Humans have evolved through several thousand years. Initially there was the absolute connection with the source of life but this connection was unconscious.
As the mind evolved humans became more and more entwined in thoughts and became disconnected from their inner source, from the flow of life, and they started living in resistance. The dysfunction of a mind identified human condition is evident in the suffering we inflict on ourselves, other humans and the nature around us.
But the good news is that we have reached a point where “awakening” is becoming more and more possible and evident.
We live in an age of awakening, and Eckhart Tolle is one of the pioneer teachers of enlightenment based on simple teachings which are “common” people friendly instead of being esoteric and confusing.
Eckhart Tolle’s Childhood
Tolle was born in a small town in Germany in 1948.
Brought up in a dysfunctional household, where his parents were constantly in friction, he had a troublesome childhood fraught with anxiety and fear.
He did not like going to school because of the hostility perpetrated by the teachers and other students. There were times when he would simply take his bicycle to the woods and sit amidst nature instead of going to school.
After his parents separated, he moved in with his father who was based in Spain. His father was an “open” thinker and he allowed 13 year old Tolle to stay at home, instead of going to a school.
At home, Eckhart started pursuing his interests by reading several books on literature and astronomy.
At the age of 19 he moved to England and earned a living by teaching German and Spanish at London School of Language studies. He went to college for his graduation, at the age of 22, in the field of philosophy, literature and psychology.
Eckhart Tolle’s Awakening Experience
Around the age of 29, Eckhart found himself to be acutely depressed and stressed.
He did not have a direction to his life and he was constantly afraid, and insecure, about his future and his purposeless existence. Eckhart Tolle has confessed that he felt suicidal because of the intense anxiety that he felt.
One night Eckhart awoke in a tremendous state of anxiety, he felt acutely depressed and his mind was reeling fearful thoughts about life. In this state of suffering he sensed thoughts moving through him saying “This is enough, I cannot stand this anymore, I cannot live like this, I cannot live with myself”.
At that moment there was an inner voice that asked “If there is an ‘I’ and there is a ‘myself’, then there are two entities and only one of them can be true”.
At this thought his mind stopped suddenly, and he felt himself being dragged into an inner void and he fell unconscious.
The next morning he woke up in a state of complete peace and stillness. He found that everything felt likeable and joyful to his senses, and he felt an absolute bliss within him.
He did not understand why he felt so peaceful and it was only later, after a few years of being in monasteries and with other spiritual teachers, that he intellectually understood that he had experienced “freedom” from mind.
He understood that he was experiencing the same state that Buddha experienced.
In the years to follow, Eckhart moved on to become a spiritual teacher and the author of books like “The Power of Now” and “The New Earth”, both of which were best sellers and sold millions of copies each.
These books are highly trans formative and have the power to instigate awakening in anyone who truly understands its essence. Eckhart mentions that these books arose from “stillness” and not from the conditioned mind.
Eckhart Tolle’s Personal Life
Eckhart is a very humble, and a self confessed “reserved”, person, who loves spending time alone in solitude.
He loves nature and is known to recommend nature as the greatest spiritual teacher.
There are many people who wonder if Eckhart Tolle is married – He is. He actually married a woman called Kim Eng, who he met back in 1995 when he was working as a spiritual teacher and authoring his book.
Does Eckhart Tolle have children? No, he is not known to have any children. If you are asking why doesn’t Eckhart Tolle have children, I guess it’s mostly out of his own personal preference for solitude and space. People usually don’t ask him personal questions.
He recently has associated with a web-based teaching portal called “Eckhart Tolle Tv”. There are people who have asked why is Eckhart Tolle charging for his spiritual talks, and for these web based videos, when he professes to be free of attachment to money.
The truth is that people misunderstand his teachings, he does not teach denial but to live life in a state of connectedness with the source. The well-being that he is surrounded with is just the evidence of how good life can be for someone who lives in a state of “oneness” with the now.
What Type of Meditation Does Eckhart Tolle Recommend?
Tolle is not known to promote any form of meditation. He believes that the most essential part of understanding his message is to simply stay “present” or in his own words “Stay in the now”.
