Beyond the conceptual self.

In this episode, Eckhart talks with a live audience about letting go of our false sense of self.

He says, when we base our identity on externals, our looks, what we do, where we live, that's the ego.

In that state, we're either inferior or superior, never equal.

True relationships become impossible.

But when we're grounded in essential being, the need to compare disappears,

and we discover we are infinitely precious.

An essential part of awakening spiritually is going beyond a conceptualized sense of self and living

in a conceptual reality.

And of course all that implies being identified with thinking because concepts are thoughts.

So for many people the question arises,

how do I see myself?

And there's a very common problem people have

and that's called self-esteem.

What value do I have, what value does my life have

compared to others?

Some years ago the Dalai Lama was asked

by somebody about self-esteem

and he didn't understand the word self-esteem.

And the interpreter spent several minutes

trying to explain to him the meaning of self-esteem,

and she just couldn't get it.

...