Are you there?

Yes, we are here.

I once heard Eckhart Tolle talk about how important it is to “surrender to the present moment.” Can you explain what he means by that exactly?

What our friend Eckhart is suggesting is that you allow the present moment, whatever it is, to simply be just what it is, without feeling the need to alter it, improve it or change it in any way. After all, the present moment is all that exists, and whatever happens in the present moment is your creation, so it only makes sense for you to accept what you see right in front of you.

That might make sense to you, but to us humans, just sitting back and accepting what is happening right in front of our eyes, especially if it’s something unpleasant, seems like a pretty radical idea. Not to mention difficult to pull off.

It is only difficult because you tell yourself that it is difficult. Trust us when we say that you are capable of this, and much, much more. That said, you might experience some resistance when you begin to practice surrendering to the moment. This way of interacting with your physical world is not something you are used to. You could start by simply allowing yourself to become more mindful of the present moment, regardless of its form. This is the very best way to put yourself in touch with who you really are, which is pure loving awareness. You are not your body. You are not your thoughts. You are not your emotions. You are the part of yourself that experiences those things. And that is why you must strive first to nurture your awareness. When you do that, you experience yourself in its truest form. You can sense your own awareness by allowing yourself to step back for just a moment from whatever it is you are thinking about or feeling in the moment and allow your own presence to arise. Just step back and observe. After a time, your mind’s chatter will begin to subside and you will sense a subtle separation between what you are observing and the part of you that is observing. The part of you that is observing – that is you. That is who you really are. Your true essence. If you can, while you observe, resist the temptation to change or stop anything. Just allow whatever is happening to happen. That is what Eckhart means by surrender. To allow the present state of things, without judgment, without fear, without the desire to force change upon the moment. Just remain still and be with whatever comes up. Remind yourself that everything is OK and all right and that you are safe, regardless of what you are seeing or what you are experiencing. Trust that the present moment, whatever form it takes, has been designed to serve you and your journey in the highest possible way.

So, just be fine with whatever arises? Does that mean that we should never try to create something new or different for ourselves? That doesn’t seem right.

We are not saying that you should never create anything new or different for yourself. You are a creator, after all. That is your nature. What we are saying is that before you can begin to create something new for yourself, you must first accept where you are, what the present moment is bringing you. You may not realize this, but most if not all of the suffering that you experience in your life stems from your reluctance to simply accept what is right there in front of you. It is the pressing need, the compulsion, if you will, to deny or alter your experience in the moment that creates all of the conflict in the lives of humans. After all, whatever it is you are experiencing in the present moment is your creation. You may have created it out of an unconscious, default position, but it all comes from you. It is your baby, so to speak.

I’m sensing that there’s more to this, though. Am I right?

Indeed. If you can allow yourself to take a step beyond basic awareness, you will find that there is even greater benefit in actually loving and appreciating whatever arises in your experience from moment to moment. Loving what is. That is what we are speaking of. Loving and appreciating whatever arises. We realize that believing that there is benefit from feeling gratitude for an experience that may be unpleasant or painful or even traumatizing is a challenging concept for most humans to accept, but when you can appreciate whatever arises, you are truly aligning with the energy of Source, you are truly doing what you came here to do – channeling unconditional love in the presence of anything and everything that arises in the present moment, regardless of how your mind, your ego, judges or characterizes it. A state of complete openness to all of it. That is your natural state. That is who you really are.

I understand what you are saying, but that state of being seems really beyond our reach, so elusive. Can we really get there?

Do we really need to answer that question? Yes, of course you can get there. You are already there, in fact. You are just not yet experiencing that state of being from within your human form. Again, that is why you have come. To reach that state of being, of loving what is without judgement, from inside a physical form, while living in a world of contrasts, a world of light and dark, of love and fear. To live in that way is the true reflection of who you really are. And working your way to that state of being is why you have come.

Still, it all seems a bit overwhelming at times.

Achieving this state of being is not something that happens overnight. It is a process, a very involved process, as you are well aware. It all began when you chose to incarnate part of your light-filled, non-physical self into a highly dense human body. And that was just the first step. Now, after much hard work on your part, you have reached a point where this next step is not only possible, it is inevitable.

What about the ego in all of this? The ego thrives on creating fear-based scenarios out of the past and the future. Certainly, it’s going to put up a fight when we try to increase our awareness of the present moment.

Handling the ego’s interference is perhaps the biggest challenge for any incarnated being. As you know, any time the ego senses a threat, it will do whatever it can to thwart your progress. It is a powerful force in the lives of all human persons and is the primary instigator behind the compulsion of most humans to change their present moment experience for one that they believe is an improvement. But the ego cannot survive long in the presence of loving awareness. Eventually, as you continue to practice surrendering to the present moment, the ego will begin to wane with regard to its power over you and your experience of life.

This has been a lot to take in. Anything else you would like to add before we finish?

Always remember that the present moment is all that exists. It is the jumping off point for all creation, for everything that you choose to manifest. That is why it is so important to trust what you see right in front of you and relax into it. If you need a place to start with your mindfulness practice, you can begin with something simple, like your breath. Your breath is always present, it is always occurring in the present moment. If nothing else, you can always focus your attention on your breath to bring your awareness back to the present moment. Then it is just a question of accepting and appreciating what is. Try it and see what happens.

I will. think we will stop there for today.

Of course. As always, it has been a pleasure.

Thank you all.

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