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Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart
Tolle (born Germany, 1948 as Ulrich Tolle) is a contemporary spiritual
teacher and writer on spirituality. Eckhart Tolle is not aligned with
any particular religion or tradition.
Tolle was educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. He
was born in Germany but lived with his father in Spain from about
age 13 until he moved to England in his early 20s. He did not attend
formal schooling after age 13, but rather took language and other
courses. He attended night colleges to obtain the necessary entrance
requirements for University in England.
At the age of 29, he experienced a spiritual transformation that marked
the beginning of an intense inward journey and the beginning of his
function as a counselor and spiritual teacher. He now lives in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada. Eckhart
Tolle is said to have attained enlightenment at the age of 29 after
suffering long periods of depression, dissolving his old identity
and radically changing the course of his life. Tolle's non-fiction
bestseller, The Power of Now, emphasizes the importance of being aware
of the present moment as a way of not being lost in thought. In Tolle's
view, the present is the gateway to a heightened sense of peace and
aliveness. "Being in the now" also brings about an awareness
that is beyond the mind.
This awareness helps in transcending "the pain-body" that
is created by the identification of the mind and ego with the body.
His later book, A New Earth further explores the structure of the
human ego and how this acts to distract people from their present
experience of the world. His other works include Stillness Speaks,
a book that modernises the ancient sutra form.
The aim of Tolle's teachings is the transformation of individual and
collective human consciousness--a global spiritual awakening. |