That it begins as an inside job so to speak. Tolle is considered a teacher to many movers and shakers in the West. Politicians and business leaders who are making decisions that impact us all on a daily basis. It seems to me that the problems of the world emerge by their own volition — who among us decided or acted in such a way to create wealth inequality, war, or cruelty?
You can point at a dead person or someone who is in power and say it was them. But they are products of their time, their life experience, their parents. They raise the movers and shakers. This is pointless though because you cannot change what they have done or what they are doing.
Figuring out what that is can be daunting. He is a hermit and without a family or child, so naturally his approach works for him. He is not a Buddhist so criticizing him from the Buddhist perspective is silly. Does this mean that you should do nothing?
When seeing an individual in need you should help, but altruistic activism is self-delusion. Spirituality and politics do not mix. For me that is proof his teaching has value. Most comnents show that the revolutionary jature of a Tollean transformation has never been tried. Even Buddhists seem to fail to grasp the point. Internal transformation leads to both true understanding and compassion. If individual consciousnrss was transformed on a massive scale it wpuld lead collectovely to revolutionary change, to wise and compassionate decisions, to more cooperation anf vollsboration and less conflicts.
Freeing ones self from egoic positions would result in huge numbers of people climbing out of nationalism, casteism, religious and sectarian conflict and the worship of money. All we have today is more of the same: good works without a real shift in consciousness. It isnt that we deny the value of the good work people do who carry baggage but how a massive shift in infividual consciousness on a large scale would be fun dentally transformational to social chsnge.
The only way this can hsppen is through mefitation and a shift in awareness. This can only happen in a Now, just as an intuitive scientific insight happens in a Now. I remember as a young msn in s India, wandering daily through an environment of mass poverty amd hopelessness, of religious and caste conflict, and thinking that imdeed without an internal transformation at the heart of each imdividual amounting to a collective shift in consciousness, the problems would never be solved.
Its clear that his position is not understood because he makes individual transformation primary before anything collective csn get truly better. All he is saying is that the impulse to advocate for any cause for each individual should come from the right place, from place of inner peace, presence and self-awareness. As a mental health professional, I know for a fact that for many people who have been highly traumatized by many horrific events, his practical suggestions will not work.
Many of them may start dissociating and self-harming if they attempt to do that and they have no control over it. I also find it a bit off putting when he makes light of human suffering. Their life is often a nightmare because of the excruciating pain they experience daily and to make a light of it is highly insensitive. The reason he does that, I believe, is because he himself has not experienced that degree of trauma.
I really agree with Arjun L. Sen the real change can only star with the inner change. Take the example of an Gandhi, Mandela, Buddha and others they really worked a change in the world but first they change themselves! Take the example of Gandhi. He was killed by some of people he tried to save. In this case mostly the problem resides in the nonexistent change in the people only some of the conditions which of course is also important of their lives.
The change and the revolution to endure must be directed to our consciousness as first stage. Check out the work of Charles Eisenstein. He reconciles the opposing issues stated in this article and brings Love in the right context binding them all together. He is influenced by people and ways of thought that I have deep respect for.
I believe that I exist both as an individual and all life simultaneously. I have been an activist in the past and like many activists, I got caught up in the trap of seeing myself as superior.
When you are involved in collective action working towards mutually agreed timelines, it is too easy to lose your ability to stay in the present moment and devalue the opinions of others. It is very important to view the people who disagree with you as equals and feel genuine compassion and respect for them. I agree completely. It must address both problems at once. It is my understanding that Ullrich, er, uh, Eckart Tolle is a hermit who set himself free from the trials and tribulations of mainstream life.
Is that correct? But I wonder. I have read his work, and it is clear that, like all mystics, he is using words limitations to point the reader toward a working relationship with the unknowable beyond mind. I believe he has helped millions free themselves from mental prisons, and find inner peace. The details of our human experience individual, and collective are not important, what is important is how we choose to react, or not react.
Look at your perceptual filter, and see how it is blocking your spiritual growth, that is what I take away. We place so much blame on each other in this world. Raising awareness does not have to be yelled out on a busy street. It could be simply walking by with a reusable-from-home cup carrying groceries in a non single use bag.
The consumer has much to do with the demise or rise of business and I think Tolle touches on this very idea indirectly and on a macro level. The idea that we are in this life together and battle our very different yet similar inner struggles is binding to the human existence. The higher we get to enlightenment, the closer we come to realizing that we are all each other and that there is no difference.
I realize this is a Buddhist Peace Fellowship but I do not claim Islam or Buddhism however this is a personal goal in my life. To lie my soul down in that grass. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. Tolle seems to adopt these similar ideas when mentioning a complete loss of self-identity. This non-self identification and world view tends to ere on the side of more activism and doing than not.
The most basic concept of his teachings is that all that we have is now implying that we have to DO something now. Surely the world is not blind. Which leads me to where I disagree with Be. Person X Claims the identity of secular, and rejects religion and all forms of spirituality. Person Y Claims the identity of Christian. Nathan G. Thompson July 26, at am.
Murray Reiss July 26, at pm. Bryan Wagner July 27, at am. Thompson July 27, at am. Jeff July 28, at pm. Thompson July 29, at am. Bezi July 30, at pm. Matt August 7, at am. Thompson August 7, at am. Stephen Malagodi August 7, at pm. Not worth spending a lot of time on. Bob August 16, at am.
Susmita August 17, at pm. Boorstin We need to understand what is the true power of the people and communities around the world and how the basis of that power of the people got shortchanged by systems and structures of colonization under the placebo called democracy.
