Release Yourself from the Grip of the Egoic Self | Eckhart Tolle

You may be going through an awakening spiritually. And when the ego comes in through the back door, you begin to feel very superior to ordinary people who are not awakening on a collective level. Then, as humans awaken, there will no longer be completely pointless conflict between nations. But it must begin with the absence of pointless conflict on an individual level. The way in which you experience life is a kind of mirroring back to you your predominant state of consciousness. So if you are engaged in continuous conflict and unpleasantness year after year with people, if you engaged maybe in countless court cases with all these nasty people who want something from you, who are all. If you find that when you talk about people, you may find that the strange thing is that those people that you talk about, they are always wrong and you are always right. Isn't that strange? That's an. If that is still the case with you, you might have to. It's very unlikely because you're here, but you might just be. When you talk to others, to third people about others. This is what he said. This is what she said. And then he did this. Then I said, and he never did. He should have, but he didn't. And if you find the strange phenomenon that you are always right and others are always wrong, that's an important realization. How is that possible? I must be superhuman. And in the eyes of the ego, of course, that's kind of the case because the ego, which is that. Which is perhaps the major obstacle towards the realization of that deeper dimension in the ego, strives incessantly for some kind of superiority. And so this is what you are condemned to when you have not yet awakened, even just at least to some extent to the deeper essence of who you are, the awareness, the presence, the stillness. Then you are in the prison of your own personality. And it's not a pleasant place to be. I sometimes watch people, and they are so burdened with their personality, so in the grip of that thing. What is personality? It's the sum total of their mental, emotional conditioning from the past. Mental, emotional conditioning. Mental conditioning means certain thought forms, mind structures that become repetitive, certain narratives concerning your life. My life, says the ego narrative concerning my other people in my life, what I did, what they did to me, my victories, my defeats. Many things form the egoic conditioned self. And one important aspect of the egoic conditioned self is it talks about my life all the time, in the head and out aloud. And my life is what concerns me. Obviously, it's my life. And what is my life? It's a story in my head. But they don't know that. They think it's the reality. But it's a story in my head. It's a narrative. It's the predominant narrative in my mind. And it's a narrative through which I interpret everything that come into contact with. It becomes a screen through which I interpret other people, situations, places, events. I don't know that because I am so identified with that mental emotional conditioning that it has become me. It has become me and my life. I don't know anything else. That's the fate still of the majority of humans on the planet. Although the minority that is awakening is growing, it is still a minority. Most humans are still totally in the grip of their egoic self. And probably most of you are moving still in and out of your egoic self. This is usually how the awakening process happens. Sometimes you are drawn back completely into it and it talks and there's the search for superiority and you compare yourself to others and you need to be right. In any argument, being right is more important than the truth. And you're always right. That's a good sign that there's ego. So the egoic entity, I'll just say a few more words about it because it can be very deceptive. It can use. You come back in sometimes through the back door. By that I mean you may be going through an awakening spiritually. And when the ego comes in through the back door, you begin to feel very superior to ordinary people who are not awakening. And now what does that mean? It means, and this is always ego. There is a conceptual sense of self. And you derive your identity, you derive your sense of who you are from a conceptual mind made self. If, for example, let's take myself in the. The world tells me now, you are a great spiritual teacher. Now, 25, 30 years ago, he didn't tell me that the world basically was saying, who are you? Nobody. Nothing has changed. If I walked around with an image of myself. This requires a lot of awareness because what I'm describing now has happened to some spiritual teachers. The spiritual is only one example. If I had a mental image of myself as a great spiritual teacher, I would be lost again, lost in ego. And so anything that you do, let's stick with spiritual teacher. Because some of you, I know some of you are already spiritual teachers in whatever capacity. Perhaps you're a therapist, perhaps you are working with people in some capacity. And many others of you are destined to become spiritual teachers. It's either directly or indirectly, either formally or non. Formally, of course, you are destined because the world desperately needs awakening. And awakened humans. And so a danger, no matter where you are. But right now we are just talking about becoming a spiritual teacher or being a spiritual teacher in whatever way. Anything that becomes a conceptual sense of self means the ego is coming back in through. Coming in through the back door. And so is it not true then, that at this moment I am a spiritual teacher? Yes, but only in the sense that it's a function. And while this function is happening right here and now, I could say I'm a spiritual teacher. But when I walk off this stage and out the door, if I then carried a mental image of myself as a great spiritual teacher, I would be walking like that. And of course, everybody else would be inferior in my mind. And without knowing it, I would be walking around with a huge ego. And sooner or later, the ego would contaminate or obstruct my ability to teach. It could contaminate the teaching with egoic falsehood, or it could completely block the intuitive teaching. That happens when you. Which means the ego, when you get out of the way. When you get out of the way. Something that transcends the limited you. I call that sometimes the surface I that gets out of the way. And then the deep I emerges as the unconditioned consciousness. And it can use your mind, and that's the way to ultimately use your intelligence in a way that no longer puts the intelligence in the service of madness. So spirit, being a spiritual teacher is a function. When I. When I go away from here, I need to immediately relinquish a mental image and narrative in my mind that tells me who I am. That is a conceptual sense of self. But of course, this not only applies to spiritual teachers, it applies to anybody in any situation. Where do you derive your. Your sense of self from? What is it that gives you your sense of self? I know, of course it on a. On a purely surface level, spiritual teacher works. It can solve problems. When you can tell a person who says, what do you do? You could say this and that. Usually I don't see spiritual teachers. If I go to a foreign country, and sometimes at the border or at the airport, they cast and say, what do you do? Why are you here? And usually I say, I'm a writer. I'm an author. Okay, that solves the problem. I don't go into. I don't advise you to do it either, saying, I have no conceptual identity. They probably won't let you in. We don't want people who have no conceptual identity. It.