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
You can marry the Buddha, and after a few months you will find on the human form the Buddha, too, has his limitations. There may be things that the mind reacts to and irritates you about the Buddha. "Why is he sitting over there in meditation?"
I sometimes get a distorted view of how quickly humans are evolving, because I meet many people who are evolving beyond ego. Then I have to switch on the TV to realize, "Oh, no, it is not happening to everybody yet." But it is happening.
We can't escape from the world anymore; we can't escape from the mind. We need to enter surrender while we are in the world. That seems to be the path that is effective in the world that we live in now.
One only needs to read twentieth-century history to see that it has been the climax of human madness, if it's measured in terms of human violence inflicted on other humans.
The essence of every form is the deathless. Even the essence of a blade of grass is the deathless. And that's why the world of form is sacred.
The tools of science and technology amplified the effects of the madness of the egoic mind. So the survival of the planet began to be threatened, and with it the survival of humanity.
Of course, most of the people in this world are stressed, and most of those who are not stressed are totally bored!
The habit patterns of the human mind are very strong and make it seem that the hard way is easy and the easy way is hard.
You are not what happens in your life. You are the space in which it happens, which is consciousness itself.
So one could say that the only real problem is dysfunctional thinking, the rest are challenges, not problems.
Some people get attached to their practice. They get good at it, but even becoming a good meditator can become a hindrance.
Every practice at some point will become a hindrance. No practice can ever take you there, to freedom, to liberation. That's important to realize.
Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence.
Surrendering only refers to this moment, whatever "is" at this moment - to accept unconditionally and fully whatever arises at this moment.