Eckhart Tolle

[shep]

ET:

Tolle has said that he was depressed for much of his life until he underwent, at age 29, an "inner transformation". He then spent several years wandering and unemployed "in a state of deep bliss" before becoming a spiritual teacher. Later, he moved to North America where he began writing his first book, The Power of Now, which was published in 1997

At the age of 19, Tolle moved to England and for three years taught German and Spanish at a London school for language studies.[12] Troubled by "depression, anxiety and fear", he began "searching for answers" in his life.[10] At age 22 or so he decided to pursue this search by studying philosophy, psychology, and literature, and enrolled in the University of London.[10] After graduating[10] he was offered a scholarship to do postgraduate research at Cambridge University which he began in 1977

One night in 1977, at the age of 29, after having suffered from long periods of suicidal depression, Tolle says he experienced an "inner transformation."[7] That night he awakened from his sleep, suffering from feelings of depression that were "almost unbearable," but then experienced a life-changing epiphany.[10] Recounting the experience, Tolle says,

I couldn’t live with myself any longer. And in this a question arose without an answer: who is the ‘I’ that cannot live with the self? What is the self? I felt drawn into a void! I didn’t know at the time that what really happened was the mind-made self, with its heaviness, its problems, that lives between the unsatisfying past and the fearful future, collapsed. It dissolved. The next morning I woke up and everything was so peaceful. The peace was there because there was no self. Just a sense of presence or “beingness,” just observing and watching.[12]

Tolle recalls going out for a walk in London the next morning, and finding that “everything was miraculous, deeply peaceful. Even the traffic."[10] The feeling continued, and he began to feel a strong underlying sense of peace in any situation.[6] Tolle stopped studying for his doctorate, and for a period of about two years after this he spent much of his time sitting, “in a state of deep bliss," on park benches in Russell Square, Central London, "watching the world go by.” He stayed with friends, in a Buddhist monastery, or otherwise slept rough on Hampstead Heath. His family thought him “irresponsible, even insane."[12] Tolle changed his first name from Ulrich to Eckhart; by some reports this was in homage to the German philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhart,[8][9][13] although according to other reports he was drawn to that name coincidentally

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle
Examples of his teachings: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_qu...tolle&sm=3

[John V]

Sounds like a typical stoner, but he doesn't have to buy pot.

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

If there was a point, I must have missed it.

[psychoslice]

The same experience happened to me, it wasn't until I read one of his books that I realized what happened to me, I now have my own book about my owh experience , it was truly an awakening for me.

[Alex K]

I've heard of him, didn't he then become quite the superstar self help guru and traveller of intellectual circles? Quite the topic for a skeptical discussion.

[shep]

The same experience happened to me, it wasn't until I read one of his books that I realized what happened to me, I now have my own book about my owh experience , it was truly an awakening for me.

What happened? You heard God?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Tolle recalls going out for a walk in London the next morning, and finding that “everything was miraculous, deeply peaceful. Even the traffic."

The only thing 'miraculous' about London traffic is living through it.

Boru

[psychoslice]

The same experience happened to me, it wasn't until I read one of his books that I realized what happened to me, I now have my own book about my owh experience , it was truly an awakening for me.

What happened? You heard God?

No, but I did experience what is beyond the mind body organism, and of course the experience was through the mind, the experience itself wasn't what is beyond. I can only put the experience into words that are nothing more than pointers, for there is no way to conceptualize what is beyond.

[shep]

I see. I don't believe anything is beyond the mind-body - rather, the things you felt were apart of your mind. Biochemical processes. Sam Harris is writing a book about Spirituality. Do you meditate alot?

[psychoslice]

I see. I don't believe anything is beyond the mind-body - rather, the things you felt were apart of your mind. Biochemical processes. Do you meditate alot?

No I don't meditate, my life is a meditation, of course there is something beyond the mind body organism. We can only know what we know through the mind, but there is a hell of a lot going on that we have no idea of.