"Self-worth comes from one thing - thinking that you are worthy," says a quote on Twitter that cites Dr Wayne Dyer.

But is it true?

For me it never was. I tried for decades to think myself into self-worth. But despite all my positive thinking, there was ever an undertow that whispered, "You're not good enough!"

So I experienced myself as torn. Part of me told myself I was worthy, while beneath this was a persistent feeling that I wasn't.

In the end the feeling won out over my attempts to tell myself something different.

Until I stopped thinking, that is.

And I do mean stopped, both negative and positive thinking—all thought.

In terms of the story of the Little Prince, which shows us what real self-worth is, "thinking that you are worthy" is a baobab.

When a baobab first sprouts, it looks like it might be a rosebush. But you won't get any roses from a baobab. You'll get catastrophe, which is exactly what happened in my life. One mess after another, each once again "proving" my unworthiness despite all I told myself about being worthy.

The other day I was watching a DVD by Eckhart Tolle filmed in Mumbai, India, entitledWho Am I? Becoming Conscious of Consciousness Itself. As I listen to Eckhart's talks, or read again his books such as The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth, I have to wonder how so many people who have listened to him and read him are still trying to think their way into self-worth, prosperity, and everything else they want to happen in their life.

They have never really heard what Eckhart is saying.

The fifth chapter of The Little Prince is a strong warning against how insidious baobabs are—how easily they fool us into imagining they are the genuine item. We think they can make us conscious.

The author writes, "I do not much like to take the tone of a moralist. But the danger of the baobabs is so little understood, and such considerable risks would be run by anyone who might get lost on an asteroid, that for once I am breaking through my reserve. ‘Children,' I say plainly, ‘watch out for the baobabs!'"

So too I am breaking my reserve because as I go on Twitter or pick up books about personal growth in bookstores, it's clear that what consciousness means, and what it truly takes to become present, is so little understood—especially by most of the big-name "teachers" of spirituality!

It's time to speak plainly. Too many people who long to become conscious are being fooled by the baobab of thought.

If someone is telling you that changing your thoughts will bring you the consciousness you seek, they are handing you a baobab, a counterfeit of true presence. They don't yet know how to be present, anymore than I did all those years I taught that thought was the path.

Don't assume that everyone who teaches about spiritual growth knows what they are talking about. If you don't actually experience the results they promise for yourself, they probably don't know how to get those results either!

They are likely still trying to get there just like you.

You may improve your life with positive thinking. You may feel better about yourself by thinking you are worthy. But you will never enjoy the relaxed higher consciousness of presence, which is a moment-by-moment experience of awareness with no thought.

For four decades I tried to think myself worthy. As long as you have to think yourself worthy, the reality is you don't feel worthy.

You wouldn't need to think yourself worthy if you truly felt worthy.

But when I became present and all thinking stopped, I just naturally, spontaneously found myself feeling fantastic.

Today I never think about my worthiness. I have no need to because it's just a settled, natural state for me. The question of my worthiness never even arises anymore.

*Editor's Note: Hear a full exposition of the story of The Little Prince in the Namaste Publishing audio book Lessons in Loving—A Journey into the Heart.