Eckhart Tolle (* 1948) is a spiritual teacher and author. He was born in Germany, educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge and lives currently in Vancouver, Canada. At the age of 29, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher.
Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time. In this book, Tolle advocates present moment awareness and the dismantling of the ego as the path towards awakened living.
Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans to the beauty that is an essential part of their inner most being, their true nature. The messengers – Buddha, Jesus, and others were humanity’s early flowers. Their messages were often greatly distorted. This book should bring a shift in consciousness, but can only awaken those who are ready.
We have an inherited dysfunction – to miss the point of human existence, which is now intensifying (violence on humans and the planet). Fear, greed and the desire for power are the reasons.
You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you. The reason for the dysfunction: The Ego.
The greatest achievement is not art or science, but the recognition of our own dysfunction.
Religions became divisive rather than unifying because many things were added that had nothing to do with the original teachings. Now religions are belief systems with which people can identify themselves – but having a belief system does not make you spiritual. The new spirituality is the transformation of consciousness – spirituality has everything to do with your state of consciousness. Some churches are “egoic” entities identified with mental positions. The most rigid structures, the most impervious will collapse first – disintegrating from within.
When forced with radical crisis an evolutionary leap is necessary. We are faced with the choice to evolve or die. At the heart of the new consciousness (compare with Ever Present Origin) lies the transcendence of thought, the new-found ability of rising above thought, of realizing a dimension within yourself that is infinitely more vast than thought.
Evil is maybe complete identification with form, not recognizing that we are connected with the whole, the intrinsic oneness with every “other” as well as with the Source. Heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. Human consciousness is one with the life of the planet – natural upheavals s the old consciousness dissolves.
Don’t label things. Watch the “Ego” or “I”, watch the incessant stream of mind. Thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence.
The unconscious compulsion to enhance one’s identity through association with an object is built into the very structure of the egoic mind. Many people are not buying a product but an identity enhancer (compare with Your Own Identity).
To find yourself through things does not work! The unchecked striving for more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a disease (like cancer!). You can value things, but not get attached to them. Letting go can show power. Making yourself right and others wrong is one of the principal egoic mind patterns. The ego tends to equate having with Being!
Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them. Wanting keeps the ego alive much more than having. Sometimes the feeling you are not enough turns physical – into hunger.
Another problem: Life’s fulfillment is perceived to be fulfillment of one’s gender identity. Enjoy good attributes, improve through nutrition and exercise.
Try and feel your inner body – feel the aliveness inside it. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can.
The ultimate truth of who you are is “I AM”. Yielding means inner acceptance of what is. Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the shell of the ego – life will not be helpful.
To uphold the I-thought, it needs the opposite thought of “the other” (compare with Memories, Dreams, Reflections). What you react to in another, you strengthen in yourself. You can only be in a state of non-reaction if you can recognize someone’s behavior as coming from the ego. At times you may have to take practical steps to protect yourself from deeply unconscious people. Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right.
Ego implies unawareness. If you are simply stating what you know to be true, the ego is not involved at all, because there is no identification.
Only through awareness – not through thinking – can you differentiate between fact and opinion. Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.
Compassion arises when you recognize that all are suffering from the same sickness of the mind.
Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. Whatever happens in my life is no longer of absolute but only of relative importance.
The ego uses people and situations to get what it wants. The underlying emotion that governs all the activity of the ego is fear. Only the truth of who you are, if realized,will set you freed.
Form: impermanence; Formless: within yourself.
A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego – an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person. That alert attention is Presence.
Egoic relationship: Wanted, thwarted wanting (anger, resentment, blaming, complaining) and indifference.
The source of all energy is within you! The ego has to role-play and authentic human interactions become impossible when you lose yourself in a role.
The primary cause for unhappiness is never the situation but the thought about it.
Treat children as equals! You need to tell them sometimes what to do and what not to do.
Egoic patterns sometimes dissolve when you don’t oppose them internally.
Awareness means Presence, and only Presence can dissolve the unconscious past in you.
What to me is a mistake may be exactly what our children need to do or experience. Give them guidance and allow them to make mistakes, especially as they begin to reach adulthood. Allow them to suffer. Suffering drives them deeper. A lot of it is caused by the ego. Eventually suffering destroys the ego – but only until you suffer consciously. It has a noble purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning of the ego.
Parents have to be there as human beings. Give your child attention – not wanting anything other than that moment as it is. Only in form we are not equal. Only if you find the formless dimension in yourself can there be true love in that relationship. To love is to recognize yourself in another. The child wants to be loved on the level of Being, not form.
Love is the recognition of oneness in the world of duality.
You become most powerful if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance etc. your role.
Those who do not appear more than they are but are simply themselves, stand out as remarkable and are the only ones who truly make a difference in this world. They are the bringers of the new consciousness. Whatever they do becomes empowered because it is in alignment with the purpose of the whole. You are totally focused on the situation and you become one with it. You don’t try to be anybody in particular. You are most powerful, most effective, when you are completely yourself.
In form you might be inferior/superior – true self-esteem and humility are then the same.
Peace is the end of the ego. Being one with life is being on with Now. Being at peace and being who you are, that is, being yourself, are one.
To create suffering without recognizing it is the essence of unconscious living. You have to take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. To become free of your ego means you need to be aware of your thoughts and emotions as they happen.
Those who are exceptionally good at what they do may be completely or largely free of ego while performing their work. They are one with what they do, one with the Now, one with the people or the task they serve.
Those people who work without ego are extraordinarily successful at what they do. Anybody who is one with what he or she does is building the new earth.
When work is no more than a means to an end, it cannot be of high quality. You need to immediately become one with the new situation and respond to the requirements of the present moment. In order to attract success, you need to welcome it wherever you see it.
The collective will come into conflict with other collectives, because it unconsciously seeks conflict and it needs opposition to define its boundary and thus its identity. Enlightened collective will fulfill an important function.
We have to be aware of our pain body. Nobody can go through childhood without suffering emotional pain.
Every time you are present when the pain-body arises, some of the pain-bodys’ negative emotional energy will burn up, as it were, and become transmuted into Presence. Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. Give and it will be given to you.
“I don’t mind what happens.” – “Is that so”.
Non-resistance, non-judgment and non-attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.
Practice: Look at an object with complete attention but relaxed. Breathe with awareness.
The primary purpose of your life can not be found outside. It is concerned with what you are, your state of consciousness.
The inner purpose is to awaken. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose.
Anxiety, stress or negativity arise because you turned away from the present moment.
Where you meet with people, at work or wherever it may be, give them your fullest attention. When you become aligned with the whole, you become a conscious part of the interconnectedness of the whole and its purpose, the emergence of consciousness into this world. As a result, spontaneous helpful occurrences, chance encounters, coincidences, and anachronistic events happen much more frequently.
The universe too has an inner and outer purpose inseparable from ours (form: dreams, drama – formless essence).
On the new earth, old age will be universally recognized and highly valued as a time for the flowering consciousness.
The only actions that do not cause opposing reactions are those aimed at the good of all. They are inclusive, not exclusive. They join, the do not separate.
Not what you do, but how you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny. And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness.
The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm.
Whatever you cannot enjoy doing, you can at least accept that his is what you have to do. Joy flows into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you.
Enthusiasm means there is a deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or a vision that you work toward. Structural tension is added! You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target – and enjoying the journey. Enthusiasm never opposes; it does not create winners and losers. It is based on inclusion, not exclusion of others. You see yourself inspiring countless people with your work and enriching their lives.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The meek are the egoless!
All these concepts have been taught in Theosophy for a long time.