Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolleis a German-born resident of Canada, best known as the author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose. In 2011, he was listed by Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world. In 2008, a New York Times writer called Tolle "the most popular spiritual author in the United States"...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionSelf-Help Author
Date of Birth16 February 1948
CityLunen, Germany
CountryGermany
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could spare them from all suffering? No, it wouldn't. They would not evolve as human beings and would remain shallow, identified with the external form of things. Suffering drives you deeper. The paradox is that suffering is caused by identification with form and erodes identification with form. A lot of it is caused by the ego, although eventually suffering destroys the ego-but not until you suffer consciously.
The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.
Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in a state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is.
The ego's form of happiness can't exist without unhappiness. The ego will be happy when something good happens but unhappy when it ends.
Complaining is one of the ego's favorite strategies for strengthening itself.
Only when you've truly had enough suffering in your life, are you able to say ' I don't need it anymore'.
As long as you make an identity for yourself out of pain, you cannot be free of it.
A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become liberating.
As you go about your life, don't give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and your mind. Keep some within.
The peace that comes with surrendered action turns to a sense of aliveness when you actually enjoy what you are doing.
The predominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of consciousness. We need to go on to the next stage now as a matter of urgency; otherwise, we will be destroyed by the mind, which has grown into a monster.
Make it a habit to ask yourself: What's going on inside me at this moment? That question will point you in the right direction. But don't analyze, just watch. Focus your attention within. Feel the energy of the emotion. If there is no emotion present, take your attention more deeply into the inner energy field of your body. It is the doorway into Being.
Be present as the watcher of your mind - of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react.
We have forgotten what rocks and plants still know - we have forgotten how to be - to be still - to be ourselves - to be where life is here and now