Eckhart Tolle on the Danger of Comfort Zones

There's this beautiful saying. I believe it may come from Sufism, but I'm not sure. It doesn't matter where it comes from, because everything comes out of the one consciousness. So it doesn't ultimately matter who. Doesn't matter who said it or what tradition it comes from. There's only one consciousness that speaks and lives through countless beings. When the ego weeps for what it has lost, the spirit rejoices for what it has found. So the ego, of course, is happy when something is added that provides the comfort. The ego wants things to be added to itself, which is quite natural. You don't need to tell your children, don't wish for things. Don't try to get anything, because it's all ego. You have to keep away from that. It's wrong to want to add anything. Don't add anything. Don't buy. Or you can tell your friend, don't buy that car, because you're just adding something to yourself. And it'll just amplify your ego. Don't do that. Don't succeed. Because if you succeed, your ego may get bigger. So don't. Don't succeed. Don't look for success. Okay, so the. The mastery of life, so to speak, is in. You pursue life on this level where these things are fine. There's nothing wrong with adding here and there, not in an obsessive way, because that makes it even more frustrated, but improving your life, as we said before. And then when these things happen to disrupt diminishments, rather than when things happen that seem to diminish you, rather than things happening that seem to add to who you are, things happen that seem to diminish who you are. And that starts with a little thing like losing your wallet. It's very small. Ultimately, on a larger scale, it doesn't matter, but it is a small diminishment. Or when you lose your job or something happens in your family environment, to your children, to any toilet, friends at work, things, you lose your job, whatever. Many things can diminish you. Even an insult by somebody, you silly man, are you stupid? An insult is a kind of diminishment to the eagle. It feels as if somebody had torn a little bit out of you. And diminishments are one manifestation of being taken out of your comfort zone, the egoic comfort zone. And when it happens, because everybody, sooner or later, will encounter diminishments, you will also encounter the opposite, which is fine. It's part of. The two are part of life. You gain and then you lose. When you gain the Ego likes to identify with it. Look, I got that. It starts with little things. I just bought that take a picture post. Now you can not only Show Nicho to two people, you can show it to 200, 2000, depends how many friends you have on Facebook. Look, so you can actually, once you know that this is how life functions, that the two are there, the two movements. And also you know that ultimately, because you're going to grow old, maybe the body will not function that well anymore as you grow older. And ultimately you are going to you as this form is going to dissolve. So ultimately, as you grow older, no matter how successful you've been in life, you've built up your position. Now you've got the big house and only have one house. You have five houses and you're really so established. You have your investments and you have your maybe a big family and maybe they're all happy. It's unlikely, but who knows? And you feel really, you're now firmly established in life. All the insecurities of the past are gone. Your life is totally secure, not only by your. Secured by your investments, it's also secured by your insurance, various insurances that you have. So nothing can possibly happen. You've got your huge life insurance and despite that, suddenly you experience. Suddenly or gradually, you experience diminishment. At some point your confidence, you don't work anymore, you retire. And then you sit and that's the beginning of it. So the first thing that's been taken away from you is who you think you are. There's this guy or this woman or this man with this important position in life. And then all you have is the important position that you once had. And that's not as satisfying to the ego as having important. You can just look at your photos now and the trophies. And yet even your trophy wife in the meantime has become old. So that doesn't work anymore either. And so just when you think I actually wrote that somewhere in a book, just when you. When you think you finally arrived, that's the beginnings of all the diminishments. It's not fair, but that's also great opportunity. I don't know if you've never. If you've been identified with the. With externals all your life and finally arrive at old age. Who knows whether that potential opening is still there. It could be, might not be. In some old people, the ego shell has become so rigid that there is no opening. And when finally disease comes or death approaches, it's the crack that finally appears, might be too late. You See, with some old people who become more entrenched in their egos, and others begin to transcend the ego. They become the ego shell cracks or becomes more transparent. So you can see some old people are like, don't talk to me about life. Let me tell you what it's like. And you mention any word, and immediately they have an opinion, and they don't know it's an opinion. It's the truth. Let me tell you how it is. Doesn't matter what political party they belong to. It's the truth. That's how it is. Look at them, these fools. So you get more and more trapped in that rigid, egoic shell. And then there are others who, whether this spiritual background or not, whether they have already explored spirituality, when old age comes, they come to a place of acceptance. And then they become more compassionate, more loving, even more joyful, and something a light shines through. They become a little bit like children, but that's that kind of openness of a child. A child that's not yet burdened with excessive conceptualization in their minds. That openness where you just are able to look at something and you go. You're not immediately imposing conceptualization on things and people. So I've met some old people in the 80s, 90s, I've met some old people, I said, I think I'm old myself by now, but in the 80s or 90s, who go just shining. And many of them have experienced. They have gone through diminishments. They have gone. They have lost things. And at some point, whether through spiritual teaching or simply through life, they've come to a place of cooperating with the diminishments, cooperating with the acts of sabotage that life seems to inflict on you. Say, oh, there it is, here's another one. And at some point they learned even to welcome, saying, oh, thanks, I just lost this. Whatever it was that they lost. Thank you.