Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" - and how it applies to celebrities and fans
Brenda
of: "A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose". It's really,
really interesting. I'm about half-way through and I highly recommend
it. If you want to understand how your own ego works - and how it can
keep you from being happy and/or from finding your life's purpose -
you can't miss this book.
But I stumbled across a couple of pages that had some amazing insights
about celebrities and people who identify with them. If you like,
read the following, and then comment (if you dare!) about whether any
of it applies to Barry or his fans. I know I see myself in it!
***
Ego And Fame
The well-known phenomenon of "name dropping," the casual mention of
who you know, is part of the ego's strategy of gaining a superior
identity in the eyes of others and therefore in its own eyes through
association with someone "important." The bane of being famous in
this world is that who you are becomes totally obscured by a
collective mental image. Most people you meet want to enhance their
identity - the mental image of who they are - through association with
you. They themselves may not know that they are not interested in you
at all, but only in strengthening their ultimately fictitious sense of
self. They believe that through you they can be more. Theey are
looking to complete themselves through you, or rather through the
mental image they have of you as a famous person, a larger-than-life
collective conceptual identity.
The absurd overvaluation of fame is just one of the many
manifestations of egoic madness in our world. Some famous people fall
into the same error and identify with the collective fiction, the
image people and the media have created of them, and they begin to
actually see themselves as superior to ordinary mortals. As a result,
they become more and more alienated from themselves and others, more
and more unhappy, more and more dependent on their continuing
popularity. Surrounded only by people who feed their iflated self-
image, they become incapable of genuine relationships.
Albert Einstein, who was admired as almost superhuman and whose fate
it was to become one of the most famous people on the planet, never
identified with the image the collective mind had created of him. He
remained humble, egoless. In fact, he spoke of "a grotesque
contradiction between what people consider to be my achievements and
abilities and the reality of who I am and what I am capable of."
This is why it is hard for a famous person to be in a genuine
relationship with others. A genuine relationship is one that is not
dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a
genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert
attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting
whatsoever. That alert attention is Presence. It is the prerequisite
for any authentic relationship. The ego always either wants
something, or if it believes there is nothing to get from the other,
it is in a state of utter indifference: it doesn't care about you.
And so, the three predominant states of egoic relationships are:
wanting, thwarted wanting (anger, resentment, blaming, complaining),
and indifference.
-- A New Earth, pp. 82 - 84
strugglebuggy
on it.
--
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Brenda
> They believe that through you they can be more.
>
>
> The interesting thing is that people also tend to believe that 'being
> around you, knowing you, and even immulating you, can help them be
> more'.
>
> Sometimes the most popular person, is the one that does not care about
> popularity, trends or copying others.. they march to the their own
> tune and people see this and want to do it to but for what ever reason
> are afraid to.
>
> deb :)
I'm immediately flashing back to that wonderful scene from "Forrest
Gump" when Forrest decides - for no apparent reason - to go running
for two years and suddenly finds himself being tailed by followers.
BTW, the passage I quoted in the book (which I finished and is
FANTASTIC, by the way!) is one that I think REALLY hits home. So many
fans (including me!) get sucked into this alternate reality the
celebrity's image fosters. And I think what Tolle wrote about
celebrities could so easily be applied to Barry. I think Barry has
totally gotten sucked into that same alternate reality.
Brenda
ChewsCrayons
reality.
>
> Brenda
------------
But I can see how this can happen - everyone around you tells you 'how
great you are', and blah blah blah.. to where sometimes its so hard to
shake it off even when .. the day is done.
Sometimes you just do not know how to step out of it.. and do get lost
to it.
I like the comparison to Forrest Gump.. he did what he did.. because
it made him feel good, but the others were trying to understand/fathom
'why' he felt this way, and I guess, catch a piece of it.
I guess you can tell for me its IT.... you spend all day in meetings,
on the phone, sitting in that chair being one way, and after 12 hours
of it.. its so ingrained it can be difficult to go home and 'not' be
that way.
Heck I can admit I can be as full of myself as the next guy.. but ...
now I'm embarassed I did act that way... its jus not me.
Peace out
deb.