What Is The Purpose Of Mental Illness? with Eckhart Tolle

Hi, Eckhart. My question has two parts. It's what is the purpose of mental illness? How can something that is consciousness depriving have its necessary place and function?

Okay, somebody, or perhaps it was me, probably said that everything has its necessary place.

Yes.

Now, in the larger context, if you look around the world, it's not only mental illness, which exists in different gradations. Mental illness in its acute form, where it is recognized as mental illness. Mental illness in its less acute form, where we call it neurosis, whatever. And mental illness, well, neurosis already is normal. So mental illness in its normal form, which is normal. Human consciousness, the world is full of consciousness, seemingly consciousness blocking events. All the suffering, you say, what purpose could that possibly have? For example, you could say, what purpose could human beings killing each other in the 20th century alone? Human beings killing a hundred, not 100 million, as I said in the Power of Now, that was a mistake. I've realized later, but closer to 170 million people killed in the 20th century alone. Humans killing other humans, 170 million. Nobody knows the exact figure, but that's. What purpose can that possibly have? You can ask also that all that suffering can't possibly have a purpose, can it? And then all the other things that you have, young children dying of accidents or illnesses, or all kinds of things that seem to be blocking consciousness, people trapped in dreadful conditions, slave like conditions still in many parts of the world, and was like that until recently, even in the Western world, trapped and not totally deprived of freedom. All these things that seem to block the arising of the flowering of consciousness, particularly if you look at it in isolation. But it does seem that first of all a misperception arises when we look at a human being as if he or she were an entirely autonomous entity. In other words, as if he or she, the life, that he or she has his or her own life. Because then you see, you then look at everybody as an autonomous life form, without realizing that all life forms and all humans are a temporary expression of the one life. The life in you or the consciousness in you is the consciousness in me. The same consciousness expressing itself in a different form. And there is something happening in this universe which is consciousness coming into the world of form and expressing itself more and more fully through the world of form. But it is always the one consciousness, assuming billions of life forms constantly. But the human thinks, that's me, that's my life. No, it's life, it's not my consciousness, I don't have my consciousness. It's the one consciousness, the One in the many. So all life is one. So when something seemingly dreadful happens on one level, it is always dreadful. Nobody can say that humans killing 180 million of their fellow humans is not dreadful on that level. But if you go to a deeper level, you see that something is emerging. And for some reason it is through in many cases seemingly being blocked here and there, that the consciousness is emerging more fully. That also has its place. You can't see it when you look at individual cases, but when you look at the totality of consciousness wanting to emerge, yet finding seemingly obstacles everywhere. But it's through the obstacles that the flowering actually happens. And so you might say, oh, isn't it unfair that this person represents a greater obstacle than another person? But it's the essence of any person is the one consciousness. So nothing is lost, ever. And in so called mental illness, there's also something to be learned by the one consciousness. What it is, I don't know. But I do know that many mental, a certain percentage of mental illnesses are a rising of consciousness that has gone slightly wrong, that isn't quite hasn't or is unrecognized. There are people in India who have become saints and masters, who would have been put in a mental home in the west, because the west doesn't recognize certain things that this spiritual rising, unfortunately they were not born in the west, but there are probably many people in the West. I'm not saying that all mental illness is a misinterpretation, a non recognition of awakening process, but ultimately everything is part of the awakening process. And why do I know all these things? You know things by looking at your own life. And I know that all the things that seem to block the full arising of consciousness in my life, and I'm sure you can find the same in your life, all the seeming obstacles to living a life of fullness and ease and greater awareness, ultimately all those things actually led to the arising to the Awakening. When I look at my own life, and my own life is only a microcosm of the collective in must be. And I see all the blockages and all the suffering actually was part of the awakening, without which it would not have happened. And collectively the suffering of humanity in so many forms is also unfortunately a necessary part of the awakening. But realize that what we see as somebody's personal identity is not who they are. They are an expression of the one which is constantly finding new channels through which to express itself in this world. So if this channel is blocked, we see it as a person who is suffering that's also true on one level. And of course, you help. If you are there. You. You give whatever help you can. That's part of it. But there's that personal sense of self is ultimately an illusion because who you are is ultimately timeless and beyond the person. So I know that if I had not encountered all these seeming blockages in my life, I wouldn't be sitting here now. And if you had not suffered what you suffered, you wouldn't be here now. And so the obstacles to the arising of consciousness are ultimately part of the arising consciousness. And there's only one life. And that's a liberating thing to know that the life in you, the life in me, is the one life. And if I die at this moment, nothing is really lost. If you die, nothing is lost. So we need to get away from the misperception that you have your life and it's one unique thing, and you are an expression of the one. And everybody is. And so humanity as a whole is awakening. And there's a term in the Bible which says the birth pangs of the new age, the birth pangs before giving birth, there's a pain. So these are the birth pangs of the Awakening. And if you could see the totality, that also would make sense. It doesn't mean that killing 180 million is okay. Recognizing that it is insanity is part of the awakening. The recognition of that as insanity, that collective part of the collective insanity that's part of the awakening. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Thank you.

Sam.