Dub Riley May 26, at am. Nathan May 26, at am. Maria Sontana July 2, at am. Zoran December 25, at pm. Chris February 20, at pm. Really well thought out piece. An unassuming man shuffles on towards the staged chair, welcomed by respectfully rapturous applause and, once seated, the room again descends into an expectant lull. When he does speak I am transported back to the summer months I spent last year listening to his audio books.
There is a sweet, comforting and almost nostalgic feeling to hearing that voice live, accompanied by that odd feeling you get when you meet someone famous; that feeling where you think you know them quite well, when in reality you only really know their public image.
I have no idea what his favourite colour is or how he takes his tea, and he is completely unaware of my existence despite playing a pivotal role in my life.
In his books, Tolle teaches about stepping away from the analytical mind and becoming a witness to the voice in our head rather than being driven by it. He has come to understand the importance of living in the present moment and all of his books essentially draw back to this concept. Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life. However, for the time being we will have to leave the present moment, and return to the events leading up to one my many yoga crimes… walking out on Eckhart Tolle.
It quickly became apparent that Eckhart Tolle had always been his own guide from the beginning. As we all experience at some point in our lives, he found himself going in a downward spiral, but unlike most of us he had a sudden realisation that turned his life around. No-one told him how to find this change of direction, he simply changed. He woke up. For most of us, this mask is invisible, unconscious and ingrained.
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself.
Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all. That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world.
This is then followed by the second stage of the transformation, experienced the following morning. There are many historical parallels that could be cited, but I thought immediately of the experience of Jacob Boehme perhaps because he was also a German. For I saw and knew the Being of all beings. In the vast majority of instances, the pattern is as follows. He persists on the path, without any expectation that everything is going to change all at once, and that the rest of life will be like an endless orgasm.
With Eckhart Tolle, however, things were different. Radically different. If he is to be believed. When he woke up the next morning, everything was not the same as it was before. Indeed, everything was completely different. His newfound experience of life really is like an endless orgasm. And it never leaves him.
This makes Tolle an exceptional human being. Only a very tiny minority of seekers have experiences this dramatic, and remain permanently transformed. Again, one has to go to the annals of classical mysticism, East and West, and look at the cases of celebrated individuals, in order to find parallels for Tolle.
Of course, I did add a caveat just a moment ago: if he is to be believed. And so, the reader may wonder, should we believe this story? As for myself, I have absolutely no difficulty believing Tolle, as I think he is quite genuine and that the transformation he claims to have experienced was real and no fantasy — and certainly, it is no fraud. I base this on reading The Power of Now , and on seeing videos of his talks and interactions with questioners. Either Tolle has an immense, unacknowledged debt to the Gurdjieff Work, or he has managed to arrive at a remarkable reduplication of aspects of the Work; I actually suspect it is the latter.
It is pitched at a relatively high intellectual level for a bestselling book , generally avoids oversimplification, makes important distinctions, and often employs striking metaphors. I have discussed this in more than one essay.
This is a new experience for most of us. It is certainly a new way of experiencing a tomato — which would really be present to me in a way it never has been before. Of course, the tomato is present to me, but so is myself. My attention, in fact, is divided. I fully sense the impressions I am having — including whatever thoughts go through my head, or whatever emotions I feel as I hold this object.
In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example, every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing.
Be totally present. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sense perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scent of the soap, and so on.
Or when you get into your car, after you close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe the flow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence. There is one certain criterion by which you can measure your success in this practice: the degree of peace that you feel within.
Through self-observation, more presence comes into your life automatically. The moment you realize you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it.
Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence. 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.
Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher. In addition to his advice on practice, Tolle sometimes has surprising things to say about theory. It is reasonable to ask what the point of the practice of presence is — to ask, in effect, for a theory or account of its worth.
This is the basic way in which yoga has been offered to Americans for decades now. Elsewhere, Tolle has something more to say about the purpose of this path — the cosmic goal, if you will, of this work.
And what he says is rather remarkable:. When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that Being becomes conscious of itself.
Since Being, consciousness, and life are synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness. There is nothing that you need to understand before you can become present.
In other essays, I have taken a position very much like this. The point of it all is the confrontation of humankind with the Being of beings to put it in Heideggerean language — and in truth my position fuses Hegel and Heidegger.
This is very much like what Tolle is saying. On the whole, I was thus impressed with The Power of Now — and pleasantly surprised. Now I must speak of Tolle the man. As I said earlier, I do believe that his spiritual realization is quite genuine. In fact, I base this chiefly on seeing videos of his talks. Physically, Tolle is unprepossessing, with a beady-eyed, rabbit-like quality. He has a rather weak chin, which he seems to be trying to disguise by sporting a whisper of beard.
His demeanor is extremely mild, almost disconcertingly so. Tolle often greets audiences with hands pressed together in the namaste gesture. I find this a bit of an affectation, coming from a European.
Tolle speaks with a very pleasant German accent, in absolutely perfect English. In contrast to his mild physicality, his voice is quite strong.
His speech is firm and self-confident, and conveys benevolent authority. He is an excellent extemporaneous speaker, and what he says is always clear and articulate. The videos available of him a great many of which can be found on YouTube often involve him taking questions from audience members. In addition, he is also extremely funny, often at his own expense.
The importance of this cannot be overstated. There is no trace of ego in how he speaks of himself. I have observed all of these traits in individuals I have met, or read accounts of, who have achieved genuine spiritual realization.
It is impossible to convince readers of this. They should simply watch some videos of Tolle themselves. I will link to a few at the end of this article. On balance, I would say that he is a positive influence, and a good source to go to for instruction in the perennial path of Self-realization — especially for those just starting out.
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