{"id":66026,"date":"2022-05-16T10:28:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T14:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=66026"},"modified":"2022-05-20T16:02:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:02:51","slug":"eckhart-tolle-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/eckhart-tolle-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"Eckhart Tolle: Thought Is at the Root of All Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How do thoughts affect behavior? How does overidentifying with thought cause suffering and dysfunction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Eckhart Tolle, thought is at the root of human dysfunction. In his book <em>A New Earth<\/em>, he explains that our thought elements shape how we interact with the world and lead to two forms of dysfunction: 1) inauthentic relationships, and 2) polarization and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s why identifying with our thought elements is harmful to both ourselves and others around us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-thought-elements\">Thought Elements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Tolle explains that <em>thought elements<\/em> are the recurring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-break-negative-thought-patterns\/\">thought patterns<\/a> we identify with, such as the roles we play (like mother, customer, or employee) and the ideologies we believe in (like morals, values, and religions).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Eckhart Tolle, thought elements are the cause of human dysfunction in two ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Inauthentic relationships: <\/strong>Tolle argues that when we adhere to societal roles, we act based on what we <em>think <\/em>that role calls for rather than how we <em>really <\/em>feel. When that happens, our relationships can become artificial. For example, when we\u2019re playing a parent role, we might act superior because we\u2019re \u201cthe knowledgeable adult,\u201d and we therefore might end up missing a more authentic emotional connection that our child needs. In extreme forms, role-based relationships can lead to human mistreatment like slave versus master, or in everyday forms, like an abusive boss and submissive employee. Ultimately, when we see another person as a label\u2014a child, slave, employee, and so on\u2014rather than a human being, our relationship with them is formed according to this label rather than how we feel toward them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Polarization and violence: <\/strong>When we attach our self-image to ideologies like religious beliefs, we want to feel these beliefs are \u201cright\u201d<strong> <\/strong>(superior) for our ego to feel \u201cenough.\u201d Consequently, we insist that others who contradict our beliefs are \u201cwrong\u201d and will often resort to violence to assert this truth. For example, during the Crusades, Christians raped, tortured, and killed those of different spiritual beliefs to assert Christianity as \u201cright.\u201d Ultimately, when others fail to share our beliefs, morals, or values, we experience negative emotions like anger, frustration, and resentment\u2014the underlying causes of human polarization and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Experts agree that religious identity can cause polarization and violence because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/out-the-darkness\/201907\/the-compassion-problem#:~:text=suspicious%20and%20hostile%20towards%20marginalized,Christians%20advocate%20conflict%20and\">the underlying psychological function of religion is to provide us with a sense of <em>certainty<\/em> and <em>identity<\/em><\/a>. The human need to have an identity, and for that identity to be \u201cright,\u201d can grow so strong that the individual becomes more concerned with maintaining their truth than upholding the religion\u2019s teachings. Ultimately, experts explain that the more reliant people are on religion as a form of certainty and identity, the less compassionate and understanding they are of others, and the more likely they are to grow distant from and even violent towards people who contradict their beliefs.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do thoughts affect behavior? How does overidentifying with thought cause suffering and dysfunction? According to Eckhart Tolle, thought is at the root of human dysfunction. In his book A New Earth, he explains that our thought elements shape how we interact with the world and lead to two forms of dysfunction: 1) inauthentic relationships, and 2) polarization and violence. Here&#8217;s why identifying with our thought elements is harmful to both ourselves and others around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31988,"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-66026","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: Thought Is at the Root of All Evil - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to Eckhart Tolle, thought elements are at the root of human dysfunction. 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