“A person in the grip of ego, however, does not recognize suffering as suffering, but will look upon it as the only appropriate response in any given situation.
The ego in its blindness is incapable of seeing the suffering it inflicts on itself and on others. Unhappiness is an ego-created mental-emotional disease that has reached epidemic proportions. It is the inner equivalent of the environmental pollution of our planet.
Negative states such as anger, anxiety, hatred, resentment, discontent, envy, jealousy, and so on, are further misperceived not as self-created but as caused by someone else or some external factor. ‘I am holding you responsible for my pain.’ This is what by implication the ego is saying.
The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation. You might say, ‘What a dreadful day,’ without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance.
In Shakespeare’s words, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ ”
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, p. 110.
