Join Eckhart Tolle as he teaches us about the various aspects of sleep,

everything from dreams, insomnia, inner body awareness and reconnecting to the deeper dimension within for a truly good nights rest.

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Included in this special section are video clips from Eckharts teachings about sleep and dreams, relaxing music, soothing wallpapers and screensavers to help you access the present moment to take a journey to the Unmanifested every night.

Merging with the Source of Life with Eckhart Tolle

Welcome to this special section of Eckhart Tolle TV

You take a journey into the Unmanifested every night when you enter the phase of deep dreamless sleep. You merge with the Source. You draw from it the vital energy that sustains you for a while when you return to the manifested, the world of separate forms. - Eckhart Tolle

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To have a good nights sleep, Eckhart recommends that we go to bed with as much presence as possible. In the last 15 minutes before we go to bed, do not engage in mind activity, such as: watching TV, or listening to the radio or reading a book; instead go into sleep from presence.

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Sleep Fall Asleep Easily and Naturally

David Ison

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Eckhart teaches us, When you go to sleep, if you can, be as present as possible, maybe by sensing the inner energy field in your body. Lie on your back, scan the body with your inner attention and feel that it is alive and then be that aliveness. Go to sleep from there. Try this exercise using your smartphone, and relax into sleep.

The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form. Eckhart Tolle

Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found. Eckhart Tolle

Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness. Eckhart Tolle

Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. Eckhart Tolle

Sooner or later youll grow fed up with the voice inside your head

with its constant murmurings of discontent

its fear-mongering thoughts of the future

and its questioning of every choice you make.

One day, youll turn to it and calmly say I refuse to listen!

then stand back and look away,

turning your attention to your surroundings

or to a quietness and spaciousness you can sense

inside you, just behind the voice.

The voice is so self-absorbed

that at first it wont even notice that its being ignored

and will carry on chattering away to itself.

Youll still hear its complaints and criticisms

but they wont convince you anymore -

youll doubt them, laugh at them, reject them.

And gradually, without the fuel of your attention

the voice will become more hesitant

will stumble and slow down, leaving space;

until eventually, that self-assertive drawl that demanded to be heard

and seemed to submerge the rest of the reality

will be no louder than a whisper, like a gentle breeze

that seems to be part of silence.

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Our dreams are caused by pre-existing emotions within ourselves. The mind attempts to explain our fears through our dreams. As we bring presence into our daily lives our frightening dreams subside.

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Included in your Free 10-Day Trial is an all-access pass to the entire library of Eckharts teachings. In addition, you will have access to over 25 more videos about sleep.

Click below to begin your Free 10-Day Trial today, and watch more videos of Eckharts teachings on Sleep and much more

Eckhart Tolle TV is dedicated to providing you with the resources to put Eckharts teachings into practice everyday to transform you, which ultimately transforms the world. That is how important you are.

Continued here:
Sleep Merging with the Source of Life with Eckhart Tolle

Best-selling author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle has been inspiring readers since he wrote the number one New York Times best-seller The Power of Now. Before class begins, get to know the man who will be guiding you toward spiritual awakening.

Eckhart is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. Through his writing and seminars, his simple yet profound teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives.

At the core of his teachings lies the transformation of consciousnessa spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists of transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This, he says, is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.

A sought-after public speaker and teacher, Eckhart travels throughout the world. Most of the talks are given in English, but occasionally Eckhart speaks in German and Spanish. Many of his talks, intensives and retreats are published on CD and DVD.

Eckhart's 10 powerful insights to a happier you

Link:
Eckhart Tolle's Biography - Oprah.com

Spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating, and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.

Eckharts profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening includes transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.

Eckhart is a sought-after public speaker and teaches and travels extensively throughout the world. Many of his talks, intensives, and retreats are published on CD and DVD. Most of the teachings are given in English, but occasionally Eckhart also gives talks in German and Spanish. In addition to The Power of Now and A New Earth, Eckhart has written a book designed for meditative reading entitled Stillness Speaks. A book consisting of selections from The Power of Now entitled Practicing the Power of Now is also available. For more information on Eckhart Tolle, please visit his website.

