There is nothing that strengthens the ego more than being right. Being right is identification with a mental position - a perspective, an opinion, a judgement, a story. For you to be right, of course, you need someone else to be wrong, as so the ego loves to make wrong in order to be right.

Eckhart Tolle

Categorized in : Order Ego Perspective

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

Eckhart Tolle

ego religious knowledge

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.

Eckhart Tolle

happiness inspirational life

When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it, all else is madness.

Eckhart Tolle

madness hate complaining

You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are life.

Eckhart Tolle

earth air sun

Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love - you have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

Eckhart Tolle

positivity validation love-you

When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life.

Eckhart Tolle

ends acceptance drama

All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.

Eckhart Tolle

sadness stress regret

When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.

Eckhart Tolle

possibility infinite motivational

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.

Eckhart Tolle

flower tree looks

When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice - the thinker - but the one who is aware of it.

Eckhart Tolle

freedom voice thinking

Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.

Eckhart Tolle

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Observe your thoughts, don't believe them.

Eckhart Tolle

dont-believe believe

Be aware that what you think, to a large extent, creates the emotions that you feel. See the link between your thinking and your emotions. Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.

Eckhart Tolle

emotion links thinking

In today's rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.

Eckhart Tolle

spiritual joy thinking

What is commonly called 'falling in love' is in most cases an intensification of egoic wanting and needing. You become addicted to another person, or rather to your image of that person. It has nothing to do with true love, which contains no wanting whatsoever.

Eckhart Tolle

falling-in-love cases love-is

The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment.

Eckhart Tolle

resistance degrees pain

Many people who are going through the early stages of the awakening process are no longer certain what their outer purpose is. What drives the world no longer drives them. Seeing the madness of our civilization so clearly, they feel somewhat alienated from the culture around them. Some feel that they inhabit a no-man's-land between two worlds. They are no longer run by the ego, yet the arising awareness has not yet become fully integrated into their lives. Inner and outer purpose have not merged.

Eckhart Tolle

land running men

If I find here and Now unacceptable, I have three choices:

Eckhart Tolle

three choices responsibility

Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.

Eckhart Tolle

spiritual-practice practice spiritual

The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.

Eckhart Tolle

keys mind long