Eckhart Tolle

scanlas

What do people here think of Eckhart Tolle's work?

To me after reading "A New Earth" his work gets to the core of spirituality, it transcends all religions.

Armada

scanlas wrote: »

What do people here think of Eckhart Tolle's work?

To me after reading "A New Earth" his work gets to the core of spirituality, it transcends all religions.

I agree, Eckhart Tolle is amazing. His views on the Ego make complete sense to me. After reading the book I feel I can look past peoples "flaws" to the person underneath. I have a greater understanding of my own thoughts and feelings and I regard "A New Earth" as one of the key steps on my spiritual path thus far.

togster

Yes.

The "power of Now" started me on my path.

Corksham

A masterful writer, Corksham is a big fan

studiorat

Tolle is re-gurgitating ideas from other philosophers. Even his name is a reference to a medieval christian theologian, who some prodestants see as a reformer equal to Luther.

Tolle's concept of "being" was developed by the german philosopher Martin Heidigger.

He like others seems to indicate a basic maxim of the guru business: make it all about the power of your presence, and they will come.

I if he hadn't been on Ophra no-one would have paid a bit of attention to him. So I suppose one could applaud him for taking spirtual mysticisms from Christanity, Eastern Philosophies and various secular philosophers and synthezing them into an easily digestable book. As far as having anything new to say, he doesn't...

togster

studiorat wrote: »

As far as having anything new to say, he doesn't...

No one said he did.

Corksham

studiorat - which work of Martin Heidigger would you recommend? I am not familiar with his work and if Tolles ideas echo his then Id be interested in reading him

Thanks!

Gruffalo

I find Tolle's work very difficult to read.

I much prefer to read Anthony de Mello. His writing is simple, humorous, concise and easy to understand.

Joe1919

Corksham wrote: »

studiorat - which work of Martin Heidigger would you recommend? I am not familiar with his work and if Tolles ideas echo his then Id be interested in reading him

Thanks!

Heidegger (IMO) is incredibly difficult to read and understand.
His idea is that we are not solitary beings but 'beings-in-the-world' (with others?) (Dasein) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasein

I would think that deMillo is also influenced by the general 'existentialist' writings and the idea that one should be aware of one's freedom.

studiorat

I wouldn't touch Heidigger or any of those guys with a pole. Far too academic for me. His big work was Being and Time, where he defined Fear and Angst as seperate entities as far as I can gather, fear being a due to a real threat and angst from a percieved threat. There is a more readable analysis by Hubert Dreyfus called "Being in the World".

^^^
Dreyfus on Heidigger...

studiorat

togster wrote: »

No one said he did.

THought I'd get that in before someone did:pac:

Ruthy1234

Gruffalo wrote: »

I find Tolle's work very difficult to read.

I was the same, Gruffalo, when I bought "The Power of Now" gave up after a few chapters as I found it quite difficult to read but I stuck with "A New Earth"...it's such an amazing book and has honestly totally turned my life around... and as Armanda said it really makes you look at yourself and others in a different light.

Another powerful book that I have read a few times is "The power of the your subconscious mind" by Dr. Joseph Murphy. It's much much easier to read and still very effective...changing the way one thinks can work miracles...it has for me...;)

cue

Gruffalo wrote: »

Anthony de Mello.

He rocks!

Wuggectumondo

He is amazing... but he is so calm that I find him too difficult to listen to for too long (his YouTube videos and audio book)

I much prefer Abraham Hicks

waitinforatrain

I only discovered him recently, and find him incredibly boring! I get that what he's saying is new to some people, but I had already come across the same ideas in the past year via Jung/Joseph Campbell/Crowley/Paulo Coelho etc, so it wasn't news to me

That being said, whatever floats your boat!

roosh

this thread is quite old I know, but I thought it could act as a decent starting point for entering into the philosophy thread.

I read the power of now and found it very eye opening. A new earth is also a very good read. I was a little disappointed to see the range of other books from him, that seemed almost to regurgitate "the power of now" text. My initial perception was that he was cashing in, although, there could be a deeper philosophical discussion on that itself. In all I found his "teachings" to be excellent. There is a few videos online of discussions he has given. I've only watched one and it was pretty good.

He was however only a starting point for me, but definitely a fundamental one, as I found his books to be very accessible. I gave it to a friend of mine who had no time whatsoever for it, so I don't think he is a one size fits all.

There was another book that was recommended to me by someone else who had read the power of now, and that was a book called "A time to love: reflections on the principles of a course in miracles" by Marianne Williamson. I got a copy of it, but it just so happened that my aunt had given my mother a copy of "a course in miracles" so I decided to read that first. It's quite long, but I find it very illuminating. I won't go into detail but It deals primarily with the Ego.

With regard to "a course in miracles" it requires, I found, that the reader suspend judgement, as it would be largely credited as being a christian book (whether or not it is accepted by the church I don't know), and it references "God" and "the Holy Spirit". Again, the nature of "God" and "the Holy Spirit" are entirely different philosophical questions, and it is for that reason that judgement should be suspended. I found it difficult in the beginning, to get past the constant reference to both, but found after a while that my preconceptions slowly faded into the background.


With regard to Tolle however, and indeed most other spiritual writers, I would agree that what he says is nothing new, this stuff has been around for thousands of years, and plenty of people have written on the subject. Ultimately everything is taken from other philosophies. What it is though, is his own personal expression of his spiritual experience. As he mentions, all the major philosophical and spiritual paradigms are largely concerned with showing a path to a spiritual experience. The ideas are nothing revolutionary themselves, but that is because the experience is the same, but the conscious rationalisation of it is different for everyone - as tacit knowledge does not lend itself easily to explanation.

What Tolle, and other writers do, is to offer an almost more relevant and contemporary guide along the path to spiritual development, by the expression of their own personal experience, just as the likes of Jesus, Siddarhta Gautama and Lao Tzu sought to do. It may seem like a bit of an extreme comparison to compare Tolle to these figures, however, it must be remembered that these too were mere mortals. Obviously with regard to Christ, that is a different debate again.

Dr. Feelgood

I really enjoy reading and listening to Tolle and consider his teachings a large foundation of my beliefs.

I do find it difficult to do as he says a lot of the time and just "be in the now" anytime I want. What he says is great, but if he gave more techniques in how to "be in the now" it would be even better. His "Gateways to Now" tape does give a few, but they can be hard to implement at times.

waitinforatrain

Dr. Feelgood wrote: »

I really enjoy reading and listening to Tolle and consider his teachings a large foundation of my beliefs.

I do find it difficult to do as he says a lot of the time and just "be in the now" anytime I want. What he says is great, but if he gave more techniques in how to "be in the now" it would be even better. His "Gateways to Now" tape does give a few, but they can be hard to implement at times.

I always thought the same. In some ways he's unqualified to teach it, because it was a spontaneous occurence for him