by Eckhart Tolle

Madness is a key aspect of the distinction of the human mind

Destructive behavior both towards other humans as well as other life forms is another aspect

Fear greed and the desire for power are the motivating factors of human behavior

You do not become good by trying to be good, only by finding the good already within you and allowing it to emerge. Self improvement is ultimately an egoic and self serving journey, it is bottomless as the ego is the one driving the change

You don’t become good, you only uncover the good that already exists within you by a transformation in consciousness

The more you make your thoughts / beliefs your identity, the less spiritual you become

Grasping onto truths fed to you by others is not thinking

The spirituality movement is not a new ideology / religion, it is a transcendence of thought — it is an identification with your awareness rather than your thoughts

Evil is complete identification with form

Artists seek to create pieces that reflect the viewers essence back to him

Trying to cover up mysteries with words / labels removes the wonder from them

This book is about the disentanglement of your identity with thought, you are the observer of thought

The quicker you are to attach labels to things, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes

Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp

The ego is an illusion of consciousness, the recognition of an illusion is its ending

You identify with all sorts of things that aren’t actual you — objects, roles, opinions, memories, thoughts, experiences

Thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence

The egoic mind is completely conditioned by the past

The fate of the ego is to try find oneself in things but end up losing oneself