Take Eckhart Tolle's FREE Uncourse. Learn more

Author photo David Ellingsen

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Eckhart Tolle - Sounds True

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Eckhart Tolle (Author of A New Earth)

02-01-2009, 03:09 AM #1 (permalink)

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Eckhart Tolle

Once in a generation, an individual comes around who is able to help millions of people improve their lives through insight, wisdom, compassion and just plain common sense. For many people around the world, that individual is Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle a teacher of spirituality who has connected with a large number of people around the world. Why? His message is simple and speaks directly to many of the problems we currently face as human beings in an ever-changing, highly stressful world.

At the age of 29, after suffering from years of depression and suicidal thoughts, Mr. Tolle experienced a significant breakthrough in his life. It is what he learned during this inner transformation that forms the basis for much of his work. A born teacher, Tolle saw immediately after his breakthrough that his path was to share what he had discovered with others as a means of helping them improve their lives be it coping with depression, healing emotional wounds or building stronger families.

Tolle draws from a variety of influences, including: Zen Buddhism, The Bible, Meister Eckhart and others. But it is the accessible, compassionate way that he delivers that message which has made him such an important figure to so many people.

For those who may not have heard Mr. Tolle speak, or had an opportunity to read his work, here are six of his important teachings about enlightenment and how they affect the inner workings of daily life.

#1: Live in the present moment.

Mr. Tolle urges individuals to live their lives in the present day, and not worry excessively about the things have come before, or might be waiting in the future. He believes that it is the human ego which acts as a distraction and causes people to fret about things have already occurred or that we cannot control in the future. Enlightenment is achieved by those who experience the present to the fullest.

#2: Believe in self-realization

One of the cornerstones of Tolles philosophy is that only when we understand ourselves will we enjoy true happiness. It is this understanding that helps us realize that we all have an important place in the world. We must all understand that as human beings we are extremely important, since it is our destiny to see that the universe continues to unfold.

#3: Take the Bible for what it is worth

Eckhart Tolle has become a controversial figure among Christians for his beliefs about the Bible. But Tolle is not dismissing the New Testament. Instead, he states that there are spiritual truths within its pages as well as things that have become distorted or misinterpreted over time. And when an individual is truly self aware, he or she will easily be able to separate the two and therefore gain more true meaning and spirituality from the Book.

#4: Those who desire things are not yet enlightened

Tolle states clearly that wanting for things means that you are believing in the future more than in the present. In his opinion, the present holds everything we need to achieve happiness and enlightenment. He believes that individuals should never see the present as merely a means to an end - for in the moment is where to self-realization and fulfillment is going to occur.

#5: Be aware of the pain-body

Another of Tolles most significant teachings is that of the pain-body. Tolle believes that over the years we, as humans, have become conditioned to think and act a certain way. He sees these behaviors as pain-body attacks and illustrates how they cause us, and those around us, harm. By observing and understanding these attacks, we become more self-aware and therefore gain the power to stop them.

#6: Do not fight what is

Perhaps the most easily-relatable of all of Eckhart Tolles teachings is the idea that we causes ourselves pain when we fight against the things that are happening to us in our lives. This resistance against what is causes endless sadness, stress and other negative issues. Accepting what is takes every individual to a higher level, and gives us the strength to achieve great things. Currently, Eckhart Tolle is one of the worlds best-selling authors and most sought-after speakers. HIs book The Power of Now has already been translated into over 30 different languages and sat for many weeks atop the famed New York Times best seller list. Tolle has also received a tremendous boost from Oprah Winfrey, who has had the man on her show and lists The Power of Now as one of her favorite books. Winfrey recently named Tolles latest book, A New Earth as a selection in her famed Oprahs Book Club.

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Six things you learn from Eckhart Tolle that will change your life | EnlightenmentRing.com

As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again. -- Maitri Upanishads

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From "The Power of Now"...

Quote:

Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.

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As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again. -- Maitri Upanishads

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As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again. -- Maitri Upanishads

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I was actually looking for The Road Less Travelled but the shop was out of copies, and Mr Tolle's book leap into my hand. lol

" Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain."

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There are some good videos of his on YouTube, if anyone is interested. I find his teachings and perspective really, really helpful.

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As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again. -- Maitri Upanishads

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When I first heard him, I thought he was awesome. Oprah has said that he is the greatest spiritual leader of our times. Then, when I really paid attention, I thought, "He knows about the 12 steps and Buddhist religion and is now taking what he has learned and put them in a book". Buddhisim teaches that desire is the culprit of being unhappy. One Day At A Time and stay in the moment taught in 12 steps recovery is the same as Tolle's teaching. The pain body teaching is what the 12 steps do to relieve people of trauma and harm that happened in the past by digging down deep. Interesting stuff.

