Eckhart Tolle describes how most people mistake their constant stream of thoughts for their true self. This identification with thinking creates the ego and leads to what he calls unconscious living, a state where you lose touch with any inner spaciousness beyond the mental chatter.
the unawakened state, complete loss of inner spaciousness. There's no awareness of anything in you except just complete identification with the stream of thinking that is mistaken for who you are, and that's the ego. To mistake who you are, to confuse who you are with the incessant stream of thinking, plus the emotions that accompany the incessant stream of thinking, that is what we call unconscious living.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
