Does Excitement Come From The Ego? Q&A Eckhart Tolle

Thank you. I have a question about stages that we go. I read the first one, power of now, changed my life. And then I came to a new Earth. Thank you for paradise. And so the stages, you know, the truck, you get stuck, you either accept, and then the next one is you enjoy. And so I already went to enthusiasm. So I found my enthusiasm, what I thought, but then it felt like the ego. So is there a way to know which one is which? It's like, okay, so am I enthusiastic because this is what the universe is pushing me to do, or is it just me trying to be, oh, I'm the enlightened one, I'm the spiritual one, or so on?

Okay, I understand. Yes, thanks. So that goes back to in the New Earth, I think I wrote the three modalities of being. If you're not one of the three modalities, you are in a state that is not harmonious and egoic or dysfunctional. The three modalities, acceptance. You either whatever you need to do or whatever the situation is, you accept it. If you cannot enjoy it, there's some things you can't enjoy, but you can accept that this is what is acceptance. Then is that important? Others enjoyment comes in, enjoy their work, see if you can enjoy it rather than just accept that anything you do with resentment is a dysfunctional state, causing suffering without knowing it. You're causing it to yourself in any state of resentment, but you're doing it, but you resent doing it. You are somewhere, but you really don't want to be there, but you are there. So these are states of dysfunctional states that actually cause suffering. You cause it unnecessarily to yourself without knowing it. So acceptance, enjoyment, there's a flow in what you do. You are present in what you know where you're going, but you're fully present in the process of moving towards there. The movement is more important than where you want to get to. And then the enthusiasm is the stage that I describe as happening during the creative process when a new thing, when you are giving birth to something new in whatever form, there can be an enormous influx of energy that I call enthusiasm, which is. The ancients believed that there was a higher spirit moving through you at that time. Because I mean, literally, enthusiasm means in God. So enthusiasm is the state of creativity. Now, your question is correct. It can sometimes there can be egoic, excited egoic states masquerading as enthusiasm, and sometimes at first sight, not easy to tell the difference because you're on a high, you're on an egoic High. But there are some signs by which you can recognize whether or not it's the ego or whether there's a deeper creative process. Consciousness, wanting to create something through you. One thing you can recognize the ego by is when you encounter obstacles to whatever your action is in that state of either enthusiasm or egoic excitement when you encounter obstacles, the ego. If it's the ego, you will quickly fall into negative states the moment you encounter obstacles to what you're doing. If it's true enthusiasm, you do not fall into negative states when obstacles arise. And obstacles will arise in any creative endeavor. It's something that doesn't mean you're supposed to stop when an obstacle rises. Then you look at an obstacle and see either you can use it and transform it and incorporate it into what you do, or you can bypass it. That's how true enthusiasm. But the ego gets resentful when an obstacle comes. It takes it as a personal insult. So that's a good sign that it's egoic or not. And another sign, of course is always. But that is more when you're getting towards the end of the achievement. When you have achieved something and it does not satisfy you soon after achieving it, then you know it was the ego too. So you always know the ego. There's a satisfaction, but not short lived when it's ego. So the course in miracles actually tells you you can always recognize an egoic goal when you achieve it by realizing that it hasn't satisfied you.

That makes. Thank you. Of course it makes sense because at the moment when I do get creative, I write and I write the stages and it just makes sense. And I know I'm not writing has to do with autism with my child. And I'm like, but this makes sense. How come nobody has thought of this? And when I show it to people, they say, oh, well, yeah, this is great. So I know that this is where I'm going. And I know it's not me, it's not this form doing it. So that's how I know. And then I find obstacles and then it teaches me about me. Because now the pain body comes and says, well, but I have to be nice. Now I have to be nice. But that's not this form. This form is not nice. Yes, sorry. This form has to be.

Yeah, I know what you mean. We know what you mean.

I know you know what you mean.

But the form is nice too. But there's something nicer even than that.

Yes. Because that's what you have to do. Like, you know, I heard like Sometimes the universe wants to, you know, kick someone. That is what you have to do. It's not violent, but that is what.

Yes. Now another thing, the ego, of course, also, whenever there's an ego endeavor with that kind of excitement that sometimes goes with ego. I just mentioned the obstacle that when an obstacle arises, there will be resentment and negativity. And also you recognize the ego when it. There is always an excessive focus on the end result that it wants to achieve. So it's very excited about the end result that it wants to get to. All the doing is a means to getting to the end result. And yes, it is excited about getting there. It imagines getting there. But in the meantime, the state of consciousness that underlies your action or your activity is not the highest. There's a lot. There can be a lot of stress arising with it.

And yes, but it's not really stress because I don't know what the end result is. I don't know. And that's what teaching is like. This is not me because I don't know. I don't know what the end result. And it doesn't matter. It's not like it doesn't matter, but it's a different. It doesn't matter. It's like it's okay either or. But it's the process that when I'm going is, should I stop now? Will I stop because I have to be nice? And, well, that's just how it is. But that doesn't. This feeling doesn't let me. It just pushes me. It's like, no, you have to keep going. I was like, why can't I just be nice? Why can't I just stay here and then do yoga? But no, this form is meant for something else.

Thank you.

So if you discover within yourself that a lot of the time you are in a state of lack of insufficiency, of not enough, and you feel that the answer to the remedy is to be active in this world and achieve and do as much as possible, then you'll probably find that ultimately that is not the answer to your state of lack. In order to transcend, to go beyond your state of lack of neediness, of not enough spiritual practice and spiritual realization is necessary. Focus on the realization of being. It's only there that you can go beyond that state of lack, which is ego. Go within and discover who or what you are beyond the person.

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