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As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again. -- Maitri Upanishads

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Of course he seems to be very genuine, he's making millions by knowing people are looking for a way out of their misery.

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If you like Eckhart Tolle, you may also like Jiddu Krishnamurti. Tolle was very influenced by Krishnamurti. Tolle is a bit easier reading, though. Krishnamurti requires a greater concentration and intensity of thought. He can also be a bit grouchy.

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His "The Now" is very much like Deepak Chopra's "The Gap"

"Guess what? I got a fever, and the only prescription is more Taobell!"

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I read Tolle several years ago, liked the message & found it compatible with some fundamental beliefs I held, but did not really commit to what he said. A couple of months ago I found myself in a sad place, and I opened his book, The Power of Now. Found just what I needed: I was struggling with some attacks from other people, and Tolle wrote of being less attached to beliefs. I finally realized that was something that had plagued me for some time: I was defining myself by what I believed, so beliefs to the contrary were received as personal. I wasn't separating the two. It was a powerful lesson for me, one I am trying to put into practice.

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Zencat, Thank you for the Tolle video. It speaks volumes about some things I have encountered about myself. As a younger person with lots of energy & enthusiasim I received lots of praise for my fervor and committment to causes. Perhaps I allowed that to bleed into other parts fo my life. Being attached to strong feelings about this or that has been a trademark, something I was proud of doing because I thought it was related to integrity or something. As with other things in my life, I have come to find that it is no longer useful. Alcohol, once a soothing balm, became no longer useful. Ego sustained me for a while, I guess, and then it became a hindrance. People in AA speak of peeling away the layers of the onion--and that there are many tears associated with that. I have been sober quite a few years, but I help that I never lose the willingness to grow just a bit more.

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Eckhart Tolle - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction ...

From: Larry Crane. (Los Angeles, Tel. 888-735-3731)

Dear Reader,

Have you heard of Eckhart Tolle? Eckhart Tolle is a living embodiment of unshakeable peace. He was recently featured on Oprah Winfrey; and is the author of the book The Power Of Now and, most recently, A New Earth Awakening Your Lifes Purpose Whats more, through his books and speaking engagements

And hes doing a fantastic job.

Especially with his latest book A New Earth.

But what if you havent read Eckharts book, A New Earth.

Should you rush out and buy a copy?

Or should avoid it like the plague?

Im going to answer those questions by asking you to play along with me for a moment and, imagine in your minds eye two twin brothers.

Each twin is (obviously) exactly the same age. Lets say 44. Each twin has recently been sacked from their job and has almost zero future job prospects (or earning capacity). Each twin is also going through a bitter divorce. And because each twin is being soaked for a hefty divorce settlement; theyre both staring bankruptcy in the face.

What else?

Oh yes, each twin is riddled with stress unable to sleep at night because their homes are on the verge of being foreclosed.

In other words

Lying in tatters.

But guess what?

One twin (lets call him TWIN A) sees Eckhart Tolle interviewed on Oprah likes what he hears about living an effortless life and so after the show rushes out to buy Eckharts latest book A New Earth.

The other twin (lets call him TWIN B) doesnt see Eckhart Tolle being interviewed on Oprah. In fact, he doesnt see any TV because

Cant even muster the energy to watch daytime TV.

This goes on for some time. Long enough for a friend to get worried about TWIN B.

And its no wonder, after all, all the life has gone out of him.

And so, this good Samaritan friend makes a visit to TWIN B to lift his spirits and also drop off 20-CDs for TWIN B to listen to while wallowing in bed.

And then the friend leaves.

Meanwhile, the other twin TWIN A is racing through his copy of Eckhart Tolles book A New Earth.

Hes never read anything like it before. And, for the very first time in his life, TWIN A understands (because of what he reads in A New Earth)

He loves the idea of this revelation.

And who can blame him?

After all, he can now see how his negative thought patterns (including fear, worry, and stress) are responsible for putting his entire life into a tail spin.

In no time at all, hes read the book, A New Earth front to back. He even reads it a second time. And a third. Taking reams of notes as he goes.

Okay, lets revisit the second twin. Remember him? Hes the twin (TWIN B) who was so depressed he couldnt even muster up the energy to get out of bed.

For all intents and purposes

With no earthly hope of turning his bleak situation around.

