In this teaching Eckhart Tolle argues that the fundamental cause of human suffering is the exclusive identification with the human persona – the mental narrative, ego, and social roles that we consider ourselves to be. When this identity is challenged by loss or other painful events, the resulting clash produces intense suffering because the identified self is not the true essence of the being. Tolle contrasts two pathways out of this condition: waiting for a "dark night of the soul" – a profound crisis that can dissolve the egoic story – or, more directly, turning attention away from thoughts and stories toward the underlying awareness that simply "is". He explains that the mind must become still, not by sleeping but by remaining alert while letting go of thinking, allowing the sense of "I am" or pure presence to surface. This presence is described as a dimension of being that is independent of age, gender, race, achievements, or any personal history. By repeatedly directing attention to this awareness, one can awaken to the essential beingness, liberating oneself from the limited human identification without needing to endure a prolonged dark night. Suffering, when it does arise, can be used as a catalyst to further strip away erroneous identity and deepen the experience of the true self.
Chapters
Only knowing yourself as human is the cause of suffering. And so you can either wait for the dark night of the soul to happen and hopefully awaken you out of the narrative of who or what you are, or more easily, you can start now. At some point, mental constructs get challenged by events, for example, by loss. Something challenges you and then you begin to suffer. But in some cases, the mental constructs are so strong, and that's the ego, they remain, a person remains in the grip of their construct for the rest of their lives. There's no guarantee that you will go beyond it, although any suffering that you encounter is a potential for transcending. If you don't encounter enough suffering, then you probably won't transcend it all. But the important thing is your entire sense of identity is a mental creation, a narrative, and in some way, when the narrative gets challenged, it can lead to extreme suffering, but what's being challenged is ultimately not real. It's not real who you are, it is not who essentially you are, because you are not a mental narrative, you're not a mental concept, you are ultimately not a human, because the human dimension of you is ephemeral and fleeting and short-lived and limited. You are a human only on the surface level of reality, but you're essentially the being behind the human, and that's why you're a human being. But most people don't know the being, they only know themselves as human, and when you only know yourself as human, suffering is always just around the corner. It's inevitable. You can't get out of it. And so that limitation, only knowing yourself as human, is the cause of suffering. And so you can either wait for the dark night of the soul to happen and hopefully awaken you out of the narrative, of who or what you are, or more easily, you can start now by directing your attention away from stories that your mind is telling you. In other words, realizing that you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are there, But you are not your thoughts, you are aware of your thoughts, and so that means you are the awareness behind your thoughts, the presence, the being behind the human, the being behind the human. Now the question is: can you sense the being of you here and now? And in order to sense that for a moment, the mind needs to become still. Let go of thinking, but don't go to sleep. It's not going to sleep at all. You remain alert, but thinking is not helpful for this realization who or what you essentially are. Thinking doesn't get you there. Thinking is the obstacle. For a moment you just let go of thinking and what is left of you is something very hard to describe, a sense of beingness, of 'I am,' that's all. 'I am' means 'I be,' it's a being. A sense of beingness, a presence, a stillness. And then first you just touch it and then gradually you go deeper because you realize how wonderful it is that there is a whole dimension of you that has virtually nothing to do with who or what you are as a person. It has nothing to do with what age you are. It's nothing to do with what gender you are. It's nothing to do with what race you are. It's nothing to do with your attainments, whether in the eyes of the world you are a great success or a great failure. Nothing to do with your historical person at all. It's beyond that. And that's the liberation from the person. So by simply directing attention there now, you're beginning to awaken, and you don't really need the dark night of the soul anymore. But if it should happen, you will go through very quickly, and then you'll be able to sense the essential beingness of you even more strongly. That's the secret, that's the liberation. So the important thing is: look for yourself here and now, don't wait for the suffering to start. But when suffering does come, use it. It will take away Eronious identification and erroneous identity is being taken away.
