Like Wave Patterns on Water

When you think or speak about yourself, when you say “I,” what you usually refer to is “me and my story.” This is the “I” of your likes and dislikes, fears and desires, the “I” that is never satisfied for long. It is a mind-made sense of who you are, conditioned by the past and seeking to find its fulfillment in the future.

 

Can you see that this “I” is fleeting, a temporary formation, like a wave pattern on the surface of the water?

 

Who is it that sees this? Who is it that is aware of the fleetingness of your physical and psychological form? I Am. This is the deeper “I” that has nothing to do with the past and future.

 

Eckhart Tolle

from Stillness Speaks

Chapter: The Egoic Self