Or so it seemed.

But as we all know, life is sometimes very deceiving and that was extremely true in this case.

Heres why: Remember TWIN B had that friend drop by and leave him 20-CDs to listen to.

Well, as it happens, TWIN B did listen to the first of those CDs. And then he listened to the second of those CDs. And so on, until hed listened to all 20-CDs.

And much to his surprise

What was on those CDs?

Ill tell you in a second.

First, I want you to hit the fast forward button in your minds eye to 12-months down the line and revisit both twins for old times sake.

How do you suppose TWIN A will be doing in life?

You know, the twin who got a copy of Eckhart Tolles new book A New Earth and read it over and over.

Well, astonishingly enough

Meaning: He is still in big-time financial trouble.

He is still unemployed.

He is still single and alone.

And he is still fighting off the foreclosure of his home.

Why is this?

Actually the answer is very simple:

TWIN A (after reading Eckhart Tolles book, A New Earth) understood how his negative thought patterns were responsible for putting his life into a tail spin.

And he really understood it. At least on an intellectual level.

Trouble was, although the ideas Eckhart Tolle had put forth on paper in his book sounded great TWIN A had no idea how to translate them to his life.

Which is a shame because as you know

Lets turn our attention back to TWIN B.

How will TWIN B be doing 12-months down the line?

Amazingly

In other words: He will have come into possession of enough money to eliminate all his debts and money problems.

He will have got the job of his choice or started his dream business.

He will have met and fallen in love with his dream woman.

And, he will be living in the home or condo of his choice.

In short

Whats going on here?

How can this be?

Actually, the answer lies on those 20-CDs TWIN B listened to while wallowing in bed.

See, those CDs were like no others. They were not musical CDs. They were not trance inducing hypnotic or subliminal programming CDs. They were not rah-rah motivational CDs.

Nor were they positive visualization CDs. No.

Why?

Because as TWIN B soon found out just by listening to those CDs, you are guided through the quick and easy experiential process of letting go of your entire negative thought patterns and feelings.

And it happens effortlessly with no intellectual understanding of the process whatsoever.

Can you now see whats going on here?

Allow me to spell it out for you:

Theres a big, BIG difference between intellectually understanding something and proving it out to yourself experientially.

In fact, in terms of real world results

As the story of TWIN A and TWIN B demonstrates.

But what about you?

How does any of this help you?

Well, in case you havent already guessed, those 20-CDs I referred to in the story above are the recordings of the Release Technique.

And in case you dont already know the Release Technique is hands-down the fastest and easiest way to

But dont just take my word for it.

Take a look at this video and listen to the real life transformations that were made possible by the Release Technique:

Did you watch it?

If so, Im sure youll agree its testament to the miraculous power of the Release Technique.

But do you know whats kind of funny?

The amazing success stories above are rather run of the mill to use here at the Release Technique. In fact, our offices receive miraculous success stories almost every day by email and letter.

And so on.

Well listen: The Release Technique was developed over 50-years ago by an accomplished physicist and engineer (called Lester Levenson) who used the technique to enter a state of 100% bliss with no sorrow independent of outer circumstances. And he did it in just 3-months.

Which is pretty amazing since he had no clue what he was doing.

Today, people are using the Release Technique to go free in a matter of weeks!

See, once you learn how to use the Release Technique to pull up and erase your suppressed negativity youll naturally have a positive state of mind and therefore you effortlessly go free and attract abundance into all areas of your life.

And as astonishing (even bizarre) as the Release Technique may sound, it has been scientifically verified by Dr. David McCelland of Harvard University, and Dr. Richard Davidson of the State University of New York.

The Release Technique is also used and endorsed by Dr. John L. Kemeny (an associate of the late Albert Einstein), and hundreds of the most financially successful people in the world including hard-nosed business executives from top Fortune 500 companies such as Exxon, AT&T, Merrill Lynch, TWA, Chemical Bank, and Mutual of New York.

I consider The Release Technique to be the best contribution to preventative medicine putting one immediately in a positive attitude. This technique is simply the most effective way to reducing stress and depression. It constitutes a dramatic advance in the field of health and wellness. Christopher R. Pruitt, M.D., Director of the American Wellness Institute, Scottsdale, AZ

I have conducted case studies of dozens of patients who have been able to get rid of depression , anxiety, and rage very easily with THe Release Technique. I use it myself and I highly recommend it. I even made $2.5 million using this amazing technique. Dr. Raul Rodriguez, Medical Director of Rivercrest Hospital, San Angelo, TX

The Release Technique is used day in and day out by people just like you all around the world.

