Avoid Adopting Collective Thought Patterns | Eckhart Tolle

Every thought is an energy formation, like you could say, a little entity, and attracts associated thoughts and becomes a bundle of thoughts. They may arise from your personal, but very commonly they arise from the collective. In this world, you have to be careful with what kind of thoughts you absorb from the collective, because there's so much unhappiness in the collective energy field of humanity. So it's very easy to get drawn into that if you're not careful and participate in the suffering of the collective. Fear, anxiety, anger, that's everywhere. It's also very easy to be affected by certain thoughts that can take over your mind that come from the collective thoughts and thought patterns. Anybody who is not sufficiently present, sufficiently aware, is susceptible to being infected by certain thoughts. The mind. Certain thoughts become lodged in your mind. Every thought is an energy formation, like you could say a little entity thought gets lodged in your mind and attracts associated thoughts and becomes a bundle of thoughts. And without awareness, you identify with the thoughts, and then you are in being possessed by certain thoughts. They may be. They may arise from your personal, but very commonly they arise from the collective. In your personal life, you could develop some kind of thought. That often obsessive nature that occupies your mind and you can't get rid of could be the thought of one directed to one particular person. Very, very negative thoughts, even at the simplest level, some people have. You can have a melody that you can't get rid of in your mind. You can have a whole day or two days, and you can't get rid of some. This thing that's in your mind. It repeats itself again and again. You can have certain assumptions about this world, like they may be totally absurd and irrational, or there may be some truth to it, but only there may be an aspect of the truth. You might think that the most absurd thoughts could be there. You might think that the extraterrestrials are already here. Well, they may be, but. And every other human is actually an alien. And you just have to look at them carefully to figure out whether they are aliens or humans. And the extraterrestrials are already here. Well, they may be, but. And every other human is actually an alien. And you just have to look at them carefully to figure out whether they are aliens or humans. And that could. I'm not excluding the possibility that some aliens may be here, but we are really. I'm talking about obsessive thoughts that are probably not correct. And then your subsequent perception of reality gets totally colored by the obsessive thoughts. And it can explain everything in those terms. All the Evils of the world have suddenly one explanation, another one that's also in the collective. You can have a thought that the entire world is divided into oppressor and oppressed. Any human being either belongs to the oppressors or to the oppressed. That was an idea in communism, in economic terms, in terms of social power, they divided humanity into oppressors and oppressed. And then they look at. You can look at any human being and you mean he's oppressed, he's an oppressor. Now, thing is, of course, oppressors and oppressed have existed and to some extent and some areas still exist. But to take one fragment of truth, because the totality of human life is much vaster than that. This is one aspect. But if you take one aspect that then occupies your mind because of lack of awareness, you are possessed by a thought. And this thought that the entire world, this is just one example, could give many examples. The entire world is the essential identity for any human being is either they are oppressed, they are the oppressor. Now, of course, if that is the what the thoughts that dominate your mind, then obviously you would probably regard the oppressed as the good ones and the oppressors as the bad ones. So that then that simplifies life enormously. You immediately can decide who is good and who is bad, and you are probably good. Presumably, even if you are an oppressor, traditionally, you now enormously, you immediately can decide who is good and who is bad, and you are probably good. Presumably, recognize your sins and you will atone for your sins of being an oppressor. And you side with the oppressed and therefore you become one of the good people. Okay, so we had the same phenomenon in very extreme form. We all know about Soviet communism. We know about Chinese Mao Zedong, Cultural revolution, quite a crazy time period. We know national socialism in Germany. All these. The evils perpetrated by all these collective delusional systems that divided people into good and bad, entire groups gave them an identity. I was in Cambodia a few years ago and visited the death camps of where Cambodians. It's a small country, so not many people are familiar with the recent history of Cambodia. But they had an extreme communist regime under a mad dictator called Pol Pot. And in that extreme communist regime and Cambodia experienced dreadful suffering. One third of the population was killed by their own government because they were the oppressors. An oppressor was anybody who could read and write because obviously they were exploiting the peasants. Anybody