Faith as Power: Understanding Jesus'sTeachings on Presence and Consciousness

Oct 22, 2022

7 min read

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TLDR: Eckhart Tolle interprets Jesus's core teachings not as religious doctrine but as pointers to a dimension of consciousness accessible through presence. Faith is not belief or positive thinking, but direct sensing of the power of consciousness that underlies all existence. The Kingdom of Heaven is an inner dimension of spaciousness within you. God's will is alignment with the present moment, not rigid rules or doctrines. Spiritual awakening requires the ego personality to recede so that essence—your true nature—can express itself. By touching the source through stillness, you fulfill the fundamental human task and become a channel for transcendent intelligence into the world.

What Faith Really Means Beyond Belief

Tolle opens by addressing a widespread misinterpretation of faith. He uses the example of a wife who hears a pastor preach that Jesus said you can move mountains if you have faith. Taking this literally, she decides she will believe the small hill blocking her bedroom view will disappear. The next morning it remains. She concludes faith doesn't work.

This anecdote illustrates why faith is not positive thinking or visualization. "Faith is not telling yourself you believe something is going to happen," Tolle explains. Rather, the true meaning of faith is power. Faith is the ability to access something deeper than the personality—the source of life itself, the power of consciousness itself.

"If you have faith means, if you access the power that lies beyond all phenomena, if you access the source of life, if you find access to that, then that means you have faith." Faith is sensing within yourself the power of life that is not of the person—it is the essence of who you are. When you connect with that dimension, you realize it's not that you access something separate; rather, you recognize the source is already your own essence.

The pathway to this realization, Tolle emphasizes, is the entire foundation of his teaching: moving beyond the noisy thinking mind into what he calls "the dimension of alive stillness." This is where you touch the source. To enter this dimension, the personality must surrender.

Why the Personality Blocks Access to Your Essence

Tolle introduces the concept of personality and essence, drawn from the Russian spiritual teacher Gurdjieff. The personality is what most people identify as themselves—the constructed identity, primarily built by the thinking mind, the accumulated beliefs, preferences, and reactions. Essence is who you are beyond that construct, your true nature prior to thought.

Gurdjieff observed that most people in the world have a strongly developed personality but very little essence coming through. "The personality, which includes the thinking mind, or is primarily the thinking mind, stands as the closed door. With a heavy personality, you cannot go any deeper. You're stuck." The personality literally blocks the gateway.

Occasionally, however, there appear rare human beings with "an enormous amount of essence and very little personality." This is the trajectory of spiritual awakening: as the personality recedes, something more vital and more essential shines through. "That then is our life purpose," Tolle says. The personality begins to serve essence rather than dominate it. When this shift happens, you become a vessel for something beyond the limited ego identity—something that can speak, act, and emanate authentic intelligence into the world.

What Jesus Meant by the Kingdom of Heaven

Tolle offers a translation of one of Jesus's most central teachings: "The kingdom of heaven" becomes "the kingdom" (dimension) "of heaven" (spaciousness). Jesus used the metaphor of the sky because it is the most spacious thing the senses perceive. Yet it is also unique: the sky is not a thing you can touch or possess. It has no boundaries you can locate. It simply is the way we perceive vast spaciousness itself.

This analogy points inward. Jesus was gesturing toward "a dimension of spaciousness that is within you, that is consciousness, pure consciousness." This inner spaciousness, this dimension of awareness itself, is what he called the Kingdom of Heaven. And it is, according to Tolle's understanding of Jesus's message, the most important thing you can find: "The most important thing for you to be concerned about. Find that within you. Everything else will fall into place."

When you locate this dimension and rest in it, your task as a human being is essentially complete. That doesn't mean your life ends. Rather, you can then be present in the world "in a much more beneficent capacity, because something else expresses itself through you, no longer the egoic, the limited ego identity." You become an expression of the transcendent dimension itself, a clarity through which consciousness functions.

Why the Word "God" Obscures the Teaching

Tolle avoids using the word "God" because it has been so thoroughly misunderstood and misused. The term itself seems to encapsulate the infinite as if it were a finite entity. "Almost everybody imagines some kind of entity when you say God. Where is he? Oh, 'he'. You see, most people still call him 'he'." The masculine pronoun and the objectified concept encourage us to imagine a controlling patriarch—a being separate from us who either grants or withholds favor.

Better pointers exist. "The divine" is less enclosed, more open. "The force" (as popularized in Star Wars) avoids personification entirely: "May the force be with you" suggests something present everywhere, not a distant entity. "The dimension of the transcendent" is more precise. All these avoid the theological baggage and the tendency of the ego to project its own will onto the concept.