Of course, many skeptical people have tried to disprove the effectiveness of the Release Technique. And, to be honest, Im not sure whether to say they failed or succeeded because in each case

And it happens effortlessly!

See, the reason the Release Technique works and works 100% of the time for everyone who uses it is because its based on three CORE TRUTHS:

CORE TRUTH #1: It is your own suppressed negativity that is the root cause of all your life problems. Its your own suppressed negativity that keeps you from having the peace of mind, riches and toys you so desperately crave.

And

CORE TRUTH #2: All of us have the inborn, natural ability to let go (erase) all of our suppressed feelings that have a negative hold over our lives.

And

More here:
A New Earth | Eckhart Tolle | Release Technique

Hello to all:

This holiday season experience the Joy of Being.

Eckhart explains that the primary purpose of your life is to bring conscious awareness to each moment. During this holiday season of giving and receiving, perhaps the most valuable gift you can give to others, the world and yourself, is the light of your conscious awareness the joy of Being.

In this video, Eckhart sings the Ode to Joy by Beethoven and reads the poem by Schiller. Eckhart explains that joy brings you back to the state of connectedness with all humans. There is something divine in the state of joy.

The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or eventthrough anything that happens. That joy cannot come to youever. It emanates from the formless dimension within you, from consciousness itself and thus is one with who you are. Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

Throughout this holiday season, Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time. Allow the joy of Being to emanate from within you; this is how a new earth will arise.

The joy of Being is the joy of being conscious. Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

https://www.eckharttollenow.com/s/qzf6ot

Eckhart Tolle Now is dedicated to providing you with the resources to put Eckharts teachings into practice everyday to transform your life, which ultimately transforms the world.

Warm Regards, Your friends at Eckhart Tolle Now

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Eckhart Tolle - Google+

Sometimes I envision the spiritual landscape as an ecosystem in which teachers occupy varying niches. When one passes away, another moves in to fill the niche. I see Eckhart Tolle filling the niche left by Jiddu Krishnamurti: that of world-travelling teacher trying to spread the message of a new way of living to as many people as possible. Like Krishnamurti, I think Eckhart Tolle will be with us for many years.

A look through Eckharttolle.com reveals an organization devoted to making money: $25 for an audio download of "Know that I Am", card decks, calendars, music, a bewildering array of cd and dvd boxed sets, and his books -- The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, A New Earth, and Milton's Secret (a children's book which I have not read). Coming soon: EckhartTolle TV with loads of Eckhart Tolle goodies for subscribers. The site does have a few YouTube excerpts for free, and a small selection of articles.

The preceeding paragraphic prelude reveals my main concern about Tolle -- the profiteering! A 2009 Australian two-day retreat costs $685 (USD); nets you three hours a day of Eckhart lecturing, an hour-long introduction Friday evening, plus two hours of "movement meditation" with his girlfriend. Accomodations and meals are extra and you better not try to record the lecture.

Yet almost no one seems to be taking Eckhart to task on his profiteering. Instead, they excuse it by pointing to his penniless past and how he never set out to make money. His big paychecks are simply payoff for his good work. How much money does one person need? I'm certain he could retire comfortably from the profits off of the best-selling The Power of Now.

So here I am, harping on money-making, again. Why? Because I still maintain that anyone who has truly seen through the illusion of the world and mind, would not be interested in profiting from helping his fellow-man. Yet my feeling, when I read his material, is that Tolle has seen through the illusion. I can't explain my conflicting reaction. My advice is to avoid the organization: don't become a Tolle worshipper; don't buy the calendars.... Instead, read The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth, then practice his suggestions with all your heart. They may not take you all the way, but will carry you a long way down the interior road toward our True Self.

Here are some key quotes from A New Earth:

Eckart Tolle is wildly popular, though I'm baffled by that as his message is generally quite confrontational. At the beginning of A New Earth he states, "The 'normal' state of mind of most human beings contains a strong element of what we might call dysfunction or even madness." In one of his recorded lectures, he tells the audience that their life is nothing more than the space between two dates on a tombstone... and the audience laughs. It seems everyone thinks Tolle is talking about the clueless fool in the seat next to them. Perhaps Tolle's demure personality causes some of this reaction. In a way, it's hard to take him seriously -- he's so softspoken, so relaxed. He could hold a gun to your head and you couldn't imagine him pulling the trigger.

