Eckhart Tolle examines why material success and worldly achievements fail to bring lasting fulfillment. He explores how the ego builds identity around accomplishments, and what happens when those achievements end, like in retirement, leaving people searching for meaning beyond what they've achieved.
What you are looking for is something deeper. What every human is looking for is something deeper than the world can give you. The world can only challenge you, give you challenges and adversities so that you awaken. The world cannot, as I said, it cannot make you happy because it's not here to make you happy, but it has another purpose. It is here to make you conscious. That's how it operates also. That means whatever arises in the present moment is just right for this moment, for you, at this moment. But feel stuck in the mind, the egoic mind, the. Then you will completely ignore or even continuously dislike the present moment. And that is an amazing way to live. It is dreadful. But millions still live like that without knowing it. Unconsciously, they live for the next moment until they get very old. Then they know there is not much time left. Then the past becomes more and more important, the heaviness of the past. Oh, oh. So living for the next moment is for most people, unconscious and quite normal. They live hoping that at some point they are going to achieve fulfillment. And little fulfillments come here and there and there's nothing wrong with that. It's wonderful when you achieve things. It's even wonderful when you fall in love. Enjoy it. Falling is not going to last, but enjoy it. So that's great. It's not. But there's always. I've met in the. Fortunately been able to meet over the years quite a few people who are in the eyes of the world, highly successful. They've got everything. They've got fame, they've got money, they've got everything. They have got their private jets. They can go anywhere at any moment, can have anything, any pleasure. And they've told me that after, when, after they achieved fame and fortune. There was an initial time period when there was elation and they were on a continuous high. But then gradually more and more, they. They experienced a very deep low in their mental emotional state, including depression and wanting to. Not wanting to live anymore. They had everything but. And some had to go to drugs to make life bearable. Had everything wasn't enough. It wasn't enough. And then you can't fool yourself anymore when you have everything. You can't fool yourself. When I achieve that, I'll be happ. No, you have achieved everything and you're not happy. So the worst thing is. Would be for you to achieve, to get everything that you want. And then you can't fool yourself anymore and look to the future for some fulfillment. And that's really dreadful. So that is the human condition and it all is connected to who you sense yourself to be, your identity, your identity as who you are, your sense of self that is the foundation for your life, your sense of self. And everybody is concerned with identity from childhood onward, the identity becomes very important. Of course, every human needs shelter and food, sustenance, shelter, and one could say almost the next thing. Well, the next thing is, as a human grows up, need some kind of love or affection, but that's already bound up with identity. Because if you don't get love and affection, then you already have a deficient sense of self that developed in early age. So identity refers to your sense of self. And where does your sense of self come from? What does it mean to be you? And usually most humans, especially those who are not awakening yet, they look to their sense of identity through a narrative that is connected to their past. So that's. I call that sometimes the story of me. So everybody has the story of me. I call that. Well, it's a narrative. And you people call it. This is an interesting expression. They call it my life. So you think about my life. Let me think about that. Well, it's a mixture of good and bad. It's been all kinds of weird things in the past. And certainly almost everybody says it didn't quite go the way I had imagined it to be when I was 18 or 17. And many people have a feeling something went wrong somewhere. It's not. Strangely, many people have the feeling they haven't started to live yet. It's almost like I'm still. I'm hoping at some point I'm going to start living soon. I just need to meet the right person. I just need to get that job. I just need to find this or that possession or if people would only recognize my worth or recognition of one kind. It's an unconscious process, the longing. My life hasn't actually started yet. And some people have that throughout their life until finally they are surprised that they reach retirement. And they still. But just maybe a few years before retirement, you can look to your retirement as the liberation. Then I can start living. Now I know when I'm. When I retire, then I can start living. Okay, two more years. One more year, six months. And then the moment comes. You sit in your office and the clock reaches 5 o' clock. It's my last day. And then off you go. And the first few days and weeks are great because you go to the golf course and then sit around. If you have sufficient funds, you can have your cocktails. You may not have sufficient funds these days. So that's another problem. And so a few weeks pass, and you sit there, and then you take a trip and you come back, and then you move to a better climate, because you don't. Let's move to Florida, okay? And then you sit in Florida just looking at the sun. And then they played another game of golf. And then a kind of fatigue sets in. And then their mind says, and now what? And nothing. Who am I now? I had this title. I had a job description. I was the vice president of this company or whatever. And now I am no longer a vice president. And a great part of my identity was derived from the concept of vice president of the company. And suddenly the concept has dissolved. And who am I now without that? Well, that's weird. I get this weird feeling of not being nobody anymore. You're retired. And it's a strange thing that it is not uncommon for people to die just two or three years after retiring because there's nothing there anymore to live for. They were looking towards retirement for some kind of solution, but that's not it. So it's not everybody is looking where it cannot be found. It cannot be found in the future. That what you are looking for cannot be found in the future. Because don't tell anybody, but there is no future. There is no future. There just seems to be a future.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
