In this excerpt, Eckhart Tolle explains that most people are spiritually unconscious because they are completely identified with the stream of thinking. He argues that saying “I think” falsely implies volition and choice, yet thinking actually happens to us without awareness. When opinions are mistaken for identity, disagreements become perceived threats, leading to heated arguments and enemies. Awakening introduces a degree of awareness that lets one observe the mind’s activity, but even awakened individuals may still be caught in reactive mental patterns, especially when challenged. Tolle notes the difficulty of deliberately stopping thought; attempting to suppress it often intensifies the mental activity, likening it to covering a boiling kettle with a lid.
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Most people don't think, because if you say, "I think," that implies that there is a volition behind it, that you have a choice in the matter, but you need some awareness to have a choice. And there are still millions of humans on the planet, they do not have the sufficient awareness to know what's going on in their minds. And if you confuse opinion, which is a thought form, if you confuse opinion with an identity, the other guy who has a different opinion is threatening your identity. In your delusion, that's what you believe and feel. That's how arguments get very heated and Everybody then who questions your opinion that you have thought formed, that you have identified with, everybody who questions it becomes your enemy. So that is what we call in spiritual terms unconscious. Spiritually unconscious means completely identified with the stream of thinking, with a narrative in your mind. So you basically, you're not even there. You are identified. Most people don't think, because if you say, I think, that implies that there is a volition behind it. That you have a choice in the matter, but you need some awareness to have a choice. And there's still millions of humans on the planet, they do not have the sufficient awareness to know what's going on in their minds. And so they say, I think, as if they were doing something, but the fact is that thinking happens to them. Thinking is taking place. They can't help it. And even humans who are already awakening, yes, there's an awareness there. So you, like you, you know what your mind is doing. There is a certain— not always, perhaps, sometimes perhaps you're still completely taken over by some mental, emotional, reactive pattern, especially when being challenged. But there is awareness in you. You are not completely identified with the stream of thinking. But even though you are not completely identified with the stream, it may still be difficult even for you, or some of you, to simply say I'm not going to think now for a minute. Is that a possibility? Don't hold your breath, it doesn't work. Well, it may work, but then when you start thinking again, you think even harder than before. It's like putting a whole holding a lid over a boiling kettle.
