Eckhart Tolle on Social Media and Technology | 20 Minute Compilation

And so your mind is just absorbing whatever is playing. It's the TV mind which is receiving stuff from wherever it comes from, is going into your mind and you become no longer thinking your own thoughts. Occasionally you might you say, oh, this guy is so stupid. And then you're watching again.

What do you think about Facebook? Is it a healthy format? It seems a bit egoic. Not a whole lot of transmission of connection, love, etc. Posting pictures of yourself and quantifying friends, likes, etc seems like enhancing the ego. Are we going down the wrong path with social media?

Well.

The questioner has a point as even before the advent of Facebook and similar things, for hundreds of years or thousands of years, people constructed for themselves an identity in their head. That's me, me and my story, as I sometimes call it. And that was partly inherited from what your culture tells you you are or your family and your culture. And partly by choice. Certain things you choose to identify with and then incorporate into your sense of self. Certain possessions, certain achievements, or the lack of certain possessions and achievements can all be cooperated. They become mind forms or thought forms which become which you identify with. So there's a mental image that forms and that's the essence of ego, a mental image. That's me. So that's been going on for a long time. And then people live through that mental image of me. They seek out things or people that can improve the mental image of me and try to keep away things are people that could weaken or threaten the mental image of me. It all means not being in touch with who you are beyond any mental image, which is why we are here to go deep into that. And now we got the technology of Facebook where you can externalize the image and you can create on the Facebook page, you can create the image of me and show it to the whole world. And so many young people, and maybe not so young. I believe the oldest Facebook user I saw a video clip in the States, the world's oldest Facebook user is 105 years old.

And.

It is often used unconsciously in enhancing the image one has of oneself and the image one wants to show to the world. And then you read other people's images on their Facebook page and you think that's who they are. And then you try to compete with that image and you try to polish up your image and compete with them. Most people want to show off, it seems. I'm not that familiar with it, but most people want to show the good things. Having this great meal. Here's a picture of it. Why would Anybody want to see what you're eating right now? But they do, it seems. Or I just bought this thing. You want to see it. And then you can connect people to a place where you bought it. It's another thing. And all kinds of things that I don't understand. So you can. It's a. In many cases, it becomes an artificial construct that you add to every day, and everybody else has their artificial construct. And it can actually strengthens the delusion of the false self. It doesn't have to, but often it does. Facebook can also be used in conveying interesting information and to connect with people at a deeper level or bringing about some spiritual knowledge. So that's not impossible. I used to post occasionally things. I don't do it myself, but I would send it to Steve and he would post it. But I must admit, I haven't done it in a while. Although some things do get posted, quotes and so on. That's fine. Twitter is another one that is. There's a Twitter message coming in. The last time I tweeted was when a few months ago in February. The Oprah channel in the States. I don't know if you can get it here. It's called the own channel, Oprah Winfrey Network. They showed a repeat of our webinar that we did a few years ago that I did with Oprah. They did a slightly shortened, edited version over a period of 10 weeks, 10 Sundays, the new Earth was shown again on this time, not on the Internet, but. Well, also on the Internet, but on tv. And Oprah sometimes is an active tweeter. And she said it would be great if we could tweet at the same time while this program is being shown. And so I said, okay, I'll see I can do so. I was on the phone with Steve while the program was running, and then I was watching it. And then people sent in these questions, and they have to be answered immediately. So I was attempting to dictate answers to Steve, and his assistant put in the answers, and my mind was quite. I felt almost dizzy afterwards because I tried to watch the program and at the same time watch the incoming tweets and think of an answer. Oprah must have realized it wasn't from me because she said, Twitter is the exact opposite of how you operate. And before Oprah said it, Kim said exactly the same thing to me. And that's true. So I was glad when it was over. But while it was happening, I was surrendered to it, although I did feel dizzy afterwards. So if you can avoid constructing some pseudo identity for yourself on Facebook and be more real, then you can avoid that trap of just the Facebook amplifying the human ego, which it does in many, many cases, especially for youngsters who have no idea what they're doing.

Oh yes. Can you speak about how to be in this world with this constant push for connectivity? How did we get to the most profound from a relatively simple question. Oh yes, we talked about doing and being without feeling that being present is another thing to do. How to be in this world without this constant push for connectivity? Well, the first thing is you turn off your push notifications. That's already a big step forward and you need to be disciplined in the use of your device, your phone, whatever tablets, phone, so that it doesn't take you over. Because it's simply an extension of the mind. And if it wasn't enough before we invented these devices, humans had already been taken over by their minds even 2000 years ago. Not as much as now, but even 2000 years ago. Jesus said, why are you always thinking about tomorrow? Why are you always worried about the next thing? Look at the flower, look how it lives in total alignment with the present moment. And it's being sustained by the one consciousness. That's my translation. So already then humans had been taken over by mind, but even more so since then, mind has proliferated. And then the clever human mind came up with these devices, said let's extend ourselves into the realm of things and then we can create this which is an extension of the human mind. So when you might have noticed.

