time, until my 32nd year, my main form of transportation was, except other than public transport, was a bicycle.

1:00:37That's beautiful. So I got my driver's license when I was 30, in my first car when I was 32. And that was a very old - What city were you in? What country? In London and Cambridge I lived at that time. And I loved my bicycle. I appreciated it. I loved it. I just looked at it. It was standing there. And then somebody gave me, I was poor at the time, somebody gave me an older car. and I loved that. And then I was able to, I got a little bit of money. I was able to buy the cheapest car I could find. It was called Lada. It's a Russian make. They still make them, but they're a bit better now than they used to be.

1:01:26People would laugh at these cars because they were notorious for breaking down, but it was very, very cheap. And I bought this and it never broke down. I loved that car. It never broke down. I must admit, very embarrassing on hills because you were holding everybody up. You had to get out and push it. Yeah. I loved that car. And then I eventually left England and I sold it. A friend of mine was interested. I sold it to him. Two or three weeks after I bought it, it broke down and couldn't get repaired anymore. It was incredible. it's almost at least because I have this kind of relationship even with so-called inanimate objects.

1:02:14I think that even there, there is a glimmer of consciousness in everything. That's how I sense things. There's a glimmer of consciousness. And when you have an intention and an appreciation for the thing that you're with, the bike, the cheap car, it tends to take care of you when you take care of it with your energy. right? I had a similar experience when I moved to LA, uh, I don't know, 11, 12 years ago. I didn't have a car in my twenties. I had a, I had like a$500 car that broke down after six months. And so I walked everywhere in Columbus, Ohio for about a year. And then I moved to New York city.

1:02:54I didn't need a car. And then I moved to LA and I bought a$4 ,000 car. It was like a 1997 year old car and probably one of the oldest cars on the road. I drove it every day. It was a $4 ,000 car. And for being in LA, you know this world, that's kind of like looked down upon. It's like, oh, you don't have this nice new car. I drove it for five or six years. I loved it. It was like, it got me from place to place. It was comfortable. It was reliable and I was happy with So it took care of me, and I took care of it. Yes, and I feel the same. And then later, finally, I had the money. I bought an expensive car, which I still have.

1:03:40I bought it 16 years ago. It's now kind of classic. And I love that as much as I loved the bicycle many years ago. Yeah, that's cool. It's the same. And it's not, many people, of course, have an egoic identification with their car. But what we are talking about is very different. It's not that. It's not an egoic. If I had had an egoic identification with my cheap Russell car, my ego would have felt diminished because often people laughed at it. It's all, look, this car. but I didn't mind it was fine I didn't have a goic identification and I don't have a goic identification with this more expensive classic car that I have now that's 16 years old but I still I love it I have a kind of relationship with it if something happened to it I would let go it's fine everything eventually leaves you and unless you leave it it leaves you Yeah, that's interesting.

1:04:45That's beautiful. Was there anything else that you think hurts people from the law of attraction and manifesting what they want? We talked about the neediness and coming from a place of lack. Yeah. Well, maybe one other thing.

1:05:04Sometimes whatever people want to manifest comes from an egoic place. The ego wants to, by achieving this or that, the ego wants to feel more powerful than before. It wants to have an enhanced sense of identity through it by showing to other people that you have more than others. It wants to show its superiority. The ego always looks for superiority. And so that could be... You may still get what you want. but your power will be greatly diminished if it's an egoic endeavor. But even with an egoic endeavor, sometimes it could still work with hard work and determination. You might get it, but it won't make you happy.

1:06:00When you get it, very quickly you will feel needy again. Interesting. Why is that? Why do you think, why do you, And I'm sure you know a lot of very famous rich billionaires and people with lots of money who are still suffering and aren't happy inside once they got the thing they wanted. Why is it that people suffer and struggle when they have lots of money and have the big homes? Why is this still not enough? Yes. Well, to the ego, it's never enough. to the ego, nothing, because the ego is a sense of lack, a sense of not good enough, not enough yet. So it's never enough for the ego. And if you have everything that the world tells you, you really should be happy now because you've got, and I've met people like that, They've got money, huge amounts of money.

