{"id":66024,"date":"2022-05-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=66024"},"modified":"2022-05-20T16:02:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:02:41","slug":"eckhart-tolle-the-ego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/eckhart-tolle-the-ego\/","title":{"rendered":"Eckhart Tolle: How the Ego Gives Rise to the Self"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What exactly is the ego? How does the ego give rise to one&#8217;s self? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Eckhart Tolle, &#8220;ego&#8221; is the part of your mind that comments, doubts, and speculates on everything. The ego is driven by fear of being nothing, which it tries to alleviate through identification with material, thought, and emotional elements, giving rise to what you think of as your \u201cself.\u201d &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle explains the concept of the ego and how it gives rise to the self and identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-the-ego\">What Is the Ego? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Psychologists define the ego as a kind of \u201cmental organ\u201d or \u201cdefense system\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/theory-knowledge\/202105\/what-is-the-ego#:~:text=being%20evidence%20for%20the%20strong%20motivational,ego%20tries%20to%20maintain%20a%20consistent\">whose role is to create and maintain a satisfying self-image and social role in the world.<\/a> In other words, we want to be seen as a \u201cgood\u201d person and important in at least <em>some<\/em> contexts, and the ego helps us do this. Expert opinions seem to support Tolle\u2019s assertion that the ego has a fear of being nothing\u2014this would explain why they call the ego a \u201cdefense system\u201d that helps us maintain our identity and social roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-egoic-goal-gaining-elements-and-superiority\"><strong>The Egoic Goal: Gaining Elements and Superiority<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Eckhart Tolle, the ego attempts to eliminate its fear of being nothing by collecting and identifying with material, thought, and emotional elements. The ego then compares these elements to others\u2019, judging them as either <em>better<\/em> or <em>worse\u2014<\/em>if it judges others\u2019 elements to be worse, this enables the ego to feel superior to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Research conducted by UC Berkeley supports Tolle\u2019s claim that people naturally strive for superiority over others. Experts discovered that not only do people strive for high status, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irle.berkeley.edu\/files\/2016\/Striving-for-superiority.pdf\">they prefer to have a <em>higher<\/em> status than others<\/a> and were more satisfied when others were <em>lower <\/em>than them rather than equal, indicating that people don\u2019t just want to be good, they want to be <em>better than<\/em> others.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gaining elements alleviates the fear of being nothing because it gives the ego an identity\u2014something to call \u201cme,\u201d \u201cmine,\u201d and \u201cmy story.\u201d <strong>These elements and our social standing form the mental image most people conjure up when they think of the \u201cself.\u201d <\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Experts believe that our self-image is formed by four components: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simplypsychology.org\/self-concept.html\">our physical body, social roles, personal traits, and abstract existential beliefs<\/a>. These components correspond to Tolle\u2019s \u201celements.\u201d Our physical body is a material element, our social roles and existential beliefs are thought elements, and our personal traits are emotional elements\u2014these components are the things we call \u201cme,\u201d \u201cmine,\u201d and \u201cmy story.\u201d)&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What exactly is the ego? How does the ego give rise to one&#8217;s self? According to Eckhart Tolle, &#8220;ego&#8221; is the part of your mind that comments, doubts, and speculates on everything. The ego is driven by fear of being nothing, which it tries to alleviate through identification with material, thought, and emotional elements, giving rise to what you think of as your \u201cself.\u201d &nbsp;&nbsp; Here&#8217;s how spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle explains the concept of the ego and how it gives rise to the self and identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[613],"class_list":["post-66024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-spiritual","tag-a-new-earth","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eckhart Tolle: How the Ego Gives Rise to the Self - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What exactly is the ego? 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