Eckhart Tolle Quotes

“Teaching a practice can also be a hindrance if it becomes one's identity. To be a spiritual teacher is a temporary function. I'm a spiritual teacher when somebody comes to me and some teaching happens, but the moment they leave I'm no longer a spiritual teacher. If I carry the identity of spiritual teacher, it will cause suffering.”

Ifs Moments Happens Spiritual Suffering Causes Practice Teacher Teaching Identity Function Temporary Hindrance Spiritual Teachers

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Vipassana is fine until it becomes a technique that has many stages and that takes time to develop. That can be okay for people for a while, but then you have to leave the technique behind.”

People Behinds Stage Fine Okay Technique Take Time Vipassana

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“A practice can be helpful, but didn't the Buddha compare it to a raft, suggesting it be abandoned when you reach the other shore?”

Practice Compare Helpful Shore Abandoned Suggesting

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“If the only teacher you have is your suffering, you will need a substantial dose of it for the ego to dissolve. But if the power of spiritual teaching is already at work, then a minor event can dissolve the ego.”

Ifs Needs Spiritual Suffering Teacher Teaching Events Ego Minors Dose Spiritual Teaching

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“True happiness is not related to external conditions but comes from the unconditioned.”

Conditions Related True Happiness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The ego's form of happiness can't exist without unhappiness. The ego will be happy when something good happens but unhappy when it ends.”

Ends Happens Form Ego Unhappy Unhappiness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The whole movement of happiness, unhappiness, happiness, unhappiness, could be called unhappiness. You're suffering because your state of mind is in flux, moving back and forth. The ego's happiness is really a form of suffering, because it cannot live without unhappiness.”

Mind States Whole Moving Form Suffering Movement Ego Unhappiness State Of Mind Back And Forth Flux Moving Back

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“A built-in reminder is the simple understanding that whenever any kind of unhappiness arises, you know you've lost the now. That's a built-in alarm clock. The moment you realize you've lost the now, come back to the now.”

Knows Kind Moments Lost Understanding Realizing Simple Built Arise Clock Unhappiness Reminders Alarms Alarm Clocks

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Actually, the ability to choose presence depends on the degree of presence that's emerging in you. Ultimately, you are not choosing, there's nobody there to choose. When you think you are choosing, presence is simply emerging in that moment.”

Thinking Moments Ability Depends Degrees That Moment Emerging Ability To Choose

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Presence remains even amidst worldly activities. Stillness is there even when you're doing something quickly, like rushing to answer the phone. Otherwise you would be condemned to moving in slow motion.”

Would Be Moving Answers Activity Remains Phones Stillness Worldly Rushing Moving In Slow Motion

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The whole world changes when there's presence - sunlight everywhere - because you're not separate from the world.”

World Whole Whole World Sunlight

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“When there's a teacher who embodies presence, then it seems to come for a while through that opening. The teacher is an opening to presence.”

Seems Teacher Opening

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Consciousness is a vast ocean and thinking is the waves & ripples on the surface of the ocean.”

Thinking Consciousness Ocean Wave Surface Ripple Vast Ocean

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Since ancient times the term awakening has been used as a kind of metaphor that points to the transformation of human consciousness. There are parables in the New Testament that speak of the importance of being awake, of not falling back to sleep.”

“The word Buddha comes from the Sanskrit word Budh, meaning, to be awake. So Buddha is not a name and ultimately not a person, but a state of consciousness.”

Persons States Names Consciousness Awake States Of Consciousness Sanskrit

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Humans are potentially capable of living in a state of consciousness compared to which normal wakefulness is like sleeping or dreaming.”

Humans States Dream Sleep Consciousness Normal Capable States Of Consciousness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Pick up any history book, and I suggest you begin with studying the 20th century, and you will find that a large part of the history of our species has all the characteristics we would normally associate with a nightmare or an insane hallucination.”

Book Study Century Picks Species Insane Characteristics Nightmare Associates 20th Century Hallucinations History Books

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The nature of spiritual awakening is frequently misunderstood. The adoption of spiritual beliefs, seeing visions of God or celestial beings, the ability to channel, to heal, to foretell the future, or other paranormal powers - all such phenomena are of value and are not to be dismissed, but none of them is in itself indicative of spiritual awakening in a person who experiences them.”

