Eckhart Tolle

This is a place for people to talk about Eckhart Tolle, what they like about his writings & teachings, maybe how he has inspired them, beliefs they share with him. I don't know anything about him myself, except that my new-age friends talk about him.

from wikipedia:

One of my favorite authors/teachers/mentors. My favorite piece of his is his book "stillness speaks".

this is more of a spiritual philosophy...I do not want to just give my impression of how I interpret his work, so I will post a few paragraphs out of his book "stillness speaks"...

stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.

You are that awareness, disguised as a person.

The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.

Whenever there is some silence around you, listen to it. That means just notice it. Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness with yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence.

See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you, you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking.

When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.



pay attention to the gap....the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation...


True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.




so, this is where I gain my understanding...this is a way to process thoughts...

perhaps not "true" philosophy...yet, it encourages to be present in the discussion, present in the thought process that is flowing...

Where would you, the reader, place this work?

I have that book and while it is nice to appreciate the power of now, I have to joke about Eckar Tolle being trapped in one frame of time. I get the jist of NOW, but the book did not change my life. I have to confess, I did not even get through it.

You cannot act in the past, and you cannot act in the future. Now is the only time you have. So Eckart Tolle realizes this and writes an entire book on it.

Is an entire book necessary? I don't think so. It reminds me of the days of the flower children... Live in the present moment... no worries... no responsibility blah blah blah. Get high pot and just sit there and stare into space enjoying the moment. Just be.

While worrying about the future is a needless thing to do, we must also proceed. By proceed, I mean we must grow and do. We learn from the past, and we plan and envision our future.

We don't just sit like bumps on logs in a state of bliss and peace doing nothing. What's the point of that?

That is very enlightening

Oh yeh sure, blame it on the ego. That's not it.

The source of inner and outer conflict is resistance to what is. (It is not the 'human ego.")

Then he says that only by "examining the ego" may people begin to see beyond it? How does one see beyond something they are examining?

If I examine a building, I am looking at the building...not "beyond it."

I'm glad Eckart Tolle has found his peace. Now what is he going to do?

that is not at all how I read it. I agree with your words about not sitting like a bump on a log, as well as taking lessons from the past and making plans for the future.

I think that many people live in a different world that the concept that Tolle was putting forth was foreign. The 24/7 people who are not appreciative of today, those who live with regret for not being there, not being present in their own life over the years...

There are also the people who live in the past...the people who live in the blame, the victim roles...

the concept of Now to those people may be quite foreign.

Living in the now is far from doing nothing, quite the contrary really...I see it as doing everything, experiencing everything you can today, making the most of it, yet EXPERIENCING it not just going through the motions...

I have enjoyed all of his work...it may be more tangential for some, for others it offers a new way to think...a new way to experience life.

One of the areas he speaks of is people being imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They do not go outside of what they have been conditioned by their past.

Maybe it is not philosophy at all...

That is exactly what he is talking about...You see the building period.

It is obvious that you do not like Tolle's work. We have a different idea about the meaning of his work. I like it, it offers a reminder of the massive amount of influence that we have internalized over the years...

he talks about how people have taken on the "roles" that have pre-established functions...a way that people really lose the desire to think about many things...and how we internalize these functions as part of self, which is the ego.

I guess that is what is so great about people...so many different perspectives about the same thing!!!

I recently listened to Ekhart's "Power of Now" on audio CD.

It was alright. I kind of feel like Jeanniebean though. His entire book was like reading merely one chapter of something like one of Deepak Chopra's books. In Deepak's "The Way of the Wizard" he identifies 8 facets of the human consciousness.

1. Innocence
2. Ego
3. Achiever
4. Giver
5. Seeker
6. Seer
7. Cosmic Consciousness
8. Divine Consciousness

From my point of view Tolle's book was merely an elaboration on just #2 and #3 with maybe some recognition of #4. But he seemed to stop there entirely like as if he had already reached the topmost level and wasn't even aware of #'s 5-8.

