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
Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.
Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.
You are here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold. That is how important you are!
The more you are focused on time-past and future-the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.
After having been lost in the world, suddenly, through the pressure of suffering, the realization comes that the answers may not be found out there in worldly attainment and in the future. That's an important point for many people to reach. That sense of deep crisis-when the world as they have known it, and the sense of self that they have known that is identified with the world, become meaningless.
You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present.
There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it.
If I find here and Now unacceptable, I have three choices: 1-Totally accept it. 2- Change it. 3-Remove myself from the situation. That is taking responsibility for my life.
Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.
The story of the Zen Master whose only response was always "Is that so?" shows the good that comes through inner nonresistance to events, that is to say, being at one with what happens. The story of the man whose comment was invariably a laconic "Maybe" illustrates the wisdom of nonjudgment, and the story of the ring points to the fact of impermanence which, when recognized, leads to nonattachment. Nonresistance, nonjudgement, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.
In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness.
If your relationship to the present moment is not right - nothing can ever be right in the future - because when the future comes - it's the present moment.
Through the present moment, you have access to the power of life itself, that which has traditionally been called "God." As soon as you turn away from it, God ceases to be a reality in your life, and all you are left with is the mental concept of God, which some people believe in and others deny. Even belief in God is only a poor substitute for the living reality of God manifesting every moment of your life.
Above all, the only thing you have to heal is the present thought. Get that right and the whole picture will change into one of harmony and joy.