A final note: when the day comes to move deeper than Eckhart's current teaching, look especially to Nisargadatta's Consciousness and the Absolute. There you will find the next step.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from The Awakening West where Tolle describes the moment of his realization:

...for many years I lived in a state of great fear and continuous fluctuation between states of depression and high anxiety. This was to the point of becoming almost unbearable. One night I woke up in the middle of the night, as I had many times before, in a state of even more intense dread and fear. The mind had lots of reasons why I was feeling fearful, and yet that state was continuous no matter what my external situation was. It became so unbearable that suddenly the thought occurred to me, "I cannot live with myself any longer." That thought was the trigger for a transformation. The thought kept repeating itself many times in my head and then suddenly there was a stepping back from the thought and a looking at the thought. I asked, "Who is the 'I' and who is the self that I cannot live with?"

In Zen they have koans and it's almost as if a koan spontaneously appeared in my mind. A koan's purpose is to destroy conceptual thinking because it has no answer on a conceptual level. So, I asked, "Who is the self that I cannot live with? Are there one or two? If I cannot live with my self, who is that self?" And then, beyond thought, there was a recognition of the "unhappy me," as I later called it, as being something completely non-substantial and fictional. Then consciousness withdrew completely from identification with that "unhappy me." At that moment the whole structure of the "unhappy me" and its pain collapsed because the withdrawal of identification was so complete. What was left was simply beingness or presence. There was still a moment of fear. It felt like being drawn into a hole within myself, a vast whirlpool, and a realization arose in my chest, "Resist nothing." That was the key. Then resistance was relinquished and I don't know what happened after that.

Here's a relatively unknown, but comprehensive site that includes several interviews of Tolle: Eckhart Tolle: a fan site

A thoughtful Satsang Report from a Eckhart lecture courtesy of Sarlo's site (scroll down the page for the Eckhart review).

To get a feel for the criticism of Eckhart Tolle, visit this Guruphiliac page or this humorous essay on Sarlo's site. Also, here is a YouTube video where a reporter gives a half-hearted attempt to question Eckhart about his money-making activities:

Here is Oprah talking with Eckhart on SoulSeries. I like this very informal interview. Most YouTube video of Eckhart is him on stage.

An entertaining interview of Eckhart on Canadian tv:

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Last Update: October 9, 2015

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Eckhart Tolle: spiritual teacher

One of my favorite moments on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday came when Oprah asked the poet Mark Nepo what he considers sacred. When he replied, "Conversations like this are sacred to me," Oprah said, "They're so sacred to me I created a whole show to have them!"

In 2008 Oprah and the spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle held a number of those conversations as part of their Web series Oprah & Eckhart Tolle: A New Earth. Now they're bringing those episodes to television for the first time, Sundays at noon on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. Since my new book Thrive is concerned with many of the same questions, I asked Tolle about the series, why this is a conversation we as a society need to have now, and the moment he knew he needed to change his life. Here's our conversation.

There's a great deal of common ground between your work and Oprah's: You share belief that by looking at our inner world, we can better equip ourselves to improve our outer world and the lives of those around us. Why did you decide to join forces with Oprah for this series, and how did it come together?

It all started when Oprah chose A New Earth as one of her book club selections. I got a message from my office that Oprah wanted to talk to me. At the time I was at our little island vacation home when Oprah called and told me that she had chosen A New Earth to be her book club selection, which was wonderful news. Then she said, "There's something else: I don't just want to have this book as my book club selection; I also want to do a teaching seminar with you on the Web, and we can do that over a 10-week period to bring the teaching to all those people who chose to tune in." I was amazed. I didn't even realize that such a thing was possible.

I said to Oprah, "Have you ever done this before?" She said, "No, this is completely new," and then I immediately heard myself say, "Yes, I'll do it." That's how it started. It was, for both of us, and for millions of other people, a wonderful experience and a way to use the new technology to bring greater consciousness to the planet and to humans on a very large scale. That's how it started, and it acquired its own momentum, as things do. By now it has been viewed over 40 million times.

Now, for the first time, it's on television, because when we first did it, it was only accessible on the Web. Now it will be reaching even more people, and there are people now who were not ready at the time, because to be able to understand and become transformed through a spiritual teaching, there needs to be a point of readiness. Not every human has reached that point of inner readiness. Sometimes it takes time and more suffering before people become ready to awaken. So the series is reaching people now who perhaps it could not reach then.

