Eckhart Tolle: Dealing With Anger, Resistance and Pessimism

hi I I often feel um overwhelmed by anger uhhuh so I um and that anger like uh makes me uh throw my spiritual pra practice really out of the window so um it's like a big uh impotence that I feel and pessimism so so it's it's not going to work anyway so just yes the hell with it and um that's one thing and the other thing is um I also feel very often that something is wrong so I need to take some action yes to correct something that know probably is just imaginary so it's unreal yeah so there is no action needed most probably but I I have to to do something about it yes so uh and I get carried away by that yes yes um yeah for fact for example right now I feel my heartbeat very strongly yes um and I guess there's no reason for that but well you're you're doing public speaking right now so maybe that's why yeah and that's fine you just you acknowledge that the heart is beating and you let that be and what the the feeling that something is wrong that's not a personal problem of yours it's a universal human condition that to carry that feeling inside that something is wrong and then the Mind looks looks for what can I do about this or where is it where is the thing that's wrong and then it misinterprets situations uh so anger when Ang comes of course the energy field of it immediately flows into your mind and the thoughts that you then think are reflections of the anger the anger makes you think certain thoughts and as you put it this your it says all that spiritual stuff obviously doesn't work yeah this these are thoughts that come out of the anger the energy field yes or whatever I do it's going to be always the same and you know no point of it because going to work so yes that's the kind of thoughts that it generates yes but next time it happens see if you are able to in addition to thinking those thoughts well at the same time you can be aware that these are thoughts that have Arisen out of the energy field of anger in other words see if you can have an awareness it's it's not easy with anger because it comes so suddenly whether you can have an awareness not only that there's the energy of anger flowing through you but also perhaps that the energy of anger which may be old anger that has lived in you for a long time pain body I call it which can easily then rise into your mind and control your thoughts are you able to be a stay aware while it happens Happ s and recognize anger as an expression of the pain body and if you're thinking angry thoughts to realize that these are the thoughts of anger anger is thinking these thoughts they are not true so they are simply thoughts that reflect the energy field of anger so they the experiment then is whether you can stay aware as the observe or the witness of those thoughts and of the energy field of anger uh you may not I'm just suggesting it as an experiment whether or not you're able to stay present depends on how much presence there is already in you how much Presence Power there is already in you perhaps after having spent some time here with us there may be more Presence Power in you because this energy field is helpful for drawing that out of you once you are there as the witness then changes begin to happen you don't even have to do anything do you you know what I mean by witness is simply to witness to to be aware of the energy so that you don't become completely identified with it so the witnessing Consciousness is in the same way that you now Witness perhaps a certain nervousness your heart is beating there may be a certain nervousness as you stand there and you you witness there's the nervousness and there's the heartbeating and the witness allows everything to be as it is but there's it's in a deeper a dimension in you from where you you can say my heart is beating I feel nervous energy inside me these are still verbalizations but be beyond the verbalization there's the ability to Simply see it so to speak and that will change all the old patterns the more awareness comes in the more the old patterns will be will change so you don't have to change yourself because that's complicated many people try to do that I have to change myself the the most powerful the real change comes with becoming aware of whatever is happening inside you so that the anger is no longer you the anger is anger and you are the awareness you know it you you see it you feel it there it is and that's see that's the decisive shift from being the anger to having the anger in your energy field and observing it it's a wonderful sh so use anger as your spiritual practice if you fail of course anger will immediately say you see you failed again you can't do it that's the anger speaking there's something wrong with you yes particularly that there's something wrong with me now I don't know if you you may be surprised to know that there are millions billions of people on the planet who have that same thought pattern there's something wrong with with me it's part of the human ego but so you bring in the awareness and that will change everything that's the only true key if you fail next time you the anger arises what happens you will become aware immediately after the anger has subsided and then oh there it was and I wasn't present and then the that the moment will come when you are there in the first if you can catch the anger the first moment it comes or if you might even see that it's could be the result of a thought that creates the anger and if you can be there in the first moment be before it becomes to fully blown anger then you can stay there and it might not even become fully blown anger if you catch it at the first moment you can feel the first stirrings of anger you may only have 3 seconds you may come very quickly anger is like an explosive energy you may only have two three four five seconds to to to bring the stay there with your awareness and feel it oh it's coming there it is that's the pain body the angry pain body coming and if you catch it in the early stage don't suppress it by catch it I mean feel it be there as a witness then you can stay even as it grows the witness grows with it it may not even grow we'll have to see whether it still grows into full-blown anger or not that doesn't matter and so you be thankful for your anger because the anger can be become a very important spiritual practice for you because through it awareness can grow so it's it's a sometimes strange for people to see you can be thankful for things that you think are the most difficult obstacles in your life but they become they can become your greatest opportunity for for Spiritual Awakening use it as part of your practice Yeah I think the most difficult thing to to deal with is um importance when you feel it's not going to work you powerlessness yes like a deep pessimism it's not going to work it's not you're about to fail you yes and you have to recognize that these are thought forms they are thoughts that arise in your mind and when you're aware you don't need to believe in every thought that arises you don't no longer and that's an enormous Freedom you recognize it as a thought that comes from anger not the truth it's a thought a thought form that comes from anger the pain body it's and and if a thought comes from anger it's not the truth it's a distortion recognize it and you say oh there's another thought form that that says something negative that you have there's nothing you can do you might as well give up whatever thoughts come recognize that it's a thought form do you see how important that is well perhaps we will meet again in a year time and it's always interesting to see how things have evolved as you practice now what happened to you as you bring awareness into the anger see what happens to it a year later that's thank you we need to finish now thank you wonderful it's just wonderful to see Consciousness evolving Awakening in the different human forms in different ways and that we can be thankful for everything especially the difficult parts of our life because without that there would be no Awakening it's that which creates the the challenges create the necessary energy for the flowering of Consciousness so it's not only in the movies where things need to go wrong in every movie if nothing goes wrong there's no movie The Character doesn't develop they remain all everybody Remains the Same in a bad movie that which goes wrong is resolved on some external level but in a good movie as the character faces his or her problems uh he or she grows changes develops abilities that he or she didn't have before and in very good movies there's some kind of spiritual realization but only because something went [Laughter] wrong for