Instead of following practices or techniques, which are “mind” based, he suggests that we stay in place of relaxed allowing, where the “now” is allowed to be instead of fighting against it to reach a better state.
What Does Eckhart Mean by Staying in the Present Moment?
If someone where to ask you – Tell me something about yourself, you would start off by telling your name, followed by some details about your profession, about your family, relationships, interests and probably your age. This identity that you carry around, comes from the accumulated knowledge of the mind, that has been storing the “life story” of the body that you take to be yourself.
A life story by itself is just the mind’s unique interpretation of reality, where it isolates certain events and makes it personal. When you know yourself only through the “information” of the mind, you become completely lost in a trance called “my life”, and forget your true nature as the “pure consciousness” that is the witness of the body. Eckhart tolle, in all his teachings, is always talking about going back to your true nature as pure consciousness and letting go of identification with a mind based sense of self.
How Can Staying “Present” Help You Realize Your True Nature?
If you have heard talks given by Eckhart Tolle, or read his book “The Power of Now”, you will notice that he’s talking about “Presence” or a state of “being in the Now”. He also provides some practices that help you become more “aware” of the unconscious patterns of the mind. The more aware you become of the dysfunctional nature of a human mind, that is lost in its conditioning, the higher your chances of stepping beyond the trance created by this mis-identification.
Staying “present” is simply a pointer to a state where you stop interpreting the reality and just stay as a field of awareness. All interpretations come from the conditioned mind, which is constantly labeling or judging the reality by fragmenting it into “events” and situations. Reality is always moving as a whole, and any fragmentation will lead to a misperception. So in truth, all the thoughts that your mind dishes out, are just “perceptions” and they have nothing to do with what’s really happening. As Adyashanti, another renowned spiritual teacher, says – “There is no such thing as a true thought”.
When you stay as pure awareness, without succumbing to the interpretations of the mind, you will start getting the taste of how the pure being or consciousness, that is the source of all creation, looks at reality. You are well aware of how the mind looks at reality, but the invitation is for you to realize how “awareness” looks at reality. Awareness is unconditioned intelligence itself, and it is the container of what is called physical reality. This pure awareness is who you are in essence, and not the story, or character that your mind creates as a “self”.
Dispelling the Illusion of a Mind Based Identity
Eckhart tolle is always talking about getting out of the addiction to a mind based identity. What he is essentially pointing to is the fact that as long as you are deriving your identity from the mind its not possible for you to experience the truth of who you are. It’s only when you are willing to stand in the “unknown” that you will start sensing who you really are beyond the story, beyond the name and form.
Who you are does not need a name or identity to exist. It does not need time to be known, it is always present, it’s eternal. Only when you become aware of your eternal nature can you truly start functioning from the natural potential that is within the body. Each body is an unique expression of this unconditioned consciousness, but because of the unconscious identification with a mind based identity, and story, it becomes difficult for the body to express itself in its full potential.
When you realize who you are, in completeness, you will naturally let go of the need to control your life. When you let go completely, you will automatically find yourself becoming aligned with the natural movement of life. The natural movement is effortless and always moves in a “wholeness” and bring forth manifestations that reflect the love, peace and joy, which is the true vibration of who you are.
Eckhart tolle is not talking about any techniques or practices for “self improvement”, but rather he is directly pointing you back to your true nature which does not need any improvement, which is already whole and complete. When you rest in your true nature, your physical nature automatically transforms to allow the light of your being to shine through. Eckhart is always talking about this transformation, he calls it the “flowering of human consciousness”. You are “pure consciousness”, you are not a “person”, you are not a character, but the universal presence.
What is the ‘Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle About?
The book “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle has gained huge popularity since it’s publication in 1997.
One reason for its immense acceptance is because it points to the simple truth of our reality which we are inherently aware of deeply but may not be consciously living from. This book calls us forth to live from this truth and see the transformation that it brings to the quality of our life.
It may take a few readings, and some deep contemplation, to really understand what the Power of Now is about.
It’s not about practicing a new way of living, it’s about realizing our true self or true identity, and then allowing this truth to live our life. Here is a summery of the book.