1:07:00They've got fame and recognition and the private jet. They've got to do anything, go anywhere at any moment. And that can be particularly bad, counterproductive, because you cannot fool yourself. The ego cannot fool itself by saying, when I get this, I'll be happy. Because then you can still postpone. The ego can say, once I achieve that, I'll be happy. But the person who already has everything, he or she cannot say that anymore. Because you have no way. There's no excuse anymore. Because you have everything and you're not happy. So then, and this is what very often people then start taking drugs or engage in other kinds of seeking sensory satisfaction through substances or going from one relationship into another, having sex or whatever they do because they can buy anything they want and they get pretty more and more unhappy because the ego was there and the ego will never be satisfied.

1:08:15no matter what you achieve. In the Course in Miracles, it says, I don't know if you've seen that, it says you will always know whether the ego was at work when once you achieved it, it hasn't satisfied you. That was the ego. So there's another saying that goes, there are two ways of being unhappy. One is not getting what you want and the other one is getting what you want. Wow. That refers to the ego. So some people are unhappy because they don't get what they want and the others are unhappy because they get everything they want. But it's still ego. What do you think? How does someone be happy while they're on the path of trying to manifest more in their life, a better relationship or better qualities that they have in their current relationship, more career success, money, things like this, how can they be happy no matter what happens?

1:09:17It comes to you or it doesn't? Happiness starts with alignment with the present moment. It can only arise if you're aligned with the present moment. I sometimes call that the vertical dimension of life, which is now. And then there's a horizontal dimension of life is where it's past and future, and you have a goal you're working towards, that's fine. You have the horizontal dimension. And the vertical dimension is the present moment. The horizontal dimension is the dimension of becoming. You become good at something, or you acquire something, you become something. There's an evolutionary process at work, and that obviously has its place.

1:10:03It's there. but if you are exclusively focused on becoming and achieving, entertaining and acquiring, you're trapped on the horizontal and you can never really enjoy the present moment because the present moment is the vertical dimension here now inseparable from the now. The cross, the symbol of the cross, one could interpret as, which is an ancient, it even predates Christianity, the symbol of a cross can be interpreted as pointing to the intersection between the horizontal and vertical dimension of life. That is, the importance is to discover the dimension, the vertical dimension, which is the power of the now, the present moment.

1:11:00And then the horizontal dimension actually works better. And you're not dependent on it for your ultimate satisfaction. You're not dependent on any kind of achievement, attainment, or whatever it is that, in the horizontal dimension, it may give you some kind of satisfaction, but not the deepest satisfaction. The deepest satisfaction is inseparable from going more deeply into the present moment and discover the essence of who or what you are as consciousness itself, presence, here and now. In other words, you could say you sense the beings of you. You sense that you are. And there is an enormous power there that has no form.

1:11:53You can't interpret it. It's the power of aliveness itself here and now. It goes far beyond who or what you are as a person. The person exists on the horizontal dimension, but there is a deeper dimension to who you are that is only discovered in the vertical dimension. In the vertical dimension, you are already complete. There's nothing to achieve there. You're already full and complete. That's so hard for people to comprehend when they don't feel complete. On the horizontal, you're not complete and you'll never be complete. because no matter what you achieve if you become good at one thing you lose something there's always a world of polarities on the horizontal dimension that even I find that still you achieve great things before I've been teaching spiritual awakening for many many many years in the past I had intimate groups of 10, 20 people.

1:13:07Now there's hundreds or thousands of people often come. I don't have the close relationship with individuals anymore. It's just, I'm reaching many more people, but I've lost this closer connection with the people that I'm teaching. There's always a price to pay. On the other hand, I'm reaching far more people than before, but there's always a price to pay. evil privacy. I'm not a great celebrity, but I do. Wherever I go, people say, oh, I can't. And the moment it happens, it's wonderful. I love the connection that I feel, but I do lose privacy because sometimes people watch what's he eating, what's he doing, why is he drinking coffee, whatever.

