subject: How You Can Really Be Someone - The Little Prince Series [print this page] How You Can Really Be Someone - The Little Prince Series
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story ofThe Little Prince
Do you think you are reallysomeone?
If someone believes they are really someone, people tend to think of them as egotistical and maybe even put them down.
On the other hand Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln, once said to him: "Abe, be someone!"
There are two different ways to be someone. One comes from ego, the other from showing up in our life as an authentic person.
The key is to be whowe uniquely aresomeone the Universe has handcrafted, unlike anyone who has ever existed or will ever exist.
Ego is in full bloom on the second planet the Little Prince visits, for it's inhabited by "a conceited man." He's a person who has no awareness of histrue self at all, which means everything is an act based in his ego.
The conceited man reminds me of many a family, social, or corporate gathering, at which everyone is enacting a role they play at such gatherings from year to year. The same conversationsmuch of the time complaining about the political situation, the economy, why others are to blame for the state of thingscan be heard, little changed from a decade ago. Everyone is on show as superior to others.
There's nothingreal about the ego.
The egoic person wants to be "acclaimed," the story tells us. It's like the person who wants to write a bestseller or star in a movie or on the playing field.
If you want to write because you love to express yourself in words, to act because it's both challenging and fun to act, or to play a sport because you love it and are good at it, you are simply being real. But if your intention is tobecome "someone," then ego has taken over.
WhenThe Power of Now was first published, Eckhart Tolle didn't take it to a big publisher and get paid a million dollars. Because it was helpful to friends and others, he had written something that explained what he had experienced. So he chose a friend who understood business and asked if she would become his publisher. That's how Namaste Publishing was born.
Constance Kellough and Eckhart had no idea whether they would sell a few hundred copies or a few thousand. They hand-carried the book to bookstores, which bought a few and replenished when they sold it.
It took a year to sell the first 3,000 copies, and after two attempts to find a distributor Eckhart suggested they just leave it at that. Constance decided to give it one more try.
No one was trying to become a famous author. It was just a desire to share what had been personally learned.
Much of the teaching you hear today from many supposedly "spiritual" teachers is about becoming famous and wealthy. It's all about boosting the ego so that we become "acclaimed."
Life invites us to trulybe someoneourselves, with the emphasis on the wordbe. No fame or acclaim needed.