In your book A New Earth, and in the new series with Oprah that's based on the book, you made a compelling case for the need to be more present in our lives. Is there something about this particular moment that makes that message more important and urgent?

To become present in one's daily life is the arising of what may be called a different state of consciousness or a shift in consciousness. Everybody can verify that for themselves by noticing the difference between what it feels like when you are completely identified with every thought that comes into your head and what it feels like when you are present. When you are present, there is clarity, inner peace and a sense of aliveness, which is so different from the mind-identified state. When you are completely identified with thinking, you are also reactive. This is a dysfunctional, negative state that creates a lot of conflict.

Collectively, we are at a point where the old -- I call it the old, dysfunctional, egoic state of consciousness -- has become extremely dangerous. We can go back 100 years ago, which is 1914, when World War I started, and that was the first time humans fully realized how insane warfare was because of all the advances in technology that had happened by that time. Millions upon millions of people died in World War I from chemical warfare, tanks, poison gas, machine guns and all the other clever inventions of the egoic mind. That was the first time we realized the magnitude of the dysfunction in the collective consciousness, as it became amplified by the advances in science and technology.

We have reached a point now where if there's no shift in consciousness away from the dysfunctional, egoic state that generates all that insanity, then humans would most likely destroy themselves, or at least bring about a complete collapse of civilization. We have arrived at a point of great danger, collectively, but danger also means great opportunity for change. There's a fundamental universal truth, and that is humans do not change until they reach a point of crisis. That applies not only to individuals, but it also applies to humanity as a whole. It's only when we reach a state of crisis, the suffering that it produces creates the impetus behind the shift in consciousness. This is the point that we have reached now, and we've been moving towards this for the past 100 years. This is why so many people are now ready to undergo that shift.

So this is a very important moment in human history, where there is a possibility of almost a quantum leap in human consciousness. There's also the possibility, of course, that humans are not going to make it, that the shift won't happen, in which case there would be a regression in human evolution that could throw us back several thousand years. Hopefully, that's not going to happen, but it could happen, and even that would not be ultimately tragic, because I believe that consciousness is destined to grow and flower on this planet. I'm fairly confident that it is happening already, but we must not underestimate the gravitational pull, so to speak, of the old, dysfunctional consciousness that is still here and operates, as you can see when you watch the daily news. Most things you see on the daily news are reflections of the old, dysfunctional consciousness, or, rather, unconsciousness. We have reached a very interesting point in human evolution. It's quite amazing to be alive at this time.

Was there a moment in your own life -- a wakeup call or a personal turning point -- that showed you the importance of presence, focus and stillness?

Yes, there was a moment when the unhappiness in me became almost unbearable. I was depressed and anxious most of the time. This is what we've just been talking about now, the deep crisis that precedes a change in consciousness. I experienced that in my own life. I briefly describe it in the introduction to The Power of Now. I couldn't live with myself any longer, and so I considered suicide. I had considered suicide quite a few times in my life. At that point, suddenly something happened within me. I didn't understand what it was, because it happened spontaneously. It was only later I realized that what happened inside me was the arising of presence.

It was spontaneous. Nobody had told me that there's such thing as presence; it just happened. I disidentified from the thinking mind, the voice in the head that, in my case, as it is in many people's lives, was quite negative and self-destructive. I stepped out of the stream of thinking, and what arose inside me was presence or awareness, and suddenly I found this inner peace, and this happened as a result of extreme depression and anxiety. So I reached a crisis point in my life, and then, spontaneously, this shift in consciousness happened. This could be called a spontaneous healing at a very deep level, because the only true healing is a change in consciousness.

All other forms of healing, although they may be helpful and beneficial, are ultimately temporary and relatively superficial. This deep healing happened to me without a conceptual understanding, and that's an interesting thing, because it's not that I suddenly understood everything. I didn't understand conceptually what happened, so the shift in consciousness does not happen on the conceptual level. For most people it is helpful to come into contact with a teaching, to read a spiritual book or to listen to a spiritual talk. Those are conceptual pointers, and they can be helpful, but presence itself has nothing to do with concepts in your mind; it's going beyond thinking. You realize that there are basically two dimensions inside of you.