1:13:51I thought he was spiritual, yeah. Yeah. You lose something. There's always gain and loss in the world of polarities. And the becoming dimension, again, has a positive and a negative side. On the one hand, you can become stronger as you grow up. You can become more knowledgeable. You become wealthier. But eventually, the becoming becomes negative because then your body becomes weaker because you get old. Interesting. And maybe you lose something. And then you become, so the becoming, the polarities operate on the horizontal dimension. But it has, it's without access to the vertical dimension, nothing can satisfy you truly, purely on the horizontal dimension.

1:14:48So the vertical dimension is the present moment. To realize that the power of the present moment that is inseparable from who or what you are in your essence. the power of you. And that is not an egoic thing because this you far transcends who or what you are as a person. It connects you with the identity of the universe itself. It's the I am without adding anything to it. In the Old Testament, a prophet meets God and asks God, what is your name? When God says, I am the I am, that is a very deep statement. That is the beingness itself, beingness itself. And you can feel that, you can sense that here and now.

1:15:43When for a moment your mind subsides, you're not thinking anymore without making an effort. You're not thinking anymore. And are you without any thought? you can't explain what it is but you can sense that there is a light of consciousness there is a presence an inherent sense of aliveness sometimes people can feel it even with the entire body the entire body is pervaded by a sense of aliveness you are

1:16:18that's the ancient Greeks already said know thyself as the most important thing in life. Know thyself. And that refers to the deepest knowing, knowing yourself as consciousness. And then the person still operates for a while, and it operates actually much better when you're connected to that which transcends the person. Right. In other, if you want to, for those people who are comfortable with theistic language, which you could say that connects you to God, that is a deeper connection to the source of all life. You're connected to that. I see the consciousness that you share with every human being.

1:17:07When you look at another human being, you interact with another human being. On the one level, you have the personality, horizontal dimension, the conditioning, mental, emotional, conditioning. You're interacting with that person. but you're also interacting with consciousness, which is beyond the person. And when you can sense the consciousness that you are is also the consciousness that the other person is, you can sense the oneness of that consciousness. And that sensing of oneness is ultimately what Ziva meaning of love. Love is to recognize the other as ultimately one with what you are, one, the recognition.

1:17:52I would say love is the recognition of oneness. It's not the egoic love that says, I need you, don't you dare leave me, because if you do, I'll hate you. That's the egoic so-called love. But the real love is to recognize yourself in the other. But in order to do that, you need to first recognize yourself in yourself, beyond the person. So, And that connects you with other humans in a very different way, this sense of connectedness that you then have. Yes. The word for it, what could you just bend? There's a goodwill flows out from you towards others, even others that you might only meet casually for a few seconds.

1:18:38You can sense an outflow of goodwill and connectedness and feel so good to recognize there is a human being And my interpretation of human being is the English language doesn't have a word that refers to both men and women. So you have to say human being. In German, you have a word mensch, which is a human being, could be either man or woman. But in English, you have to say human being. And I love that because the human dimension is the person that lives on the horizontal dimension. The being is the essence of who you are. And it's our destiny to recognize our being, which is far beyond the person.

1:19:28And then you become, this is the human and this is the being. And then you are a true human being when you realize the being of yourself. Because then you fence it in others too. and then you can love others. That's the beauty of it. You mentioned love just now. I'm curious about you. When do you feel the most loved? When you're going about your day, when do you feel the most loved personally?

1:20:00I don't make differentiate between loving and being loved. It's all one. So, I feel that the connection is there the moment I interact with somebody. There is that connectedness. And sometimes people respond, something within them responds back, and then you get the same energy back. They may not know why. Let's say you're in a restaurant, and I'm ordering the waiter, waitress comes. And so you have, on the one hand, on the human level, you are the guest or the client in the restaurant. And this person is the server. That's on the human level, you have your identity. but is that all there is no there is the server is for this is only a temporary function it's not the real identity of of this human being and i'm not my identity is not to be a client or guest of this restaurant it's a temporary thing so am i able to recognize the being in this human the The human is the server, but behind that is the being.