So while I'm pretty much in agreement with Tolle's views they just appear to me to be a tiny slice of a much larger picture. I'm far more interested in #'s 5-8 on Deepak's list. I have quite a few books from various authors that address these higher levels of consciousness.

So while Tolle is cool, I just found his book to be rather limited. Not incorrect. Just limited.



I must confess that this is precisely the way I felt at the end of listening to Tolle's book.

I just shrugged my shoulder's and thought to myself, "That's it? So what are you going to do now?"

But then again I've already been reading other books that go far beyond this.

Although, the stage that Tolle describes is certainly an important one. It's on Deepak's list in "Way of the Wizard" so it's certainly a part of the journey. It's just not the whole trek. Although it might be for an atheist.

Deepak's books (and other books I have) are definitely spiritual books. Tolle may be an atheistic Buddhist and so he has recognized the ego syndrome and feels like that's all there is to it. What else would there be for an atheist?

A person isn't going to be seeking a higher cosmic consciousness if they don't believe in such a thing in the first place right? I guess it requires a spiritual attitude to move beyond #4. If a person doesn't believe in a higher consciousness they're not going to 'seek' it. And if they don't become the seeker, they can never become the seer.

So atheistic Buddhism ends at #4.

I have a feeling that this is what Tolle is. Some kind of an atheistic Buddhist? I have no clue what he is. But that's my impression. He seems to be content with stopping at #4.

I suppose that going beyond that requires a certain amount of faith or belief in a higher conciouness at least. Deepak definitely believes in the 'supernatural' at least in a 'spiritual' sense. He speaks in terms of an underlying eternal spirit that is our true 'self'.

I think Tolle is just into the Buddhist realization that the ego is a trap. But for Deepak, that's just the first step on a much longer journey.

I like Tolle, which is a statement of the obvious, duh...

I did enjoy his first book, The Power of Now. I enjoyed his other works more.

"Stillness Speaks" and "A New Earth", I found meaningful to myself; perhaps I am not as enlightened as Abra and JB, which is most likely the situation.

I feel, sometimes, like I am learning this after a realization of some universal oneness...which makes no sense to most, if not all who read this. I am not an atheist either.

I am learning each day. I may have a long way to go, in fact, I know I do.

I am enjoying the journey, that is certain.

Thank you both (Abra and Jeanniebean) for your thoughts and review on Tolle's first book. Thank you Massagetrade for starting the thread...

Jambo!

~LHL

I liked his presentation too. I enjoyed listening to him speak. He narrates his own book on the Audio CD. I don't disagree with anything he says. In fact I highly recommend his book in general.

I like his presentation style very much. I have the DVD of his retreat he did at Findhorn.

STILLNESS AMIDST THE WORLD
Findhorn Retreat
Stillness Amidst the World - Findhorn Retreat is a BOOK & DVD set. Full color photos by Eckhart Tolle throughout. DVD running time: 4 hours recorded, at Findhorn Scotland.

I think that he may have been on my path at the time I started reading him. I have several of Deepak's books, yet I have not made it through them. When I picked up tolle, it made more sense to me.

~~~

If someone came to you (anyone who reads this) and asked for a reference of a place to "start" learning about realizing beyond the conscious state...what would be your guidance for them?

Deepak is a spiritual genius

His focus on the power of NOW is a crucial step, especially for people who are trapped in the past and/or do little but worry about the future. You have to be able to get out of your head and live in the present moment if you want to experience your life.

This is crucial! So if that is where a person is, this is a very important concept and a great place to start. Where you go from there is your choice, but you have to get there first before you can go anywhere!

NOW IS YOUR STARTING POINT. If you are in the past, you cannot do a thing about conditions. If you are in some imagined future, you are creating that future by thinking about it.

So I think this book is a great place to start, but for me it was sort of stating the obvious. I am not saying that I am practiced or an expert at staying focused on the present moment at all times. I am not. It is a good practice.

Act NOW because there is no other time that you can act.

Live NOW because you cannot live in the past or the future. These are the good ol' days!!