Eckhart Tolle On Depression

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Eckhart Tolle On Depression

Excerpted from transcript of Oprah and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth Online Class

SHARON (AUDIENCE MEMBER): Hi, Oprah. Hello, Mr. Tolle. I have a question. I have close relationships to people who suffer from depression.

And in talking with them and trying to be useful to my friends when they talk to me about a bout of depression or what have you, I find that there's an inwardness and a strong identity that they have as people who suffer from depression.

And I wonder, what role does the ego play in depression, and to what extent is it helpful to sort of point them toward this definition of the ego, the content identity
and the structural identity?

I mean, or is it unfair for me to feel that that should be useful, given that, you know, there seems to be a strong identification with themselves as people
who suffer from depression.

ECKHART TOLLE: Yes. That, again, brings us back to an earlier question where the condition — whether the condition is a physical condition that one suffers from or whether it is a psychological condition that one suffers from.

There is the tendency to identify oneself with the illness or with the—whatever
it is. And then...

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): "And I'm depressed because I'm identifying with my whole story."

ECKHART TOLLE: Yes.

OPRAH: "And my story's sad."

ECKHART TOLLE: Yes.

OPRAH: And that would make me depressed. Yeah.

ECKHART TOLLE: Yes. If you're very strongly identified with my sad story, which for many people, yes, the story is sad. I had a sad story for many years until I let go of it.

OPRAH: And you were in depression. You were depressed.

ECKHART TOLLE: I was depressed, yes. And until one night, I woke up, and I realized that this unhappy self is not who I am.

I could sense the I am-ness that came from a much deeper level than me and my
story and my unhappy self. And I describe that as the self that I could no longer live with. I asked myself, "What is that self? Who am I? Am I that self?"

No, I am I. I am consciousness. I am presence.

OPRAH: I am.

ECKHART TOLLE: I am. So the question, of course, is what do you tell your friends? Because it's not easy to tell a person that you are identified with an ego image, and very likely, you will get resistance.

OPRAH: Correct. They'll say, "What is wrong with you?" They'll go, "What is your problem?"

SHARON (AUDIENCE MEMBER): Yes.

ECKHART TOLLE: You know, I would suggest doing it in a more subtle way, and that is, perhaps, point out the possibility of becoming aware of one's thought processes, of thoughts that arise instead of being totally identified with the thoughts.

Perhaps you can tell your friend what you've been doing for yourself. You can tell that it's not threatening to the ego. If you tell something that you have been doing, you've been observing your own thoughts, that you are more detached now from your thoughts than you were before, and you realize that thoughts are only thoughts.

They are not who you are. And if you can tell them about yourself, that could help.

OPRAH: But many times, if you are depressed, I think you're so attached to the story. The story works for you, you know, the idea of being a depressed person works for you.

ECKHART TOLLE: Yes. So it's good. Sometimes depression comes in waves for some people, so you go through periods.

And then there are good times when you come out of it, and that is a good time because then you are more aware than when you're down in the depression.

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Article from transcript of Oprah and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth Online Class - Chapter 2

Free podcasts available at Oprah.com and Learn Out Loud

The class is a discussion of his book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

Also available as an audio CD.

Eckhart Tolle was educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge, and at the age of 29 experienced what he considered a spiritual transformation that marked the beginning of his life as a counselor and spiritual teacher. He is author of The Power of Now and Oprah's Book Club selection A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.