When.

You are with yourself, you have the voice in the head, unless you begin to awaken, in which case you are able to experience spaces of alert, still presence. It's beautiful, but otherwise you have this think, commenting, talking, arguing and then this becomes a burden for many people. Of course it is a burden because a lot of the stuff it says is actually not pleasant. And so you experience it as a burden. And since you derive your sense of identity from becomes yourself, this talking voice, you think that's you, it becomes the self. And you walk around with this burden of the self. And in order to unburden yourself, one thing you can do is you think you can do is you can watch the television or you can go on. There are countless things that you can watch on the little screen, the entire world's knowledge at your fingertips. And the moment you watch the screen, whether it's television or on the screen, you might have noticed that your so called own thought processes come to a stop. So to some extent you are free of the self. This is why people sometimes find watching television relaxing. Say, okay, I just need to relax now, just turn it on. By this they mean while they watch the television screen, they are not burdened by their self induced thought processes. What they do, however, they replace their own thoughts with the collective thoughts. So they just. You're in a state, you're not in a state of thoughtless awareness. When you watch television or you watch something on the screen, you absorb the thoughts from there into your mind and you link in. So for people often in a state of semi or hypnosis when they watch and it kind of paralyzes you, it can also happen with the screen. With television already started, of course, I don't know, whenever, 60 years ago, whenever television started and you go, and so your mind is just absorbing whatever is playing the TV mind which is receiving stuff from where it comes from, is going into your mind and you become no longer thinking your own thoughts. Occasionally you might, you think, oh, this guy is so stupid.

And then you're watching again.

And then another thought, why am I watching this rubbish? Half an hour later. This is so awful. But you can't, you can't turn it off. Here's the remote. Let's just try one more channel.

There might be something else there.

Oh no, that's stupid. Try one more. This is how an addict behaves. And the device is even more addictive because you carry them with you. And you have to admit, you may have to admit that there is an addiction in you. Not everybody here, but quite a few. It would be almost normal to feel this draw towards it. And you use it even when you don't need to use it. That's the amazing thing. When you're standing at the elevator waiting, another person is standing next to you and he or she is pulling out the phone and then you pull out yours. You don't know why. Or anywhere. You are in a. You're ordering a tea or coffee somewhere and you're standing in line. And if you look around, there's almost nobody and probably nobody who is not looking at this little thing. This is scary.

30 years ago it was just radio and television and people would sit there for hours. But nowadays you have countless sources of stimulus for the mind that draws you into continuously thinking about what's your next Facebook post, what's it going to be? And you look at the ones that are coming in. All these people are doing these fantastic things, things. And me, I'm just sitting here. And then you have to pretend that you are also doing fantastic things and usually it involves taking a nice selfie and then you project yourself image which has existed for a long, long time before in humans. They have a. They have this part of ego is to have this image of who I am. But in this Facebook now you have the opportunity to project that image into the world and it will reach hundreds or thousands of people all at once. And then you construct your life. There are many people alive these days without knowing it. They partly live for their Facebook image and they're just looking for the next thing that they can project out into the world. It's Narcissus. You might remember the myth of Narcissus, the ancient Greek myth. There was this young man who had never seen himself before because they didn't have mirrors at the time. But one day he happened to look into a little pool of water.

And.

He saw himself and he realized that he was extremely beautiful. He said, oh, that's me. And the story goes he fell in love with himself. Not in a good way, not by becoming one with who he is. But the separation happened. This myth shows the beginning stage of the egoic sense of self expressed as a story. The image that he of himself in a pool is the mental image of the ego. And stories are part of that image. That's me. I'm me in my story. So you have the image of me and then, oh, so this guy.

He.

Experienced that separation and then I think something bad happened to him, but I don't remember what. So and then you have other divine things that continuously stimulate the mind that almost designed for you not. Not to become still. It's like the civilization.

Has made a.

Great effort to come up with as many things as possible to prevent people from becoming still and spacious. Taking a moment of looking at the sky and feeling the inner spaciousness arise and becoming aware of the. The leaves of the tree or the branches and the wind blowing and the noise of water. The simple thing becoming still, alert, sensing that stillness within. And of course, a minute later.

Another.

Text message is coming in. Of course, you have to look at it immediately. And then I'm told. I didn't know that when I first started using text. Aaron told me that the etiquette is that you have to reply immediately. And emails are coming in too. Oh dear, I must be very important. I'm getting all these messages.

It.