Persons Spiritual Values Belief Ability Vision Seeing Awakening Heal Paranormal Adoption Misunderstood Spiritual Awakening Celestial Spiritual Beliefs

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Every morning we awaken from sleep and from our dreams and enter the state we call wakefulness. A continuous stream of thoughts, most of them repetitive, characterizes the normal wakeful state.”

States Dream Sleep Morning Normal Streams Every Morning Our Dreams Repetitive

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Everybody who is not awake spiritually is totally identified with and run by their thinking mind - the incessant voice in the head.”

Thinking Mind Running Voice Awake Incessant Thinking Mind

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Thinking is compulsive: you can't stop, or so it seems. It is also addictive: you don't even want to stop, at least not until the suffering generated by the continuous mental noise becomes unbearable.”

Thinking Want Seems Suffering Noise Unbearable

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“In the unawakened state you don't use thought, but thought uses you. You are, one could almost say, possessed by thought, which is the collective conditioning of the human mind that goes back many thousands of years. You don't see anything as it is, but distorted and reduced by mental labels, concepts, judgments, opinions and reactive patterns.”

Years Mind Humans States Use Opinion Judgment Concepts Patterns Labels Collectives Human Mind Possessed Conditioning

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“When you awaken spiritually, in fact, you can use thought much more effectively than before, but you realize there is a depth to your Being, a vibrantly alive stillness that is much vaster than thought. It is consciousness itself, of which the thinking mind is only a tiny aspect.”

Thinking Mind Facts Use Realizing Consciousness Alive Aspect Depth Tiny Stillness Thinking Mind

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“For many people, the first indication of a spiritual awakening is that they suddenly become aware of their thoughts. They become a witness to their thoughts, so to speak. They are not completely identified with their mind anymore and so they begin to sense that there is a depth to them that they had never known before.”

People Mind Firsts Spiritual Speak Known Depth Awakening Witness Spiritual Awakening Indication

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“For most people, spiritual awakening is a gradual process. Rarely does it happen all at once. When it does, though, it is usually brought about by intense suffering.”

People Doe Happens Spiritual Suffering Process Awakening Intense Spiritual Awakening

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“For years my life alternated between depression and acute anxiety. One night I woke up in a state of dread and intense fear, more intense than I had ever experienced before. Life seemed meaningless, barren, hostile. It became so unbearable that suddenly the thought came into my mind, I cannot live with myself any longer.”

Years Mind States Night Anxiety Intense Meaningless Dread Hostile Unbearable One Night Barren

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“When you are trapped in a nightmare, your motivation to awaken will be so much greater than that of someone caught up in a relatively pleasant dream.”

Dream Motivation Greater Caught Pleasant Nightmare Trapped Caught Up Pleasant Dreams

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“On all levels, evolution occurs in response to a crisis situation, not infrequently a life-threatening one, when the old structures, inner or outer, are breaking down or are not working anymore. On a personal level, this often means the experience of loss of one kind or another: the death of a loved one, the end of a close relationship, loss of possessions, your home, status, or a breakdown of the external structures of your life that provided a sense of security.”

Kind Mean Ends Home Loss Levels Situation Security Evolution Crisis Structure Response Possession Loved Ones Death Of A Loved One Threatening Breaking Down Breakdown Close Relationship

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“For many people, illness - loss of health - represents the crisis situation that triggers an awakening. With serious illness comes awareness of your own mortality, the greatest loss of all.”

People Loss Situation Awareness Serious Crisis Illness Awakening Mortality Triggers Serious Illness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Loss of meaning is often part of the suffering that comes with physical loss, but it can also happen to people who have gained everything the world has to offer - who have made it in the eyes of the world - and suddenly find that their success or possessions are empty and unfulfilling.”

People World Made Happens Eye Suffering Loss Offers Empty Possession Made It

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“A teacher or teaching is not essential for spiritual awakening, but they save time.”

Spiritual Teacher Teaching Essentials Awakening Spiritual Awakening

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Humanity as a whole has already gone through unimaginable suffering, mostly self-inflicted, the culmination of which was the 20th century with its unspeakable horrors. This collective suffering has brought upon a readiness in many human beings for the evolutionary leap that is spiritual awakening.”

