The Prison of Narcissism - Eckhart Tolle

now the the ego which is a mind made sense  of self mind made identity that consists of   narratives thoughts that you identify with the  earliest story about the rising of the ego is   the myth of narcissus this is of course where  there were narcissism comes from and every ego   has very strong narcissistic elements to it the  story of narcissus is there was a young man very   beautiful in ancient greece and this young man  because it was a time before mirrors were invented   and before we had the wonderful invention  of selfies he had never seen himself   and one day he looked into a pool of  water and he saw his own reflection   and he was so fascinated by his own reflection  the story says that he fell in love with himself   but my interpretation is really that he became  obsessed with himself but not with himself with   the image of himself and after that he was no  longer a happy person in various versions of   that story but his life didn't go well after that  so that i believe that sometimes very deep wisdom   embodied in mythology in myth it really what it  points to is the arising of the human ego which   is a kind of phantom self that you carry around  that you mistake for who you actually are it's   it's reconsists of identifications identifications  with possessions identification with your own body   including of course the color of your skin  it's part of your own body identification with   things that you can do abilities things you know  um now what does it mean identification with   it means you derive your sense of self from  something that is not you so let's say it's   it's my my car and it could start  for a little child who gets a toy car   and so the child is given a toy car and that's the  beginning of the ego is the feeling of the child   this is mine so there's a certain identification  with the the toy the self-identification so it   enhances because it only works if another  child does not have that toy then it really   works this is my car so it enhances a a certain  sense of identity and identity is something that   you humans desperately seek after  meeting the the needs of food and shelter   one could almost say the next thing after that  is the psychological need in human beings for a   sense of identity and the first thing that humans  do and that you cannot there's no preventing this   they seek an identity by identifying with this  that or the other later the adult may have a car   and derives part of their sense of identity from  having this car but it only works because it's   compared the ego is comparative the image  in your mind of who you are it only works   because other people don't have it so imagine  you have a rolls-royce and it enhances your   sense of self you but every time you look at  it you sit in it you are seen by other people   it enhances your identity your sense of self now  imagine a scenario where let's say there's a kind   of twilight zone suddenly you wake up in a reality  where every human being at the age of 20 is given   it's the same rolls royce everybody drives exactly  the same rolls-royce suddenly it would no longer   serve to enhance your identity because you have  nothing to compare itself to because you need   the ego needs ultimately it seeks some kind of  superiority it it compares itself to others in one   way or another it seeks some kind of superiority  over others it's an unconscious process   there's always an unease behind it because the  ego is never feels really at ease or fulfilled   there's always an underlying sense of lack of  insufficiency of not enough i am not enough   because ultimately it's only a mental image that  you mistake for who you are it's often associated   with a narrative in your mind that tells you about  my life you call it my life me and my life this is   me this is my life people have a relationship  with themselves isn't that strange they have a   relationship with that people so this is why you  have to i love i hate myself i love myself in both   schedules it's better to love yourself than to  hate yourself but in both cases there's a duality   there's a split that has happened there's you  and there's a self that you either hate or love   so the question is if there is the  self that you either hate or love   who are you who is the one that hates or  loves itself what is going on here the   the dog does not have that problem because  the dog has not arrived yet at the ego   the dog has no self image the animal does not yet  have an ego so the dog is itself the dog has no   problem with body image or self-esteem because  the the dog is and this is why most animals are   more joyous than less problematic than humans  they do not carry the weight of the self   what the buddha called the self one of the  main teachings of the buddha is to recognize   the unreality of the self that it is a mental  construct that you mistake for who you are so   ultimately the ego then the essence of ego can  you could say is ident complete identification   with thoughts so and the recurring thoughts  in your mind that tell you who you are   that's the ego and for people  who are unconscious of that   they are so in the grip of these  thought forms that they are virtually   asleep there's nobody there other than the  dream the dream of thought the the phantom self   so waking up means to suddenly recognize that the  thoughts that go through your head continuously   but also the emotions that reflect those thoughts  are not who you are so even the first beginning of   awakening spiritual awakening one could say is to  recognize that certain thoughts are continuously   arising in your mind and you for a  moment you have stepped out of that   and you recognize it's a stepping back one could  say underneath it all there's this vast realm of   conscious presence there is a presence there  without which you wouldn't be able to perceive   anything you wouldn't be able to think anything  it's a little bit like i compare it sometimes   too before you live on the surface of the ocean  you're a little ripple on the surface of the ocean   and this ripple only knows itself as a ripple and  it is it it looks at other ripples and sometimes   feels threatened by other ripples or wants to use  other ripples to enhance its old sense of self   and it's always fearful it always  compares itself to other ripples   a very unpleasant and frustrating way to live  it hasn't realized the depths of its being   because the ripple is only a temporary  expression of the vastness of the ocean   but it doesn't know that so if the ripple for a  moment comes to us if the the continuous thought   in this analogy the rebel of course is the human  being and the ripple when the rebels stop thinking   for a moment and this is the key for a moment  you come to a cessation of the stream of thinking   and what's left when you're not thinking  about your your history your personal history   or the future you're just becoming  aware of this moment yourself   this moment but what is that self it's no  longer the historical self or you can't   say very much about it there is an underlying  sense of presence of a life conscious presence   it's still it's alive the awakening can begin  with realizing that you are not the thoughts   that go through your mind that's the beginning now  what has arisen at that moment awareness suddenly   you realize that there is a dimension of  consciousness in you that's not thinking   but just conscious and that is your essence  identity to be rooted in that it's ultimately   very simple i don't know why they don't teach that  at school i mean the most important life lesson   is the transcendent dimension  of of of life of who you are   to find all the ancient teachings using different  terms and different words they all point   to this possibility of realizing the transcendent  dimension of who you are whether the buddha   calls it the buddha actually calls it  the translation is shunyata emptiness   but better translation would be spaciousness  that's the essence of who you asked in the utter   spaciousness jesus talks about the kingdom of  heaven which in my translation is not i translated   kingdom i translate this time i translate  it as dimension and heaven which is the vast   heaven when you look up at the sky  that's the closest thing you can get   to spaciousness in in the sense perceived world  the closest thing you can get to stations if you   look at the vastness of the sky or heaven in  many languages heaven and sky is the same word   so you look at the vastness of sky which is  vast spaciousness so the kingdom of heaven is   the dimension of spaciousness it's a dimension of  consciousness this is why then they asked jesus   where is the kingdom of heaven when is it going to  come and he said the kingdom of heaven cannot come   with signs to be perceived you can never  say it's over here or it's over there   because kingdom of heaven is within you in fact  he was saying it is the essence of who you are   consciousness is but it's not only the essence  of who you are it's the essence of the universe   itself because you are you are just a microscope  of the universe so when you realize the essence   of who you are the universe is realizing its own  essence through you this little thing through you you

Channel: After Skool

Views: 697,669

Keywords: eckhart tolle, ego, narcissism

Id: dLLB7daSttY

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021