One of those two dimensions is thinking, which is where your identity as a person lies. The other dimension is consciousness itself, which is a where you are connected with something vast that goes far beyond who you are as a person. It is where you are connected to the universal intelligence itself that underlies the entire universe. This happened to me as a result of suffering, so there is a redeeming feature to suffering, because suffering can bring about that shift, and until a certain point in an individual's evolution is reached, suffering is inevitable and fulfills a necessary function, without which the shift would not take place. Humanity as a whole has already suffered enormously. Most of history is a history of dreadful suffering, much of it self-inflicted through violence and continuous conflict.

Because humanity has already gone through acute suffering, there are many people alive now who are actually at a point of readiness. They don't need to suffer that much more, because now we benefit from the past collective human suffering.

The ego is central to your work and the series -- how to understand it, talk about it and ultimately transcend it. How can we begin to free ourselves from our own egos?

In A New Earth I dealt in more detail with the ego and the various ways in which it manifests. I recommend that people read those chapters, but here I'd just like to mention that on the most basic level ego means complete identification with the thinking mind. In the egoic state, your sense of self, your identity, is derived from your thinking mind -- in other words, what your mind tells you about yourself: the storyline of you, the memories, the expectations, all the thoughts that go through your head continuously and the emotions that reflect those thoughts. All those things make up your sense of self. This mind-made sense of self is a mental image, and you live through that mental image. This mental image is the ego.

How you can free yourself from the ego is by realizing that there is another dimension of consciousness in you. That dimension is in everybody, but if you're completely identified with every thought that comes into you head, then you continuously overlook that there is that dimension of stillness and spaciousness inside you. Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts. When you become your thoughts, that is the ego. To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.

For example, when your mind is very critical of yourself or other people, frequently complaining or berating yourself or creating anxiety by worrying about what might go wrong in the future, this creates a lot of unhappiness. Then you reach a point where you ask yourself, "What is at the root of this unhappiness I feel all the time?" And then you may be amazed to realize that in most cases when you are unhappy, you're not unhappy because of something that's happening in your life; you're unhappy because of what your mind is telling you about it. It's not a situation or an event that makes you unhappy but your mental commentary about it, the voice in your head. When you realize that, that's when you begin to disidentify from the voice in your head. The disidentification from thinking is the arising of presence. Then you realize that there is a sense of conscious presence behind your thoughts, and that this conscious presence is who you are. The thoughts happen within that presence, so thoughts come and go.

I like to give the analogy of the sky. The sky also has two dimensions: There are clouds, and there is the empty, blue sky. In this analogy the clouds are your thoughts, and they continuously drift past. And for many people there are so many clouds that their inner sky is continuously overcast. They don't realize that beyond the clouds is a vast, blue sky -- luminous vastness. But then a moment comes when there is a break in the clouds, a gap between two thoughts, and you realize, "Oh, the clouds are there, but I am that spacious vastness that is beyond the clouds." That means you're beginning to be free of the ego. Then your sense of identity is the feeling of your own presence. This is the realization that the essence of who you are is consciousness. Consciousness can be compared to space. It enables everything to be. We could put it like this: You are not what happens; you are the space in which it happens. That space is consciousness.

Thoughts are fine when you don't confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are. When you no longer confuse thinking with who you are, you begin to be free of the ego. It doesn't mean that you don't periodically fall back, because awakening is gradual.

The rest is here:
A Conversation With Eckhart Tolle | Arianna Huffington

Wow, much more value than I expected from the title. I stumbled on this book and am ecstatic that I did.

This book/audio should be experienced by everyone for one or more of the following three reasons: 1) If you are happily going about life, not on a spiritual quest, never had a mystical moment and believe that you are just like everyone else, then this book will give you insights on how to experience more life and help you answer many of your difficult questions that you seldom think about.

2) If you have had a mystical experience, remember it and want to get back to that "state" again, then this book shows you how to, why you should want to and what amazing things await you when you do.

3) If you are on a spiritual quest, stop here. You need not search further. Eckhart gives you your answers in clear English for the Western reader. This is an amazing find for you.

Now, the down side. You will be distracted by Eckhart's accent. After a while in the book I realized why (although he never really speaks much about himself). Realized beings in the "state" have a breathy, deliberate, considered and generally slow way of speaking. This can lull you to sleep, but listern to the words and you will be fine.

This is the real McCoy. He knows. Listen.

Read the original post:
A New Earth Audiobook | Eckhart Tolle | Audible.com