The little me is an image of who I am based on my past, the things that happened to me. More importantly, it is based on a mental interpretation of things and people from my past. Over the years an image forms of me and there is a story that is an intrinsic part of the image. Everybody lives in that work of fiction, created by the mind, with me as the main protagonist. It may be a big drama; it may be a mixture of tragedy and comedy. We become trapped in a sense of identity that is very small: my past, my story, which needs to be continuously revived mentally. The little me lives in resistance to what is because the fictitious nature of that entity cannot be sustained except in the state of resistance to or denial of now. Therefore every life story, the little me story, is ultimately unsatisfactory: “It didn’t quite work out the way it should have; that is not how I imagined my life to be; it looks as if something failed, something went wrong; it was not meant to happen like that.” We always discover this unsatisfactory element in the story of me.

The little me doesn’t feel complete. It is always looking for something, and there is pain, suffering and sorrow in the story. But then the little me says, “Okay, it may not have been a satisfying story up to this point but I still have the future, and that is where the satisfying conclusion is going to happen.” This is why the future is such an essential, vital part of everybody’s existence. It depends on what kind of story the little me has fabricated for itself. It may be material success; it may be finding the ideal partner; it may be reaching a state of enlightenment. The future promises fulfillment and that is why everybody is running towards it. If you go to a big city—I was in New York a few days ago—everybody is running almost continuously. Where are they running to? They are running to the future, trying to get away from this moment because this moment is not good enough.

Just by recognizing the nature of our story we are beginning to step out of it, because the fiction of the little me can only sustain itself if it remains unconscious. When you look at it that means you are now witnessing, simply watching the mind and the structures of the mind. That is the beginning of the end of the unconsciousness that has been running humanity for many thousands of years. But it is more than that; the seeing is part of something arising. What is happening to us spiritually in a very subtle way is that gradually we are removing the future from our consciousness.

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© 2011 by Eckhart Tolle. This article is edited from presentations given by the author before a live audience at Inner Directions Gatherings. It is available as part of a two-CD set, Through the Open Door to the Vastness of Your True Being, published by Sounds True in cooperation with Eckhart Teachings and Namaste Publishing. For information on the CD set, visit www.SoundsTrue.com or call 800-333-9185. For more information on the work of Eckhart Tolle, visit www.eckharttolle.com or www.NamastePublishing.com.