The core insight is this: what Jesus pointed to is not a being outside you. It is the intelligence and consciousness that pervades and underlies all of existence, and it is accessible to you directly, here and now.

Doing God's Will: Alignment with the Present Moment

The phrase "doing God's will" has caused immense suffering throughout history. The ego has routinely claimed that its own desires, agendas, and even atrocities are "God's will." Religious extremists have killed in the name of doing God's will. Even among well-intentioned spiritual seekers, confusion reigns: "How do you know whether a thought that comes into your head is God's will or whether it's just a thought that comes into your head?"

Tolle's answer is radical in its simplicity: being in the present moment is the only way to be certain you are aligned with God's will. God's will (or the will of the transcendent intelligence) is not found in beliefs, rules, or thoughts. It is found in alignment with the consciousness that pervades all of reality. And you can only align with that if you become present in the now.

"The entry point into God's will, the realization of God's will, is always the present moment. Your inner alignment with the present moment, and there you have it."

Rather than claiming "this is God's will" (which invites doubt and misinterpretation), Tolle offers a statement beyond doubt: "It is as it is." This is not resignation or fatalism. It is radical acceptance. The present moment, exactly as it is, is undeniable. No philosophy can contradict it. "I might as well say yes to it because it already is." When you align with what is, you are aligned with the deepest intelligence available to you.

Where to Go From Here

The practical implication of Tolle's teaching is clear: the path to understanding Jesus's teachings is not intellectual study but direct experience. Stop trying to believe the right thing. Stop trying to visualize a desired outcome. Instead, practice returning to the present moment again and again. Feel the aliveness of stillness beneath the stream of thought. Notice the spaciousness of awareness itself. Sense the power of consciousness as your own essence, not something foreign or distant.

This is faith. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is alignment with the source of life. And it is available to you right now, in this moment, if you step out of the noise of the mind and into the dimension of presence.

Transcript

[0:00] - I could see a deeper truth being expressed

[0:04] than I'd ever heard in church,

[0:06] in what Jesus was saying,

[0:08] I assume, and immediately had a deep realization

[0:13] of what he was talking about.

[0:15] (bell chimes)

[0:19] There was a couple went to church,

[0:25] a wife and husband,

[0:27] and they came back from church

[0:28] where they heard exactly what you just said.

[0:32] The pastor was reading from the Bible,

[0:37] and the wife says to the husband,

[0:41] "You know, outside our bedroom,

[0:44] "we have this little hill or mound that blocks our view.

[0:49] "What I'm going to do tonight,

[0:52] "I'm going to believe that it's going to disappear.

[0:58] "Because if Jesus says you can move mountains,

[1:00] surely you can move this little hill."

[1:03] And the husband says, "That's a good idea."

[1:07] Okay.

[1:08] So, the next morning,

[1:13] the wife opens the curtains,

[1:17] and it's still there.

[1:20] And she says to her husband,

[1:22] "Oh, you see, I knew it wasn't going to work."

[1:24] (audience laughs)

[1:30] So that's not faith either.

[1:35] So just telling yourself,

[1:37] "I believe this is going to happen,"

[1:41] probably not, unless you're lucky,

[1:46] but faith, the true meaning of faith is power.

[1:52] And if you have faith means,

[1:58] if you access the power

[2:02] that lies beyond all phenomena,

[2:05] if you access the source of life,

[2:11] if you find access to that,

[2:13] then that means you have faith.

[2:16] Faith is sensing in yourself the power of life itself,

[2:23] which is not of the person,

[2:25] which is deeper, the power of consciousness itself.

[2:31] Sensing that in yourself,

[2:34] and when you connect with that,

[2:36] you realize it's not so much that you connect with it,

[2:39] it's just that it's the essence of who you are.

[2:42] So having faith really is being fully who you are

[2:48] in your essence.

[2:51] And of course, the way to that,

[2:53] this is our entire teaching here,

[2:57] is to go beyond the noisy mind

[3:04] or whatever the mind produces,

[3:07] into the dimension of alive stillness.

[3:14] And that's you're touching the source.

[3:18] If you touch the source,

[3:21] so that the personality needs to surrender

[3:24] so that you can go deeper.

[3:27] Otherwise, the personality,

[3:28] which includes the thinking mind,

[3:31] or is primarily the thinking mind,

[3:33] stands as the closed door.

[3:36] With a heavy personality, you cannot go any deeper.

