Who are we?

 Something i thought about when walking home from work today....

Nearly everyone derives his identity from mental concepts of who he or she thinks they are. Nearly everyone identifies with his or her thoughts. If you ask people who they are, you get their life story. But that’s not who they are really??? The story only describes a number of events in their lives. You can’t get to know yourself by thinking about it. You can only get to know yourself by silencing your mind and listening – by truly being present for what is presenting itself in the moment. 

Eckhart Tolle said in his book :New Earth-Power of now "Most people live in the delusion that they make decisions out of free will. In reality their actions are completely determined by their past. How you think, what you want and what you consider important are all determined by your upbringing, your culture, your religion – in short, by your concepts. As long as you still think you are your mind, you have no free will. Spiritually you are unconscious. You may think you know what you want, but you don’t. It is only the conditioning of your mind that says: “This is what you need to have”. That’s not a choice, it’s mechanical. Some people escape from this. Then it is suddenly as if there is more consciousness, which means that for the first time they truly experience free will. Only then can you take responsibility.”