Eckhart Tolle on the Circular Trap of Consumerism

Eckhart Tolle

I really like the way Eckhart Tolle explains why our materialistic society has so many of us running ever faster on the hamster wheel of consumerism. I am particularly impressed by the analogy he makes in the last sentence. This excerpt is from his book, A New Earth.
 

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.

Of course, in this physical dimension that our surface selves inhabit, things are a necessary and inescapable part of our lives. We need housing, clothes, furniture, tools, transportation. There may also be things in our lives that we value because of their beauty or inherent quality. We need to honor the world of things, not despise it. Each thing has Beingness, is a temporary form that has its origin within the formless one Life, the source of all things, all bodies, all forms. In most ancient cultures, people believed that everything, even so-called inanimate objects, had an indwelling spirit, and in this respect they were closer to the truth than we are today. When you live in a world deadened by mental abstraction, you don’t sense the aliveness of the universe anymore. Most people don’t inhabit a living reality, but a conceptualized one.

But we cannot really honor things if we use them as a means to self-enhancement, that is to say, if we try to find ourselves through them. This is exactly what the ego does. Ego-identification with things creates attachment to things, obsession with things, which in turn creates our consumer society and economic structures where the only measure of progress is always more. The unchecked striving for more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a disease. It is the same dysfunction the cancerous cell manifests, whose only goal is to multiply itself, unaware that it is bringing about its own destruction by destroying the organism of which it is a part.

HERE ARE MY POSTS FEATURING ECKHART TOLLE:

ECKHART TOLLE ON BECOMING THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

ECKHART TOLLE ON ALLEVIATING THE SUFFERING OF THE WORLD

ECKHART TOLLE ON THE CIRCULAR TRAP OF CONSUMERISM

ECKHART TOLLE ON CONSCIOUS PARENTING

ECKHART TOLLE: AWAKE IN THE DREAM

ARE SPIRITUAL PEOPLE BETTER THAN OTHERS? NOT SO MUCH.

MEETING OF THE MINDS

DO NOT LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE

THE SLO-MO CHALLENGE

HELLO, DANGER. YOU GO NOW.

WHEN THE SPIRIT IS READY, THE TEACHER APPEARS

MASTERS CONTINUE TO WALK THE EARTH

THERE IS GREATNESS WITHIN YOU!

EVERY CUBIC INCH OF SPACE IS A MIRACLE

BE PRESENT, BE POWERFUL, BE TIMELESS!

ABOUT PHIL BOLSTA

Phil is the author of Through God’s Eyes: Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World, a comprehensive guide to living a spiritual life. Who will benefit from reading it?

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Tags: A New Earth, consumerism, Eckhart Tolle, ego, materialistic, spiritual