Eckhart Tolle
71 quotes
Biography
Eckhart Tolle is a German “spiritual teacher” and self-help author. His books include The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997), A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (2005) and the picture book Guardians of Being (2009).
"Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences."
"The past has no power over the present moment."
"To love is to recognize yourself in another."
"Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be."
"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die"--- and find that there is no death."
"Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not."
"I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats."
"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you will ever have."
"All problems are illusions of the mind."
"Can you look without the voice in your head commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out?"
"As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love - even the most simple action."
"Man made God in his own image..."
"Reading is my passion and my escape since I was 5 years old. Overall, children don't realize the magic that can live inside their own heads. Better even then any movie."
"What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that every day takes up most of your attention? A dash, one or two inches long, between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone."
"Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now.Let it teach you Being.Let it teach you integrity — which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real.Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem."
"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but you thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking."
"Where there is anger there is always pain underneath."
"Mind isn't as serious as my mind makes it out to be."
"It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living."
"You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present."
"The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that."
"Whenever something negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it."
"You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you."
"The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life."
"Many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment, and imagine living your whole life like that. Always, this moment is not quite good enough because you need to get to the next one."