1:21:23And when I look at this person, and I'm, there's a, really, let's see if I can describe it, how I experience it. There's a, while the person talks to me, there's a still presence, I listen through the still presence. In that still presence, I can sense, beyond the human, the beingness of the other also. so I can sense their beingness. And that is the connection. And then it sometimes happens that they can feel something. They feel acknowledged in their beingness. They may not be able to interpret that, or they may misinterpret that. Without you saying anything. Without you saying anything, yeah.

1:22:05There's nothing to say. And so usually it means that they, often it means that they like you. They feel attracted to you. They love you as a person. They like to be in your presence. There's a positive response. And that is, one could say, that is love coming back at you. So, you send it out, and you don't always get it back. Sometimes the person may be so deeply trapped in their ego that nothing much gets through, and that's fine. That's where they're at at the moment. but it still feels good to feel this emanation. But very often when the emanation is reflected and then comes back and then you feel loved too, of course, usually the other person doesn't understand it at a deeper level, doesn't understand that what they love in you is not the person, it's something deeper and that connects both of you.

1:23:12So I feel it's always, the process is always mutual. I feel even when you love a flower, even the flower, there's a certain, this might sound a little mystical, but there's a certain response that you get. of the way I ship it. Sometimes when I recognize and appreciate the beauty of a tree or a flower, this is similar because even the flower or the tree is a manifestation of consciousness at a different vibrational frequency from a human. So everything is a vibration of consciousness that is taken temporary form. So the flower, the tree, are also a manifestation of consciousness. When I recognize and appreciate the beauty of the flower or the tree, there is a sense of oneness, and at that moment the tree can sense that it is being recognized, and it becomes aware of its own beauty through you.

1:24:22So you redeem nature, you add something to nature by recognizing the sacredness and beauty of nature, you add something to nature. Wow. And then we can say nature loves you back too. You can sense that. Wow, that's beautiful. Yeah. So I sometimes recommend people should go to a tree and allow the tree to teach you stillness because the tree is there. It's deeply rooted in the earth and its branches and it's very still. It might have been there for 100 years, 200 years. It's very, it's still. You approach it. And nature can teach you, anything in nature can teach you that the stillness connect you with the dimension that's beyond egoic consciousness.

1:25:13Wow. This is beautiful, Eckhart. Is there anything that you struggle with these days personally? You've done this work and practiced it and taught it for so long. Is there anything you struggle or suffer with in your own life that is still a challenge? Oh, there are challenges. I'm not good at dealing with practical things so much anymore of life.

1:25:44Financial things and so on can feel as a bit of a burden sometimes. Yeah. The humans are, but otherwise there's no suffering. I don't have periods of suffering at all that's gone. The humans have just being and doing, is another way of putting it. The being dimension is the vertical, the doing dimension is the horizontal. the two are important some humans are more drawn towards doing, creating manifesting others are more drawn towards being appreciating what is may not have many goals to achieve they might be happy doing their gardening their field every human has to find a kind of balance between being and doing I mean, nobody probably is completely in the middle, or it's very hard to be completely in the middle.

1:26:52You're totally balanced between being and doing. I'm always more inclined to, I'm in the being dimension. And for a few years, when I was younger, I experienced a kind of awakening. I was kind of so much in the being dimension that I lost interest in any kind of doing for a few years. Really? The present moment was so joyful and beautiful. And I had no money, nothing. For a while, I had no home. But it was lovely, sitting on park benches. Present moment was so fulfilling. And then gradually, I was able to start doing again. And now I am still, I love just to be, to contemplate nature, or even just to sit in a room and just be.

1:27:47But I'm able to do because I wrote the books. I do teachings. I travel. So I give talks and retreats. So I am able to function on that level. But the irony is that all my doing is in the service of teaching being.

