God forbade...must reading!

Fame, Ego




    The well-known phenomenom of “name-dropping”' the casual mention of who you know, is part of the ego's strategy of gaining a superior identity in the eyes of others and, therefore, in its own eyes through association with someone “important”. The bane of being famous in this world is that who you are becomes totally obscured by a collective mental image. Most people you meet want to enhance their identity- the mental image of who they are- through association with you. They themselves may not know they are not interested in you, at all, but only in strengthening their, ultimately, fictitious sense of self. They believe through you they can be more. They are looking to complete themselves in you, or, rather, through the mental image they have of you as a famous person, a larger-than-life collective conceptual identity.



   The absurd overvaluation of fame is just one of the many manifestations of egoic madness in our world. Some famous people fall into the same error and identify with the collective fiction, the image the people and the media have created of them, and they actually, come to see themselves as superior to ordinary mortals. As a result they become more and more alienated from themselves and others, more and more unhappy, more and more dependent on their continuing popularity. Surrounded only by people who feed their inflated self-image, they become incapable of genuine relationships.



   Its hard for a famous person to be in a genuine relationship with others. Its one not dominated by the ego with its image making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person.



Eckhart Tolle- A New Earth