Words

When you don’t cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought. Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much.
Don’t say this is an oaktree but say this is called an oaktree for example if you are speaking with children. They should learn that nature is more than just a label we put on. The word is just an abstraction and has nothing to do with the thing itself.

Content and Structure of the Ego

The egoic mind is completely conditioned by the past. Its conditioning is twofold: It consists of content and structure. The content you identify with is conditioned by your environment, your upbringing, and surrounding culture. It’s different for everybody.
The unconscious compulsion to enhance one’s identity through association with an object is built into the very structure of the egoic mind. One of the most basic mind structures through which the ego comes into existence is identification. One of the most basic levels of identification is with things.

Identification with things

“The people in the advertising industry know very well that in order to sell things that people don’t really need, they must convince them that those things will add something to how they see themselves or are seen by others;in other words, add something to their sense of self. They do this, for example, by telling you that you will stand out from the crowd by using this product and so by implication be more fully yourself. And so in many cases you are not buying a product but an “identity enhancer”.”
What you identify with is all content; whereas, the unconscious compulsion to identify is structural. Paradoxically, what keeps the so-called consumer society going is the fact that trying to find yourself through things doesn’t work: The ego satisfaction is short-lived and so you keep looking for more, keep buying, keep consuming.
When you can no longer feel the life that you are, you are likely to try to fill up your life with things.
You can value and care for things, but whenever you get attached to them you will know it is the ego. Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on them.

The Illusion of Ownership

The Ego tends to equate having with Being: I have, therefore I am. And the more I have, the more I am. The ego lives through comparison. How you are seen by others turns into how you see yourself.

Wanting: The Need for More

No ego can last for long without the need for more. Therefore, wanting keeps the ego alive more than having. The ego wants to want more than it wants to have. And so the shallow satisfaction of having is always replaced by more wanting. Wanting is structural, so no amount of content can provide lasting fulfillment as long as that mental structure remains in place.

Identification with the body

In the west the physical appearance of the body contributes greatly to the sense of who you think you are. For many people their sense of self-worth is intimately bound up with their physical strength, fitness etc. And because their identity is based on their good looks they will suffer when it begins to fade. Physical form shares the destiny of all forms – impermanence and ultimately decay.
But it is not just the people with good looking bodies who are likely to equate it with who they are. You can just as easily identify with a “problematic” body and make a illness or disability into your identity. You may than think or speak of yourself as a “sufferer”.
If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn’t know he is dreaming. So there must be more: a new dimension of consciousness.

The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am. If for example a person lost everything so there is nothing left to identify with, the ego is looking for something new to identify with. Sometimes this situation results in complete freedom if there is no new identification. The spirit is released from it’s imprisonment in matter.

Waiting means you don’t like this moment. Whenever you are “waiting” why not practice being instead of waiting.

The Flowering of Human Consciousness

Tolle writes in the introduction about flowers and their evolution. “Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature”. Flowers were one of the first things which had value to us although they had “no purpose” for humans at this time. Flowers grow very beautiful and are not anxious about tomorrow. They present themselves fully and to see that, you should not name it, should not put a label on it but just be present with them. Tolle calls this limiting labeling compulsive naming.

The Voice in your head

The reason why this labeling is so limiting is, that your mind is run by mental abstractions and concepts, its not life. The human condition is Lost in Thought . That’s the voice in the head. It is your conditioned thinking , conditioned by your past, your culture, your surroundings etc. Key is to recognize these thoughts and not to be identified with them. Just allow them to be, be there as the witness. There has to be space between you and your thoughts.

“What liberation to realize that the ” voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.” Or in other words: You are the space in which thoughts and all emotional and sense perceptions happen.

“Undergoing enlightenment” is a extremely rare occurrence since it is more than an evolutionary progression: It also implies a discontinuity in its development, a leap to an entirely different level of Being, most important, a lessening of materiality. This transformation is similar to the transformation of reptilians to birds. Birds didn´t just become better in crawling or walking, but transcended crawling and walking entirely.

For humans this transformation means to rise above identification with form.  (p3)

Essential things only happen if there is a need for them to happen. If there is a certain crisis point reached.

Religion and Spirituality

Underneath the surface differences of many religions are two core insights that most of them agree on. The first is that the normal state of mind of most human beings has a mental defect or even madness. Of course each religion describes this state differently but they all point into the same direction. (p8) The second one is the good part: A radical transformation of the human consciousness is possible.

Most religions are belief systems, a set of thoughts that they regard as the absolute truth, but it can be dangerous if people derive their identity from these thoughts. Other people who don’t think like them become enemies. Because they were identified with these thoughts they felt that their identity is threatened and in the distant past this even justified the killing of others. So religion can be a closed door or an open door to spirituality. It depends how deep you go.

“How spiritual you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness.” The arising of this new consciousness is not another belief system. In fact it is the end of all belief systems, it goes deeper than thought.

State of Consciousness

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.” Lasting change has to go with a change in your state of consciousness.

Most people think for example that if they go on vacation they could be more happy and everything would be fine. They think a new place is the solution to their misery. Sometimes a new environment can help but it is only short-lived. But the truth is that unless they change their state of consciousness before traveling they will be the same unhappy person, independent from the place they are.

The Ego is no more than identification with form, primarily thought forms.

What does life want from me rather than looking for what I want from life is the more powerful question.

We need to learn how to find in our daily life as often as possible this point of power of the present moment. A very simple thing to access this point is to ask yourself  ”Are you still breathing?”.  Or another thing is to do simple things like washing hands or going up the stairs very conscious. That means to be fully present while doing these things. To the mind of course these things are completely meaningless. With these things you can train your mind. Unfortunately most people do simple things just as an means to an end. They always think about the next moment and not the present moment. For example while we making the cup of coffee we already want to drink it. Become friendly with the present moment.

Ask yourself as often as possible: “What is my relationship with the present moment?”

What you resist persists.

Things can’t provide ultimate satisfaction. Or general speaking the world of form cant satisfy you. Maybe for a short time but not ultimately. But we can enjoy forms.

Don’t be defined by things.