Bringing consciousness to this world. In this podcast, Eckhart talks with a live

audience about his belief that we are meant to bring consciousness to this

world. To do that, he says, we must keep the pathways clear. We rise above thought,

not fall below it, which is what happens when we use substances like alcohol,

drugs, and thinking. Once we become free of that, Eckhart says, we realize the

essence behind the personality, which is pure presence.

You are connected to the depth of yourself to a consciousness that arises from a

place that is deeper than the human mind, so that the human mind is really only

a receiving instrument of a deeper universal consciousness that

pervades the entire space around you. So the I amness, realizing that as the

presence that is perceiving this room in this case here or wherever you may be,

and you develop the ability of refraining, especially when you don't need it,

refraining from always interpreting mentally, imposing thought on everything.

That's the essence, for example, of some of you may be familiar with Zen, that

would have just described both in words and pointing to experientially. That is

the essence of Zen. The essence of Zen is quite simply a rink-wish thought, but

stay awake. You're not going to sleep. You can relinquish thought, you can get

out of the being trapped in thought either by going to sleep tonight. There's a

little short transitional period when you feel really good because you're too

tired to think. This transitional period feels good, but you're moving below

thought. And so you go, ah, in fields be approaching sleep and it's sweet and

lovely, it pulls you and says, come here. Oh, it feels good. Why does it feel so

...