When Eckhart Tolle says that problems are illusions, or that fear is an illusion, he is not making light of the pain and suffering we go through as humans. He knows very well the unhappiness and fear that so many people live in, regardless of their external circumstances.

Instead, he is referring to how we create problems and fear in our lives. We assume people are out to get us, that the Universe is playing tricks with us, and that we are helpless victims. Tolle’s approach to problems is threefold:

• Leave them
• Change them
• Accept them

. . . anything else is craziness.

If we have a clear view of these solutions, the problems no longer remain problems because we have walked away, changed the situation, or accepted that the situation is not going to change so we might as well be happy and get on with our lives. Therefore, they are no longer problems, they are decisions we have a to make.

Fear is also an illusion. We cannot touch fear and we cannot make it stand still. It is a part of our thinking patterns that are influenced by so many things, including our brains’ hard-wiring for fear as a survival tactic. Tolle cites the example of sleeping in a safe, warm bed at night. The ego-mind will start conjuring up all kinds of things to be afraid of: Financial ruin, ill health, and even dying.
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Meanwhile, we are snug and secure in our warm bed creating mental strife for ourselves. There is nothing to be afraid of and we are tied in knots of fear and dread. That is why Eckhart Tolle describes fear as an illusion. And like problems, fear disappears when we understand the reality of our existence as Eternal Souls.

No, it is not possible to get everything we desire. And this is a good thing. Many of our desires are selfish and unconscious of the rest of the people on this planet. Criminals desire to kill and destroy. Sexual predators desire to dominate a frightened victim. Therefore, what we desire is not even desirable for many people who are led astray by their ego-minds.

The Universe is not designed to pamper our every whim just because that is what we want. We need to calm down with our demands as well as with our expectations of how we can bend the Universe to our will. People living in abundance are miserable because they still haven’t fulfilled all of their desires. Like spoiled children, they bang on their highchairs and cry because the world isn’t living up to their fairy tale dreams.
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They would love to believe that if they said enough affirmations and think positively enough, they will get all the goodies they crave and climb Mount Everest too without training. But that is not how it is designed. Yes, we may think positively and emit positive vibrations to attract good into our lives. But we are not in control of how or when that good comes to us. And we must put in the work. It is not enough to desire and think it will all happen. If that were true, everyone would win the lottery.

Feelings from ego are based in fear—even the happy feelings have a fearful component to them because we worry about how and when they are going to end. Ego-feelings are also based on external circumstances and are not generated from within.

Something happens and it makes us happy. The next minute something happens and it makes us sad. These feelings are all based on what our ego wants and how the world is bending to our demands at the moment. We want the perfect life for ourselves according to some definition we have in our heads and we will not allow ourselves to be happy until we have attained it.

Feelings from Soul are based in an underlying joy, regardless of the cards that are dealt to us by the Universe. The Soul is already complete and is not seeking completion in something else. It sees that the Universe is well-put-together and we don’t need to strive to bend it to our wills. Therefore, the Soul abides in peace while the ego-world goes on in its turmoil and strife.
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The ego-based emotions are perfect for survival tactics, reproducing our species, and creating social structures. The Soul-based emotions of love, peace, and joy are perfect for understanding the meaning and purpose of our lives.

Rationality does not equal happiness. It can lead to the opposite of happiness.
If we analyze life on earth with a completely rational mind, we see that it is a painful joke in so many ways. A child is born, only to have some mixed experiences, reproduce as all animals are destined to do, and then die, usually painfully. That is the way life looks to the reasoning mind.
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What’s the point? Why go through all this suffering if we are just pawns of our genes’ propulsion to reproduce themselves? The rational mind cannot find comfort in Higher Reasons for why we are on this planet. So it looks for happiness to distract itself from the terror of its meaninglessness. It thinks it will find it in treasures and pleasures. But deep down, it also sees the old, forgotten man slowly limping down the street with is walker, and knows that this is his fate, too, one day.

Rationality is an admirable faculty of the mind when it is put to good use. But it can also be perverted and twisted, as we can see by all the evil dictators who have slaughtered millions for their “rational” reasons. But it does not equate to happiness on any level. The only thing that leads to happiness is happiness itself. We cannot get there by reasoning it all out.

If we allow ourselves to feel the natural happiness that rises within us, we will attract more happiness to us. Being miserable, even if it is rationally justified, is never the path to happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of doing something we love. It cannot be forced or reasoned into being but it comes naturally if we let it in.

Carl Jung is saying the that the lower mind (as opposed to Divine Consciousness) moves mechanically, restlessly on the move, non-stop, like a pendulum. He thinks it is not so much concerned with what is right and wrong while it swings back and forth between fantasy and reality.
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Right and wrong have to do with what we are taught, whereas, the mind, left on its own is like a wild stallion. It is not easy to tame and disregards what we are taught to be good and bad. It runs back and forth from pleasure to pain, love and hate, anger and peace, regardless of how right or wrong these feelings may be deemed to be by its society.

Yet, Carl Jung may have not seen how deeply the lower mind clings to the pendulum that swings between right and wrong. He may not have acknowledged that we are constantly judging, measuring ourselves against others, measuring others against ourselves, and coming up with conclusions that add to even more judgments about who is right and who is wrong. So I would amend that statement to read, “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, right and wrong.” We move from fantasy to reality while we are constantly judging according to some yardstick, whether real or imagined.

For example, you are at a party and someone spills a syrupy drink all over you. You immediately swing from anger to forgiveness as the drink spiller desperately apologizes. Then you congratulate yourself inwardly for being the better person and not throwing your drink in his or her face. You feel pleased that you are being moral about it and doing the right thing. From there you can go into fantasy of overcoming the mishap and becoming the best of friends, even possible soul mates.