[3:40] You're stuck.

[3:41] There's a closed door of the personality.

[3:44] So, the Russian spiritual teacher Gurdjieff

[3:52] mentioned two aspects of a human being,

[3:58] which he called personality and essence.

[4:03] And he says, some people,

[4:05] or most people in this world have

[4:07] a strongly developed personality,

[4:09] but there's very little essence coming through.

[4:13] So, essence is who you are beyond the personality.

[4:18] And he said, occasionally it happens.

[4:20] There's an enormous amount of essence in rare human beings

[4:24] and very little personality.

[4:26] So, most people you meet in this world

[4:29] have a fairly highly developed personality,

[4:33] especially in the western world,

[4:35] but the whole world is becoming westernized.

[4:38] So even in the East now,

[4:40] you get people with big personalities,

[4:43] but if the personality recedes,

[4:45] and this is happening to us,

[4:50] then something more vital

[4:51] and more essential can shine through,

[4:54] and that is essence.

[4:56] And that then is our life purpose.

[5:02] The kingdom of heaven.

[5:04] Somebody used that expression.

[5:10] My translation is kingdom is dimension.

[5:15] Heaven, sky is spaciousness.

[5:23] So when Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven,

[5:26] he's pointing to something in the sense-perceived world

[5:30] in order to get people to sense

[5:36] what he's talking about on the inner level.

[5:39] So he chose the sky or heaven

[5:45] because it's the most spacious thing there is.

[5:49] And the sky is perhaps the only thing

[5:52] in this dimension of sensory perception,

[5:56] the only thing that you can see that's not a thing,

[6:02] because the sky doesn't exist as a sky.

[6:05] There's no such thing as sky.

[6:08] You can never touch it or be in it,

[6:10] or if you go up in a rocket, you go through a cloud.

[6:15] But you can never say, "I am now in the sky,"

[6:18] because there is no sky.

[6:21] It's just a way in which we perceive spaciousness.

[6:25] And so he used that analogy

[6:28] in order to point to something within you,

[6:32] the dimension of spaciousness,

[6:36] the kingdom of heaven,

[6:38] the dimension of spaciousness that is within you,

[6:42] that is consciousness, pure consciousness.

[6:48] That is the only thing,

[6:51] the most important thing, he said,

[6:56] the most important thing for you to be concerned about.

[7:00] Find that within you.

[7:03] Everything else will fall into place.

[7:06] It's a free translation of what he said.

[7:09] Everything else will fall into place.

[7:13] Just your primary task as a human being here

[7:18] is to find that dimension of consciousness in you.

[7:25] Then you have fulfilled your task as a human being.

[7:32] Not that necessarily your life will then

[7:34] come to an end,

[7:36] because you can then be here

[7:40] in a much more beneficent capacity,

[7:45] because something else expresses itself through you,

[7:49] no longer the egoic, the limited ego identity,

[7:53] and it can speak and act and do or just emanate

[7:57] through you into this world.

[8:01] You become an expression of the transcendent dimension.

[8:07] I don't use the word God very often because it's misleading.

[8:14] First of all, it's because it's been misunderstood

[8:17] and misused over so many centuries,

[8:21] and also because the term itself seems to encapsulate it

[8:25] as if it were something that is a finite thing, God.

[8:30] Almost everybody imagines some kind of entity

[8:33] when you say God.

[8:35] Where is he?

[8:36] Oh, "he".

[8:37] You see, most people still call him "he".

[8:42] A slightly better pointer would be to say,

[8:48] for example, well, what I said just now,

[8:54] the dimension of the transcendent,

[8:56] and even what they used in "Star Wars" became so popular,

[9:02] again, is a term they used that is not as encapsulated

[9:08] as the word God.

[9:09] The force, "May the force be with you."

[9:12] Okay.

[9:13] Where's the force?

[9:13] It's everywhere.

[9:18] There was a slight spiritual message in that,

[9:22] and this is why so many people loved,

[9:24] because they're all looking for it somewhere.

[9:27] They loved it, "May the force be with you."

[9:33] The divine, you could even say this is less enclosed

[9:38] than the term God.

[9:40] The divine is more an open concept.

[9:43] God is more of a closed concept.

[9:45] And inevitably, because of misuse,

[9:48] people inevitably imagine some kind of male entity still.

[9:53] You can't get away from that.

[9:55] And a controlling one, a patriarch,

[9:59] or somebody who has not done a good job.

[10:05] "I could have done better than God.

[10:08] Therefore God does not exist."

[10:10] You hear that sometimes.

