Eckertgasse

Just as in the first apartment in Barcelona, the second apartment they moved into in Vienna wasn't plain-sailing.  They arrived at the apartment on Eckertgasse in the Favoriten district to find Tanja, the owner, a very nice Austrian woman who somehow reminded them of Susanna, with the windows wide open and apologising for the stink of cigarette smoke. 

Later that evening as Dave was "gone" lying on the bed and Kate in the bathroom, there was a knock on the door and two guys entered with Ikea bags and fresh linen ready to change all the linen in the apartment.  They had figured the cigarette smoke would have already got onto the bed and couch and had thoughtfully came to replace it.  They quickly dismantled what they needed to and before you knew it, the duvet and pillow cases were fresh again and they were gone.  Dave stood there watching still coming round from wherever he had been.

The next morning Dave noticed the stove top had only one hob working.  The kitchen was the tiniest they'd had to negotiate with yet.  A call was made to Tanja who came round and had a look.  She left pliers out for them to turn the broken knob with and promised to sort it out properly in a few days.  When they arrived back from their walk that afternoon they found a new plug-in stove top sitting in the kitchen.

A Viennese Waltzing Washing Machine

The night before Kate had received an email newsletter from Eckhart Tolle, their first night in the Eckertgasse apartment.  These words were in it:

"One day, something else wants to be done that needs doing. You might perceive it as something that you need to do. Suddenly you know what it is that you need to do. It comes from within, or it comes from without – some situation in your life. Then, “awakened doing” begins to happen. That doing is not the egoic doing, where whatever you do is a means to an end. There is deep enjoyment in the doing. There is not an excessive desire to achieve, but you achieve actually more - because there’s so much enjoyment in the doing that the end result looks after itself. A very different kind of doing arises, that is not motivated by desire. The normal way is thinking “I need to achieve this”."

"As Presence moves through you, it’s not based on desire anymore, it’s based on enjoyment. It’s not based on wanting or needing anything, because you’re coming from fullness. The action is not designed to fulfill you. It’s not designed to add something to you. The action is coming out of the fullness in which you already dwell – so there’s no neediness in it.

Obstacles arise, as they will, especially if you do things that go against the conditioning of the world – you may find obstacles. You also may find enormous power helping you.


Obstacles may come in the form of uncooperative people, or situations, but enormous power will also flow into what you do and help you in many ways. Just the right thing, just at the right moment, just the right person. When obstacles do arise, they are not regarded as enemies. The ego regards any obstacle to its course of action as an enemy.


An obstacle is accepted for what it is, and you work with it – not against it. Or you work around it, or you take its energy and turn it around. It becomes incorporated into what you have to do. You don’t see any more enemies in the form of unhelpful situations, uncooperative people. Everything is embraced for what it is, accepted for what it is, and transformed. It’s not so much that you are doing it, you become a vehicle for the doing. It happens through you. The power comes when it wants to come."