Hello all, I just attended the enormously transformational Eckhart Tolle School of Awakening retreat last week in Lake Louise, Canada. I’m still in Canada (in Victoria now) and have been processing what happened at the retreat. What came up for me was the realization of a need for a huge and sudden change in my life circumstances. I’ll go into that in a later post. First I want to talk about the prerequisites for entering Ego Rehab. The first prerequisite is some level of self awareness.
You have to be able to at least be aware of your inner states in order to do this work. If you’re completely identified with your inner states, i.e. with your thoughts and emotions, you won’t be able to do the Ego Rehab exercises, namely studying your ego and listing your ego disguises, which is fundamental to this work. In other words, if there’s no separation between you and your thoughts and emotions, meaning you’re fully identified with your thoughts and emotions, then you’re completely in the grip of your ego. And there needs to be at least a slight opening of awareness to be able to do this work.
Some people are unwilling to look at their inner states and take responsibility for them. So either the inability or unwillingness to be aware of your inner states precludes you from entering Ego Rehab. Unfortunately, I came to this realization because of something I’m going through with someone close to me.
Eckhart Tolle says in A New Earth, “If in the midst of negativity, you are able to realize ‘At this moment I am creating suffering for myself’ it will be enough to raise you above the limitations of conditioned egoic states and reactions. It will open up infinite possibilities which come to you when there is awareness—other vastly more intelligent ways of dealing with any situation.”
This starts with being aware of negative thoughts and emotions when they arise. For example, “I’m feeling anger right now” instead of just acting out unconscious patterns from that anger. Like, when a man who’s frustrated with his wife unconsciously acts out that emotion, instead of noticing within himself: “I’m experiencing anger right now. I can see that it’s causing me suffering. Let me be aware of if it, feel it completely, and send it love.” The anger is not a result of anything his wife said or did, the anger comes up as a result of the ego’s story about what his wife said or did. And if he is unaware of this, he will continue to act out unconscious patterns, like yelling at her or punishing her with passive aggressive behavior.
The second prerequisite for entering Ego Rehab is a dedication to the Truth. In other words, complete sincerity in following this path of conscious awareness.
By the way, ego interventions aren’t allowed at Ego Rehab. For the reasons described above, people must enter of their own accord, despite what my business card says! (I printed these out for the Eckhart Tolle retreat. 😂)
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