Eckhart Tolle Quotes, Teachings & Interviews

The Consciousness You Seek Is Effortless

There is a new consciousness emerging in the world. This consciousness is arising in more and more people in more and more places. The fact that the New Earth webcast was viewed by so many people from all over the world is evidence of this rising new consciousness.

This new consciousness is present now in everyone everywhere. It is not a goal or destination to be gained. It is not a meditative state that requires long hours of practice to attain. The new consciousness is as simple and approachable as a single breath. At any time, in any context, we can take a breath, connect with the presence of our body, and feel the deeper essence of our being. This is the new consciousness. The present moment, free of past and future, free of this and that, free of labels, names and identifications.

The new consciousness can be accessed again and again. We will inevitably fall back into the old consciousness, but that is not our concern and we should never have judgment about it when we do. What matters it to continuously return to presence, to stillness, to now. The past and the future may pull us back to themselves, but the now is always an open invitation.

The higher consciousness we seek is not something we seek or grasp. There is an effortlessness to it. We cease to resist. We relax into our body and as we do, our awareness becomes less dull and more alive. The consciousness of stillness and presence is more alert than thinking, yet it is not a strain. It is not something we do. It is something we are. When we stop doing, we are it.

There is no trying, only presence.

   "You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God."

In this segment from Chapter 1, Eckhart points out that you don't become good by trying to be good, that stillness is more alert than thinking, and that the consciousness you seek is effortless.