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Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle Quotes

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Famous Eckhart Tolle Quotes

“Somebody becomes an enemy if you personalize the unconsciousness that is the ego. Non-reaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for non-reaction is forgiveness. To forgive is to overlook, or rather to look through. You look through the ego to the sanity that is in every human being as his or her essence.”

EnemyStrengthEgoForgivenessWeaknessPersonalizationNon Reaction
Book:A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“No thought can encapsulate the vastness of the totality. Reality is a unified whole, but thought cuts it up into fragments. This gives rise to fundamental misperceptions, for example, that there are separate things and events, or that this is the cause of that. Every thought implies a perspective, and every perspective, by its very nature, implies limitation, which ultimately means that it is not true, at least not absolutely. Only the whole is true, but the whole cannot be spoken or thought. Seen from beyond the limitation of thinking and therefore incomprehensible to the human mind, everything is happening now. All that ever has been or will be is now, outside of time, which is a mental construct.”

RealityTimeNow
Book:A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“Nothing out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially, but you may need to experience many disillusionments before you realize that truth. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they will also give you pain. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the peace of God. It is your natural state, not something that you need to work hard for or struggle to attain.”

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Book:The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
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“The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information - this is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative. All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.”

KnowsMindArtistCreativeInformationSurvivalMachinesDefenseStillnessGatheringAnalyzingTrue Artists
Book:The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
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“We could say that the totality, life wants the sapling to become a tree, but the sapling doesn't see itself as separate from life and so wants nothing for itself. It is one with what life wants. That's why it isn't worried or stressed. And, if it has to die prematurely, it dies with ease.”

IfsWantDiesTreeWorriedEaseStressedTotalitySaplings
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“On the surface it seems that the present moment is only one of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consist of thousands of moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more deeply, is there not only one moment, ever? Is life ever not this moment? This one moment, now, is the only thing you can never escape from. The one constant factor in your life. No matter what happens. No matter how much your life changes. One thing is certain. Its always now. Since there is no escape from the now, why not welcome it, become friendly with it.”

IfsLooksDifferentMatterMomentsSeemsHappensCertainOne ThingNo Matter WhatConstantSurfaceThings HappenFactorsWelcomeLife ChangingEach DayDifferent ThingsFriendlyPresent MomentWhy NotStillness Speaks
Book:Stillness Speaks
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“Thought subsides when you pet your dog or you have a purring cat on your chest. Even just watching an animal can take you out of your mind. It is more deeply connected with the source of life than most humans, and that rootedness in Being transmits itself to you. Millions of people who otherwise would be completely lost in the conceptual reality of their mind are kept sane by living with an animal.”

PeopleMindHumansRealityWould BeLostAnimalMillionsDogSourceCatConnectedPetChestsSaneTransmitSource Of LifePurringPurring CatsRootedness
Book:Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Amidst the World
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“When listening to another person, don't just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen.That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering. You are giving the other person space-space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give.”

ThinkingGivingFeelsMindPersonsStillsWholeBodyEnergySpaceAttentionFieldsListeningInterfereJust ListenPrecious GiftsEnergy Fields
Author:Eckhart Tolle
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“You don't have to wait for something 'meaningful' to come into your life so that you can finally enjoy what you do. There is more meaning in joy than you will ever need. The 'waiting to start living' syndrome is one of the most common delusions of the unconscious state.”

NeedsStatesJoyWaitingEnjoyCommonMeaningfulUnconsciousDelusionSyndromes
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“Many people who are going through the early stages of the awakening process are no longer certain what their outer purpose is. What drives the world no longer drives them. Seeing the madness of our civilization so clearly, they feel somewhat alienated from the culture around them. Some feel that they inhabit a no-man's-land between two worlds. They are no longer run by the ego, yet the arising awareness has not yet become fully integrated into their lives. Inner and outer purpose have not merged.”

PeopleMenWorldFeelsTwoRunningPurposeCertainCultureProcessSeeingLandStageAwarenessCivilizationEgoMadnessAwakeningIntegratedTwo Worlds
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“When you completely accept this moment, when you no longer argue with what is, the compulsion to think lessens and is replaced by an alert stillness. You are fully conscious, yet the mind is not labeling this moment in any way... It is a shift from identification with form --the thought or the emotion-- to being and recognizing yourself as that which has no form -- spacious awareness.”

ThinkingWayMindMomentsFormEmotionAcceptingAwarenessConsciousArguingStillnessReplacedRecognizingCompulsionIdentificationLabeling
Author:Eckhart Tolle
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“Everything - a bird, a tree, even a simple stone, and certainly a human being - is ultimately unknowable. This is because it has unfathomable depth. All we can perceive, experience, think about, is the surface layer of reality, less than the tip of an iceberg. Underneath the surface appearance, everything is not only connected with everything else, but also with the Source of all life out of which it came. Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself.”

ThinkingWayHumansShowsRealityHuman BeingsSimpleTreeFlowerSourceBirdStonesDepthAppearanceConnectedSurfacePerceiveLayersUnfathomableIceberg
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“Carl Jung tells in one of his books of a conversation he had with a Native American chief who pointed out to him that in his perception most white people have tense faces, staring eyes, and a cruel demeanor. He said: “They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something. They are always uneasy and restless. We don't know what they want. We think they are mad.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWantSaidBookEyeFacesWhiteConversationPerceptionMadSeekingChiefsStaringNativeNative AmericanRestlessWant SomethingTenseUneasyJungDemeanor
Book:The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
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“So give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting . . . snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything. So next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” you can reply, “That's all right, I wasn't waiting. I was just standing”

IfsNeedsGivingMindStatesMomentsNextWaitingEnjoyGiving UpStandingSorryPresent MomentState Of MindNext TimeSnapsSlippingSaying Sorry
Book:The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
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“Many people are so imprisoned in their minds that the beauty of nature does not really exist for them. They might say, 'What a pretty flower,' but that's just a mechanical mental labeling. Because they are not still, not present, they don't truly see the flower, don't feel it's essence, it's holiness-just as they don't know themselves, don't feel their own essence, their own holiness.”

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Author:Eckhart Tolle
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“Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind. Of course, you cannot feel someone else's Being except through your own. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is love. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsLoveFeelsMindPersonsMatterCoursesLevelsPayAttentionKnow HowTakenMajorsOnenessRealization
Author:Eckhart Tolle
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“Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment - the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind.”

ThinkingMindMayMomentsForceKeysConsciousTransformationBreathsBreathingPresent Moment
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“You might say, 'What a dreadful day', without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance.”

MightRealizingEmotionConditionsWindColdRainReactionsResistance
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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