Eckhart Tolle, was born in 1948 as Ulrich Leonard Tolle. In his early life he felt that he was alienated from society and it made him have a troubling start to life. His parents fought a lot and eventually got divorced, landing him to live with his father in Spain and he had no formal schooling there.
At 15, Tolle read books by the German poet, Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, and these books deeply influenced him in his own spiritual awareness and the work he wanted to do. Although he does not practice any specific religion, he has worked as a spiritual guide and a counselor. His work is influenced by Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
After going through depression in his 20s, Tolle went through an inner transformation and had obtained a peace of mind that has stayed with him throughout his life. This is when he changed his name to Eckhart, because he respected the German philosopher, Meister Eckhart.
In 1997, Tolle published his first book ‘The Power of Now. Only 3000 copies of The Power of Now were originally published.
But as fate would have it, in 2000 Oprah Winfrey recommended this book in her magazine and it landed Tolle on the ‘New York Times Best Seller’ list. The book has been translated into 33 different languages since that time. He has published several books since then, but many say The Power of Now’ is still his best work and the book he is most known and recognized for.
Eckhart Tolle Quotes
- “The past has no power over the present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
- “For what you do to others, you do to yourself.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “And that’s a revelation for some people: to realize that your life is only ever now.” – Eckhart Tolle
- Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don’t see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
- “You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the now.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Rather than being your thoughts and emotions be the awareness behind them.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “For many people who are so lost in their minds, so much involved in their thought processes, the only moments they have when they are not trapped in that is when they are relating to their animal, their pet.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “People don’t realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. … When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “To love is to recognize yourself in another.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “All the things that truly matter beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace arise from beyond the mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “I’m grateful for always this moment, the now, no matter what form it takes.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Anything you accept fully will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Whenever you become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over, and you lost sight of your inner purpose. You have forgotten that your state of consciousness is primary, all else secondary.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Life is the dancer and you are the dance.” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
- “Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “This, too, will pass.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Forget about your life situation and pay attention to your life. Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Nothing that comes and goes is you.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not ‘yours,’ not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “I have lived with several Zen masters, all of them cats.” – Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- “Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become I.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Was Jesus the son of God? Yes. But so are you. You just haven’t realized it yet.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose
- “How is always more important than ‘what.’ See if you can give much more attention to the doing than to the result that you want to achieve through it.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “The power is in you. The answer is in you. And you are the answer to all your searches: You are the goal. You are the answer. It’s never outside.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “What a liberation to realize that the ‘voice in my head’ is not who I am. ‘Who am I, then?’ The one who sees that.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “The secret of life is to ‘die before you die’ and find that there is no death.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “The significance is hiding in the insignificant. Appreciate everything.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment a means to an end.” – Eckhart Tolle
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Eckhart Tolle Video – How Do We Break the Habit of Excessive Thinking?
In this extremely popular video, Eckhart Tolle explores the powerful addiction to thinking. He offers some insights into what causes this pattern and offers several ways to put a stop to excessive, repetitive and negative thoughts and replace them with presence instead.
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Summary
Eckhart Tolle travels throughout the world as a highly sought after public speaker, and is recognized as one the most visionary spiritual teachers in the world today. Tolle has inspired and motivated many people in his lifetime.
His books and work helps guide people on their own spiritual journeys. These quotes are sure to inspire and motivate you just like this man has motivated and inspired many others.
Finally, be sure to read about the most inspiring quotes from Isaac Asimov
Image Credit: Saffarelli, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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