Eckhart Tolle
Quotes
A contemporary spiritual teacher known for his writings on mindfulness and presence. His book "The Power of Now" has become a seminal work in modern spirituality, emphasizing the importance of living in the present moment and transcending the egoic mind. His teachings focus on the concept of presence as a gateway to inner peace and fulfillment, guiding individuals to experience a deeper connection to themselves and to reality beyond mental constructs.
You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God.
Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success.
The consciousness of the animal begins to change when it interacts with a human who's gone beyond thinking. It's not only the animals assisting us; we are also assisting the animals.
Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.
You cannot have a desire to surrender because that's non-surrender. Surrender arises spontaneously sometimes in people who don't even have a word for it. And I know that openness is there in many people.
When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it, all else is madness.
The great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Everybody's life really consists of small things. Greatness is a mental abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is the honoring of small things of the present moment instead of pursuing the idea of greatness.
You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe.
Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you were waking up from a dream, the dream of thought, the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity. No room for problem-making. Just this moment as it is.
You are the Universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.
For a long time humans probably were in touch on a deeper level with the depths of their being, unconsciously so, the same way an animal or a tree is. Gradually, though, more and more of their identity went into the movement of thought. They identified more and more with the movement of thinking.
When you let go of the belief that you should or need to know who you are, what happens to confusion? Suddenly it is gone. When you fully accept that you don't know, you actually enter a state of peace and clarity that is closer to who you truly are than thought could ever be. Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.
To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important.
The planet will not survive another hundred years of the same state of consciousness that produced the external effects of recent history.
If you are not in alignment with the moment, life is a struggle. Really, all you have to do is take responsibility for your inner alignment with now.
The only thing you ever have is now.
Even in a moment of stress, you can say, "OK, can I enjoy the doing itself? Can I enjoy the flow of energy of this moment?" And of course you can!
Pay attention to the gap - the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and the out-breath. When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of 'something' becomes - just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.
Stress is caused by being here but wanting to be there, or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It's a split that tears you apart inside.
Give your fullest attention to whatever the moment presents.
When someone becomes transparent, then something shines through that person that has nothing to do with the person or any of his or her personal history. What is required is becoming so transparent that the self or ego dissolves.
When you are fully present with everyone you meet, you relinquish the conceptual identity you made for them - your interpretation of who they are and what they did in the past - and are able to interact without the egoic movements of desire and fear. Attention, which is alert stillness, is the key.