“Look at all the conflict between tribes, nations, and religions. They need their enemies, because they provide the sense of separateness on which their collective egoic identity depends.”

Needs Looks Nations Enemy Identity Depends Conflict Collectives Tribes Separateness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The false self lives mainly through memory and anticipation. Past and future are its main preoccupation.”

Self Past Memories Anticipation Preoccupation

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The future never comes. Life is always now.”

Life Is

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Whatever happens, whatever you experience, feel, think, do - it's always now. It's all there is. And if you continuously miss the now - resist it, dislike it, try to get away from it, reduce it to a means to an end, then you miss the essence of your life, and you are stuck in a dream world of images, concepts, labels, interpretations, judgments - the conditioned content of your mind that you take to be yourself.”

“When there is spiritual awakening, you awaken into the fullness, the aliveness, and also the sacredness of now. You were absent, asleep, and now you are present, awake.”

Spiritual Awakening Awake Fullness Absent Spiritual Awakening Sacredness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The secret of awakening is to unconditionally accept this moment as it is.”

Moments Secret Accepting Awakening

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“The state of presence is the only state in which creative energy is available to you.”

States Energy Creative Available Creative Energy

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“When your fulfillment and sense of self are no longer dependent on the future outcome, joy flows into whatever you do. You do what you do because the action itself is fulfilling. Whatever you do or create in that state is of high quality. This is because it is not a means to an end, and so a loving care flows into your doing.”

Mean Ends Self States Care Action Joy Quality Flow Fulfillment Outcomes Dependent Fulfilling Sense Of Self High Quality Means To An End

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“To make money, to gather knowledge, to learn a new skill, to explore new territory, even to get from A to B - for all these things you need time. For almost everything you need time, except for one thing: to embrace the present moment.”

Needs Moments One Thing Skills Embrace Making Money Present Moment Territory Time Of Need New Skills New Territory

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“You need no time to open yourself to the power of now and so awaken to who you are beyond name and form and realize that in the depth of your being, you are already complete, whole, one with the timeless essence of all life.”

Needs Whole Form Names Realizing Essence Who You Are Depth Timeless Power Of Now

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Some of the first human beings in whom the new consciousness emerged fully became the great teachers of humanity, such as Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Jesus, although their teachings were greatly misunderstood, especially when they turned into organized religion. They were the first manifestations of the flowering of human consciousness.”

Firsts Humans Humanity Jesus Human Beings Consciousness Teacher Teaching Manifestation Organized Misunderstood Great Teacher Organized Religion Flowering Human Consciousness Laos Lao Tzu

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Science and technology have amplified the effects of the dysfunction of the human mind in its unawakened state to such a degree that humanity, and probably the planet, would not survive for another hundred years if human consciousness remains unchanged.”

Ifs Years Mind Humans States Humanity Consciousness Technology Effects Planets Degrees Hundred Remains Human Mind Science And Technology Human Consciousness Dysfunction

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Evolution usually occurs in response to a crisis situation, and we now are faced with such a crisis situation. This is why there is indeed an enormous acceleration in the awakening process of our species.”

Process Situation Evolution Crisis Response Species Awakening Enormous Acceleration

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“This new large-scale spiritual awakening is occurring primarily not within the confines of the established religions, but outside of those structures. Some of it, however, is also happening within the existing churches and religious institutions wherever the members of those congregations do not identify with rigid and exclusive belief systems whose unconscious purpose is to foster a sense of separation on which the egoic mind structures depend for their survival.”

“The power of now can only be realized now. It requires no time and effort. Effort means you're trying hard to get somewhere, and so you are not present, welcoming this moment as it is.”

Trying Mean Hard Moments Effort Welcome Power Of Now Trying Hard

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Until presence becomes your predominant state, you may find yourself moving back and forth for a while between the old consciousness and the new, between mind identification and presence.”

Mind May States Moving Consciousness Finding Yourself Back And Forth Identification Moving Back

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Words that arise spontaneously out of the state of presence are charged with spiritual power: the power to awaken.”

States Spiritual Arise Spiritual Power

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.”

Feels Mind Stills Problem Powerful Emotion Behinds Watches Judging Silent Reactions Observing Power Of Now Watchers Personal Problems

Book:The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

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