Eckhart Tolle argues that you don't have a life, you are life itself. The barrier between self and world is a mental construct. When it dissolves, you experience oneness with everything, which is the deeper essence of love.
You are life, an expression of the one life, a temporary expression in this form of the one timeless life. So you don't have a life because then it means there's life and you. But who are you without life? There is not that barrier between this me and there's the rest of the world. No, you are the universe. You're not, as I sometimes say, you're not in the universe. This is the misconception, me and the universe. You are. The totality, you are the universe, whatever you experience, the universe is experiencing. If you are in joy, the universe is in joy. So when you look at nature comes to a self-realization that wouldn't have been there without your, so-called your presence. And that's a wonderful thing to know that the, That really is, you begin to see the oneness with you and that. And this, the oneness, when you become, which is not there the moment you conceptualize and impose labels on things, that creates a barrier. When you let go of that, there's a continuum, and there's that sense of oneness with that which you are perceiving. And ultimately, in a deeper sense, that oneness is love. Not in the conventional sense, not the sticky love that you're— But it's the recognition of oneness. And that's a— so this is the use nature so that to become still and present as you walk through it and perceive with all your senses. And then you're aware of not only that which arises in your sensory perception, but more, even more fundamentally, you are aware of yourself as the underlying presence without which or this wouldn't even be there. The light needs to be there, the light of consciousness. It all arises in the light of consciousness. You are that light, and that light is not your possession. You are, it comes through you. It's not, these are not individual lights. Your life is not yours. You don't have a life. As I— one of my favorite, has become one of my favorite sayings, "You don't have a life, you are life." I don't have a life, it's an absurd error to say "my life," because this is what thought, which then becomes language, becomes words, what it does to reality, it creates misperceptions. So, I mean, it seems so natural, you say, "My life." Everybody says it, and I say it sometimes, and I say sometimes, "Your life," but I don't believe in it. It's just a conventional way of speaking, but most people actually believe in it. They believe that they actually have a life, and they have, "This is my life. I need to think about my life now." Oh. So you've separated yourself. You said, "This is me and there's my life." That's strange. And then of course the fear comes, "Oh, what am I going to do with my life? I could lose my life." Okay, you cannot have a life because you are life. An expression of the one life, a temporary expression in this form of the one timeless life. So you don't have a life because then it means there's life and you. But who are you without life?
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