What is the Truth that “The Power of Now” Points To?
It may look as if the book points towards a different way of approaching life by focusing our attention on the “present” instead of dwelling on the past and future, but that’s not what the message is really pointing to.
Eckhart Tolle, through his words and pointers, is looking to direct us towards our true identity or true self, and is not merely giving us a practice to live by.
To imagine that he’s giving some techniques or practices to incorporate in our life is to misinterpret his message.
Most people come to the conclusion that Eckhart Tolle is asking his readers to “Stay focused in the Now”. So many start practicing staying aware of what’s happening in the present moment. They become aware of their feelings, their thoughts, their sense perceptions and surroundings, in an attempt to stay focused in the now. This may be a good practice to help discipline the mind, but this is not a natural state to be in. One is bound to get tired of focusing this way, sooner or later.
If you start practicing the technique of staying aware of the present moment without looking at the truth that it points towards, then you are completely missing the point of the practice.
Eckhart Tolle looks at pointing you towards the fact that all that exists is the “Now” and hence you “Are” the Now. The Now is your true identity, your true self. It’s not about staying focused on the now, but to realize deeply, in your being, that the now is who “you” are.
You are the field of now in which all phenomenon takes place. This field of now can also be called the field of awareness or consciousness. So you are the primordial awareness which is before all forms. This is the truth that “The Power of Now” is pointing you towards.
Can “The Power of Now” Improve My Life?
The most important question that most people ask of any teaching is whether it will solve my problems and if it will improve the quality of my life situation.
The Power of Now, by pointing you towards your true identity, frees you of the burden of carrying a limited “self image” or a dysfunctional ego, which is the cause of all suffering. When this truth takes over your conditioning, it starts improving your life from inside out.
When you let go of identification with your “self image” and return to your true identity as the “formless” presence or consciousness, there is a huge shift in your vibration which becomes non-resistant and peaceful.
As you stay in this truth, your vibration will attract abundance of all forms into your life and discard any problems and conflicts present in your life situation. The Power of Now is not about getting you to become a more disciplined person, but to realize that you are not a “person” to start with, that you are the Now which is the field in which all forms exist.
All conflicts and problematic life situations arise from a “negative” vibration generated by negative thinking. Ego identification, when you believe yourself to be a separate “person”, will cause you to hold yourself in separation from life, and the universe, causing an inner conflict.
This inner conflict then reflects in your external circumstances as problems and dysfunctional life situations. When you return to your true identity as the formless consciousness, or the field of Now, you become one with life (you realize you are life), and this dissolves all inner conflict, which then reflects externally in your life situations.
Popular Eckhart Tolle Quotes
Some very popular quotes by Eckhart Tolle from Power of Now and other books are as below:
“Every thought pretends that it matters so much, it wants to draw your attention completely. Don’t take your thoughts too seriously”
“You are pure awareness disguised as a person”
“The mind exists in a state of ‘not enough’ and so is always greedy for more. When you are identified with the mind you get bored and restless very easily”
“Life is happening on its own. Can you let it be?”
“Through the inner body, you are forever one with God.”
“Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose”
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
“To love is to recognize yourself in another.”
“Life is the dancer and you are the dance.”
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”
“Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”
“Being spiritual has nothing to do with what you believe and everything to do with your state of consciousness.”
“Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.”
“Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.”
“Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.”
“All problems are illusions of the mind.”
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”
“All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.”
“Every complaint is a little story the mind makes up that you completely believe in.”
“Become conscious of being conscious.”
“Where there is anger there is always pain underneath.”
“Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.”
“Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.”
“On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a joyous energy behind what you do.”
“Doing is never enough if you neglect Being.”
“With stillness comes the benediction of Peace.”
“True Power is within, and it is available now.”
“You are awareness, disguised as a person.”
“The foundation of greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment, instead of pursuing the idea of greatness.”
“How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.”
The essence of Eckhart Tolle’s teaching is to let life be, to simply let things happen around you instead of trying to manipulate and control life.
As it happens, life is full of goodness and well-being, and you get to experience it’s joy when you let go of the resistance created by holding onto thoughts.