[10:13] Doing God's will is a an expression

[10:17] has been around for a long time,

[10:21] that has been misused a lot by the ego.

[10:30] And it was, in most cases, it was the ego's will,

[10:35] and the ego called its own will God's will,

[10:42] to the point of insanity

[10:43] where people kill others and other groups of people

[10:47] and call it God's will.

[10:53] Different religions have done that.

[10:56] In some, it's still happening.

[11:02] And for many other people who are not

[11:04] at such an extreme of unconsciousness,

[11:06] but nevertheless, there are people

[11:09] who are genuinely wanting to do God's will,

[11:13] but it's very problematic because how do you know

[11:16] whether a thought that comes into your head is God's will

[11:20] or whether it's just a thought that comes into your head?

[11:28] So, being in the present moment really is the only way

[11:33] of being certain that you are becoming aligned

[11:39] with God's will.

[11:40] What is God's will?

[11:43] God's will is being one with

[11:53] the intelligence,

[11:58] the consciousness that pervades

[12:03] and underlies the world of form,

[12:08] being one with that.

[12:12] And you can only be one with that

[12:14] if you become present in the now.

[12:19] So the entry point into God's will,

[12:24] the realization of God's will,

[12:26] is always the present moment.

[12:29] Your inner alignment with the present moment,

[12:32] and there you have it.

[12:38] Now, you could say that whatever happens, you could say,

[12:42] in some religions, or many religious people do that,

[12:47] "Well, it's God's will."

[12:49] They can't explain it, but they say,

[12:51] "Well, it's God's will."

[12:53] I don't usually use that terminology.

[12:59] All I say is, it is as it is.

[13:07] That doesn't require any belief whatsoever,

[13:10] because nobody can doubt

[13:13] that the present moment is as it is, always.

[13:18] Now, this is something you cannot doubt.

[13:22] But if I say, this is God's will,

[13:24] of course you can doubt that.

[13:27] There's lots of reasons why you can doubt that.

[13:32] So the statement, "It is as it is,

[13:35] and I might as well say yes to it because it already is,"

[13:40] is something that is beyond any doubt.

[13:45] It is so obviously true

[13:47] that no philosopher could come and question

[13:50] that this moment is as it is.

[13:54] So this is an ultimate truth.

[13:59] I was visiting my mother not long after that,

[14:04] and she had on her bookshelves,

[14:08] my mother was not religious or even spiritual,

[14:10] but I found the New Testament there,

[14:13] which had been left there many years ago

[14:16] when my mom was still married by a Jehovah's Witness,

[14:20] because my father would always invite

[14:23] the Jehovah's Witnesses into our home

[14:26] and then involve them in discussions.

[14:31] He had a love/hate relationship with them.

[14:35] He respected them enormously

[14:38] because my father was German,

[14:42] so he respected them enormously,

[14:44] because there were the few people in Germany

[14:46] who refused to, in the Second World War,

[14:48] who refused to participate in war.

[14:52] So they were pacifists,

[14:54] and many were brought to concentration camps

[14:58] and died because they refused to take up arms.

[15:01] And my father respected them highly for that,

[15:04] but when they started talking to him, he would get angry.

[15:09] but he must have accepted this New Testament.

[15:12] Anyway, I found the New Testament on my mother's bookshelf,

[15:15] and I opened it at that point.

[15:16] Of course, I had read it at school.

[15:18] I had a Catholic upbringing.

[15:20] I had read it at school, but then I read it

[15:22] and I said, wow.

[15:24] I could see a deeper truth being expressed

[15:28] than I'd ever heard in church in what Jesus was saying.

[15:32] I immediately had a deep realization

[15:37] of what he was talking about

[15:39] and realizing also that the New Testament

[15:41] really is fragments,

[15:43] because nobody has a complete teaching of Jesus,

[15:47] because people have the fragments that they remembered

[15:49] and they eventually wrote down,

[15:51] and I believe not all fragments are actually said by Jesus,

[15:55] but when they did, the ones that are actually uttered,

[15:58] but I knew beyond any doubt

[16:01] that certain things that I read were actually said

[16:04] by someone who was deeply aligned with consciousness.

[16:10] So I saw the truth then, that shed lied on it.

[16:14] And then you become aware of yourself

[16:18] as the one who is perceiving,

[16:20] but not of yourself as the historical person.

[16:26] Because if you were perceiving

[16:27] through the historical person,

[16:29] you would be labeling things mentally.

[16:32] No.