All the time you are presenting yourself to yourself in the best light in terms of right and wrong while you are living out a fantasy in your mind that may be completely preposterous (they’re married, you’re married, it truly was an accident and nothing more, in life drinks get spilled). Or the pendulum can swing the other way, combining nonsense with morality. You imagine yourself fighting this person because they were wrong to be so careless and end up berating yourself as a victim that always attracts bad things. You go to the corner to cry.

While I admire Carl Jung, I feel he did not recognize that the ego mind is not as straightforward as a pendulum. It is more like a free-flying, restless machine that is all over the place. A pendulum follows certain gravitational pulls, while the ego mind is capable of going off in a completely random way.

People who deeply question life, its meaning, its purpose, the difficulty of suffering, the agony of loss—all experience the Dark Night of the Soul. It happens when we are lying awake in the middle of the night and everything seems dangerous, hurtful, painful, frightening, and pointless. We have lost our faith in anything spiritual and feel disconnected from all of life. It seems like a bitter joke and everyone dies anyway.
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This is a necessary step that brings us to our knees as we move along on our spiritual paths. It forces us, through despair and agony, to surrender to the Higher Power that is purposeful, organized, and often beyond our comprehension. We have nowhere to go but to trust in this Higher Power. We know that simply ending it all is not the solution for our Soul can never die. And when we get through to the other side of this Dark Night, it all appears light and clear to us.

It doesn’t take specialness to merit the Dark Night of the Soul. It happens to everyone who is a sincere spiritually-oriented being. And we can’t force it. It happens just at the right time for our growth and enlightenment. We just have to know that it is not the end. It is not hopeless and is a natural, though painful, part of our expansion during this human experience.

Yes. Philosophy, when taken down to its Greek roots, means “love of wisdom.” Love and appreciation are closely tied to each other. But philosophy is more than just love of wise thoughts and wisdom. It is the analysis of answers to the basic questions of life:

• Who are we?
• Why are we here?
• What is the purpose of life?
• What is good and evil?
• Why is there something rather than nothing?
• Is our universe real?
• Do we have free will?
• Does God exist?
• Is there life after death?
• Can you really experience anything objectively?
• What is the best moral system?

These are just a few of the questions philosophers have been asking since people first began to think and record their musings. They are also questions that cannot be answered easily. Religions of the world have claimed they have the right answers. But philosophers always hold an open mind that their answers are only possibilities. They will continue. loving to ask these questions because the answers provide the wisdom by which we can live happy and fulfilled lives.

Socrates wasn’t a hedonist, but his student Aristippus of Cyrene, was what is known as an “ethical hedonist.” He stated that pleasure is the highest good.

Aristippus explained that hedonistic ethical egoism is the concept that everyone has the right to do everything they can to attain the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. He also said that everyone's pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain. He came to these conclusions after sitting at Socrates’ feet and hearing his musings and stimulating questions.

Socrates never made an explicit stand against hedonism itself. He stated that knowledge is virtue (which is what brings happiness and fulfillment). He was more interested in concepts such as, “Know Thyself” and “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This could be seen as the very opposite of unthinking hedonism, in which people satisfy their every whim and desire without anything else in mind besides having fun.
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Frolicking around in an endless party doesn’t always end well, though. Ultimately, the fun will go away, and then what will we be left with if we don’t know who we truly are in the depths of our heart, inner-mind, and Soul? Gorging on food and drink, sex and riotous living is actually the opposite of what Socrates was pointing to if we want inner peace and contentment.

In a sense, we can determine that Socrates thought hedonism was self-defeating. If we are totally self-interested and seek nothing but pleasure, we are bound to fail because the appetite for pleasure is insatiable. It’s called the “paradox of hedonism.” So, although Socrates doesn’t think hedonism is bad, he just saw it as self-defeating and would never bring true happiness.

The ego mind is never satisfied with what is. It always wants more, more, and more. It is like an empty hole that can never be filled. It is a hard-wired characteristic to never be satisfied with what it has and to seek something else.

On one level, this is a beneficial quality because it has spurred inventions and innovations. We aren’t satisfied with the dirt road and its muddy ruts when it rains. So we build a smooth paved road. Now we can travel longer and father, go more places, transport more goods, and build more traffic jams.

This is the way we are driven by our sense that what we have is not enough. Otherwise we would all sit in perfect bliss and allow ourselves to starve to death if food wasn’t immediately available. I mean it all ends in death anyway, so why struggle and strive? But on another level this drive for more is the cause of endless restlessness, feverish activity, crowds, noise, pollution, personal and corporate greed, and despoiling the planet.

Like so many things in life, in moderation the desire for more and more is beneficial. It brings with it new ideas and more creative ways of accomplishing goals. But when out of balance, the endless desire for more brings dissatisfaction and frustration.

The brain can hold only one thought at a time. If we want to be happy, it makes sense then that we must focus on the happy thoughts. It is ridiculous to expect that we can go around complaining and being miserable and that will lead to a happy life. Yet the ego-mind, with its negative bias, goes around doing just that. As if railing against life’s upsets will change anything.

When we feel thankful, our thoughts are enveloped in joy. Endorphins and other feel-good hormones rule. It’s actually good for our health to be in a state of gratitude. But, again, the mind is negatively biased. It naturally moves towards “what’s wrong with this picture?” and revisits past hurts. So we have to train it or it will follow the path of least resistance—its natural tendency to fear and find fault.
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Soft, flabby muscles are the result of sitting around doing nothing. Training the muscles through beneficial activity can whip them into shape and produce strength and beauty. The brain follows the same principles. If you just let it pursue its negative bias, you will never be happy. Ever. But if you look around you and find even one thing you can be grateful for, you have just changed your inner climate and can be happy, no matter what the outer circumstances.