Speaker (Eckhart Tolle) states that worldly conditions (relationships, jobs, activities) can fulfill you only temporarily; fulfillment is transient. He frames this impermanence as the reason for spiritual retreat — to discover a deeper reality various traditions name the no-self, Deeper Self, Atman, Buddha nature, or the Christ within.
Nothing is fulfilling for very long. The conditions in your life, they can fulfill you for a while and then it's no longer fulfilling. This happens to relationships, this happens to jobs, activities. This is the meaning of retreat. It's a retreat from yourself in order to find what the Buddhists would call the no self, or what other teachings would call the Deeper self, or the Atman, or your Buddha nature, or the Christ within whatever term you want to use to point to it.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