[16:32] You become aware of yourself

[16:34] as the underlying consciousness

[16:38] in which the perception happens,

[16:40] the light of consciousness in which the perception happens.

[16:44] So you're aware of two dimensions,

[16:46] the dimension of form,

[16:49] and the dimension of formless consciousness,

[16:53] the kingdom of heaven,

[16:55] the dimension of spaciousness,

[16:59] the emptiness, the spaciousness, the essence of all life.

[17:04] And it's not yours, it's not anybody's.

[17:08] It's the one.

[17:10] And now, if you're thinking in terms of,

[17:15] "Well, how does that fit in with God?

[17:19] You haven't mentioned God."

[17:22] Well, that's true.

[17:25] I haven't mentioned God,

[17:26] because the term "God" has been misunderstood a lot

[17:32] over the millennia, not by everybody, but by most.

[17:40] You cannot, obviously, you cannot understand God.

[17:44] It's just absurd to even make any statement

[17:47] because it's totally, I mean,

[17:49] language consists of just a few sounds,

[17:54] just a few sounds that are made by the vocal chords

[17:58] and air pressure.

[18:01] So you have the vowels, A, E, I, O, U.

[18:06] (vocalizes)

[18:07] And then you add a few air pressure sound.

[18:11] (vocalizes)

[18:13] Are you expecting to understand the secret

[18:16] of the universe through the combination of a few?

[18:22] (vocalizes)

[18:25] I mean, and you're asking God to explain God,

[18:30] but I'll carry on talking anyway.

[18:32] (audience laughs)

[18:35] One can only give almost a poetic image or an analogy

[18:43] of what that is.

[18:47] God is the source of all life,

[18:50] the transcendent source of all life.

[18:53] It has no existence in space and time.

[18:59] It does not exist because "exist" means to be manifested.

[19:06] God is the source of all life.

[19:09] That we perhaps can say.

[19:12] Now, we could compare that,

[19:14] because we live in this sense-perceived universe

[19:19] in our dimension,

[19:20] we could compare God to the life-giving principle

[19:26] that we all share, which is the sun.

[19:30] And it's no coincidence

[19:32] that many ancient cultures worshiped the sun,

[19:35] because obviously, without the sun,

[19:38] all life would immediately disappear.

[19:40] The very warmth in your body

[19:42] is ultimately derived from the sun, calories.

[19:45] So the sun continuously emanates.

[19:50] One could almost say, yes, it has a lifespan,

[19:52] but relative to our lifespan, it's eternal.

[19:56] So it's an analogy.

[19:58] The sun continuously emanates.

[20:00] It emanates, and what it emanates is it gives life.

[20:05] (water rushing)

AuthorEckhart Tolle

German-born spiritual teacher whose 1997 book The Power of Now became one of the most widely read spiritual works of the 21st century. After a profound transformation at 29 — movin…

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Got Questions?

Frequently Asked Questions

What does faith really mean according to Jesus's teachings?

Faith is not belief or positive thinking. It is access to the power of consciousness itself—sensing the source of life that lies beyond the personality. True faith is recognizing and aligning with the transcendent intelligence that underlies all existence, which is your own essence.

How does the Kingdom of Heaven relate to consciousness?

The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place after death, but an inner dimension of spaciousness—pure consciousness—available within you right now. Jesus used the sky as a metaphor because it is the most spacious thing we perceive, pointing to the boundless awareness that is your true nature.

What is the difference between personality and essence?

Personality is the constructed identity built by the thinking mind—beliefs, preferences, reactions. Essence is who you are beyond that construct, your true nature. Most people have a heavily developed personality that blocks access to essence. Spiritual awakening happens when the personality recedes and essence can shine through.

How do I know if I'm doing God's will or just following my thoughts?

The only way to know is through alignment with the present moment. God's will is not found in thoughts or beliefs, but in alignment with the consciousness that pervades reality. When you become fully present in the now, you are aligned with the deepest intelligence. The simple statement 'It is as it is' affirms this without requiring belief.

Why does Eckhart Tolle avoid using the word God?

The word God has been misunderstood and misused for centuries, often encouraging people to imagine a distant male entity or controlling force. Better pointers include 'the divine,' 'the transcendent dimension,' or 'the force'—terms that are less personified and don't encapsulate the infinite as a finite thing.

How do I access the source of life through presence?

Move beyond the noisy thinking mind into what Tolle calls 'the dimension of alive stillness.' This requires the personality—your constructed identity—to surrender. When you quiet the mind and rest in present-moment awareness, you touch the source, which is already your own essence as consciousness itself.