who wore glasses like, that's right, oppressor. They would be sent from the cities into the countryside to work on the fields where they didn't have enough food and most of them starved. Total lack of humanity, total lack. Because of the entire country was dominated by one absurd and obsessive thought that because of the entire country was dominated, made it impossible for them to lead by one absurd and obsessive thought that relate to any human being. As a human being. They relate to them through the conceptualization that thought had created for them. They couldn't sense the humanity, the being of the other human anymore. The moment they had imposed a conceptual identity on them. This is an extreme example of what can happen to you when you're taken over by certain thoughts in your mind. It's not to mean that of course, oppressor and oppressive existed and exists, but it's not, not the entire explanation. And there are many other facts in this life. But I'm saying all this because you need to be very alert so that your mind is not taken over by certain thoughts that are not that invade your mind and color your view of reality. And there are. There are certain irrational thoughts that are floating around in the collective at the present time. So it's very easy for you to absorb some of them. And being possessed by certain thoughts, and maybe it's so irrational that it's unbelievable, but I'm not giving any examples. But you have to find it out for yourself with awareness. You can. And be very careful with observing your mind. Be there as the witness of your mind so that you don't get taken over by certain thoughts, that your mind does not get taken over by certain thoughts. And then you, you cannot. And then you cannot perceive reality anymore as it is. Everything is colored by the veil of irrational thinking. So perceive reality anymore as it is. Everything is colored by the veil of irrational thinking. So when you. Nowadays, when you. Nowadays, these things can spread very quickly and easily. These irrational things. In the past, they were confined to either one country or one area in a particular country. But nowadays, certainly rational thoughts can go through the entire world, through the technology we have, and can quickly affect millions of humans all over the world. So in the past, you had, as I said, limited, let's say, the hunt for witches in the past. Totally absurd and irrational. It's a mental disease that affect certain countries. Things can spread very quickly and easily. These irrational things in the past or areas in certain countries and this mental disease. There were some places in Europe, there were villages and towns in Europe in the Middle Ages, during that time of collective insanity. There were Almost no women left in some villages, in towns at that time. They had all been burned or drowned because they were called as witches. Absolute insanity. So don't underestimate how insane humans they were confined to either one country or one area in a particular country. But nowadays, certainly rational thoughts can go through the entire world, can become the only through the technology we have and can quickly affect millions of humans all over the world. So in the past you had it, as I said, limited, say the hunt for witches in the past. Totally absurd and irrational. It's a mental disease that affects certain antidote that you have against it is awareness so that your mind does not get affected by mental virus. The awareness, the awareness is aware of what your mind is doing so that your mind does not get occupied by one particular way of thinking which is probably irrational. Anything that's one sided, that does not see the totality of a situation like oppressed and oppressed. If you don't see the many factors that make up a human being's identity. So be very careful with what you consume in the media, the media that brings the news to you. Be very careful with what you consume so that you do not take on without knowing it unquestioningly certain ways of looking at the world. Realize that you're being how manipulative most of the mainstream media has become. You need to watch that areas in certain countries. And this mental disease then if you watch it knowing how you are being manipulated and the people themselves are being manipulated too. So they are in the grip of unconsciousness and they want to draw others into unconsciousness so they're not the evil ones. They just don't know any better. So there were some places in Europe, there were villages and towns in Europe in the Middle Ages during the time of collective insanity. There were almost no women left in some villages in towns at that time. They had all been burned or drowned because they were counted as witches. Absolute, absolute insanity. So don't underestimate how insane humans can become. The only antidote that you have against it is awareness so that your mind does not get affected by mental virus. The awareness, the awareness is aware of what your mind is doing so that your mind does not get occupied by one particular way of thinking which is probably irrational. Anything that's one sided, that does not see the totality of a situation like oppressor and oppressed. If you don't see the many factors that make up a human being's identity so very be very careful with.