1:28:12that's great so you'll do for a week and then you're like i'm gonna go be for a month yeah yeah that's amazing i kind of i want to be respectful of your time i have two final questions uh kind of quicker questions for you but before i ask those i want people to get your books again the power of now is one that i read many years ago that i highly recommend to everyone. And also this book as well, which has become more popular in the last few years. I feel like it's got this resurgence. Even though I think it's 15 years ago you wrote it, I think. In fact, Oprah said if you only read one book in your life, read A New Earth.

1:28:53A New Earth. Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. So make sure you guys get both copies. Start in whichever one you want, but both of them are amazing. Also, if people want to connect with you, they can go to your website. We'll have everything linked up as well in here. And you're starting to get more content on social media. So make sure to follow Eckhart over on YouTube and all the different platforms that you're on. And I really want to acknowledge you before I ask these final two questions, Eckhart, for your level of service. Again, you could be 24-7 and sit in the woods and in the room and be a happy human being, just being.

1:29:29You've already done so much for humanity with your work, your message, workshops, and everything you've done. So I acknowledge you for continuing to be of service, continuing to serve when you choose to, when you show up, when you deliver, when you're coming on here and doing this. I know this is going to reach millions of people over time and impact them profoundly. So I'm very appreciative and grateful to you for being a messenger of love, generosity, of kindness, and teaching those who are struggling and suffering how to get back into alignment of who they truly are so they can be peaceful and in harmony in the now.

1:30:10So I really want to acknowledge you and appreciate you for taking the time. These two final questions. The first one is, is a hypothetical scenario a question? I call this the three truths. So I'd like for you to imagine, even though you never imagined the future that much because you're always in the now, but I'd like for you to go there for a moment and imagine you get to live as long as you want to in this realm, but for whatever reason, it's the last day. And for whatever reason, in this hypothetical question, all your message is gone. It's got to go with you to the next place, or it's just not in this world anymore.

1:30:48So your books, this interview, any workshop you've done online, we don't have access to it. But you get to leave behind three lessons to the world, three truths that you know are true for you. And this is all we would have to be reminded of your messages. What would be those three truths for you? Well, ultimately, the truth, the ultimate truth is one. And out of the one, you can extrapolate and several other truths arise out of one. The ultimate choice is realize who or what you are, realize that you are, in essence, not a person. You are consciousness, you are a manifestation of universal consciousness.

1:31:44You are the universe experiencing itself as a human. You are the consciousness of the universe experiencing itself briefly, but you are far beyond realize. who or what you are beyond the person. So that's the ultimate choice. Then realize that you are not the ego, that is, discovering who or what you are not. And realize the possibility of living without suffering, the suffering that's created by the human mind, the possibility of being free of suffering, free of unhappiness. And the way towards that is radical acceptance of the isness of the present moment. Radical acceptance of the isness of now that will take you to a deep place of realization of who or what you are, and you're not the ego.

1:32:50So realizing who you are not is an important part of the kind of negative realization, who you are not. Once you realize who or what you are ultimately not, then who or what you are emerges naturally. That's beautiful. Final question for you, Eckhart. What is your definition of greatness? Well, of course, as you know, one can give many, many definitions according to one's level of consciousness, but at the deepest level, greatness is again, when you go to the deepest level, the answer is always the same, by the way. Greatness is to live consciously, to embody consciousness in this lifetime, to embody the unconditioned consciousness in this lifetime.

1:33:47That is greatness. And then other things arise out of that. You affect the world in many different ways by living as consciousness and consciously rather than as an egoic entity. So then you begin to change the world, even if you don't say, I am going to change the world. It happens organically and naturally. And the way in which you experience the world is always a reflection of your state of consciousness. So you begin to experience a different world when you are aligned with the, what I call the unconditioned consciousness, that is who or what you are in your essence. That is the greatness is to have fulfilled your purpose in this incarnation on this earth and that is to be part of the evolving consciousness of the universe.

1:34:54That is greatness, to have fulfilled your purpose and all the outer conditions are secondary. And you could theoretically, you could have fulfilled your purpose even in the prison cell when you come to this realization. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad-free listening experience, Make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend.

1:35:33Leave us a review over on Apple Podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I wanna remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.