oct14.

I wrote about Eckhart Tolle once. His books were a huge hit, in America especially. Everything he says makes so much sense I'll sometimes find myself reading the same lines over and over again, like it was something I couldn't afford to forget.

Excerpts, (I won't inundate):

From chapter All Structures are Unstable.

Whatever form it takes, the unconscious drive behind ego is to strengthen the image of who I think I am...the hidden motivating force is always the same: the need to stand out, be special, be in control; the need for power, for attention, for more. There is always a hidden agenda, always a sense of "not enough yet", of insufficiency and lack that needs to be filled.

The underlying emotion that governs all the activity of the ego is fear. The fear of being nobody, the fear of nonexistence..All its activities are ultimately designed to eliminate this fear, but the most [it] can ever do is to cover it up temporarily with an intimate relationship, a new possession, or winning at this or that.

From chapter Allowing the Diminishment of the Ego.

Automatic ego-repair mechanisms come into effect to restore the mental form of "me". When someone blames or criticizes..that to the ego is a diminishment of self, and it will immediately attempt to repair. It is much more interested in self-preservation than in the truth. One of the most common ego-repair mechanisms is anger, which causes a temporary but huge ego inflation.

A powerful sprititual practice is consciously to allow the diminishment of ego when it happens without attempting to restore it.

...when someone criticizes..-do nothing.

When you no longer defend or attempt to strengthen the form of yourself, you step out of identification with form, with mental self-image. When you...remain in absolute non-reaction, not just externally but also internally, you realize that nothing real has been diminished, that through becoming "less," you become more.

From chapter Lose Yourself to Find Yourself

Some ways in which people unconsciously try to emphasize their form identity:
Demanding recognition...and getting angry or upset if you don't get it; trying to get attention by talking about your problems, giving your opinion when nobody has asked for it and it makes no difference to the situation; trying to make an impression...through possessions, knowledge...through angry reaction...; taking things personally, feeling offended; making yourself right and others wrong through futile mental or verbal complaining, wanting to be seen, or to appear important.