Best 1100 quotes of Eckhart Tolle on MyQuotes

A practice can be helpful, but didn't the Buddha compare it to a raft, suggesting it be abandoned when you reach the other shore?

Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess? You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is, just as you are responsible for the planet. As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.

As a child, a person builds up an egoic sense - the child has a name, has an "I," has a mind. But then, to awaken, a person needs to completely transcend that sense of ego.

As each human being is an integral part of the collective human consciousness, they affect the world much more deeply than is visible on the surface of their lives.

As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.

A short attention span makes all of your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying.

A significant portion of the earth's population will soon recognize, if they haven't already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die.

A simple but radical spiritual practice is to accept whatever arises in the Now, within and without.

Ask yourself: Is there joy, ease and lightness in what i'm doing? If there isn't then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle.

Ask yourself what problem you have right now. Not next year, tomorrow or five minutes from now. You can always cope with the now, but you can never cope with the future. Nor do you have to. The answer, the strength and the right action will be there when you need it. Not before or after.

As long as we define ourselves in terms of our pain and our problems, we will never be free from them.

As long as you are unable to access the power of the Now, every emotional pain that you experience leaves behind a residue of pain that lives on in you.

As long as you make an identity for yourself out of pain, you cannot be free of it.

As soon as the mind and mind identification return; you're no longer yourself but a mental image of yourself, and you start playing games and roles again to get your ego needs met.

As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve.

As the character changes in the movie, it rubs off on the viewer, so the viewer also goes through that change.

As you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life. It means fear is no longer a dominant factor in what you do and no longer prevents you from taking action to initiate change.

As you become present and thereby total in what you do, your actions become charged with spiritual power.

As you go about your life, don't give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and your mind. Keep some within.

A teacher or teaching is not essential for spiritual awakening, but they save time.

A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs, or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are and what you already know in the depth of your being

Attention is the key to transformation- and full attention also implies acceptance.

Attention is the vital thing and there is no tension in attention. It just happens to be a similar word. It's not concentration or straining. Attention has the openness of a young child not yet dominated by the conceptual mind.

At the deepest level, an 'open heart' is spacious presence, in which the sense of separateness between yourself and the 'other' dissolves and there is the recognition of oneness, of shared consciousness. That recognition is love. Sensing the formless essence in another and recognizing it as one with your own essence - that's what love is. All this is an intrinsic part of the awakened consciousness and the revelation of the spiritual dimension of life.

◦"At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is

At the height of creative activity fueled by enthusiasm, there will be enormous intensity and energy behind what you do. You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target-and enjoying the journey.

Authentic human interactions become impossible when you lose yourself in a role.

Awareness and ego cannot coexist.

Awareness is conscious connection with universal intelligence. Another word for it is Presence: consciousness without thought.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. … The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world.

Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence.

Awareness of the inner body is consciousness remembering its origin and returning to the Source.

Awareness takes over from thinking. Instead of being in charge of your life, thinking becomes the servant of awareness.

A work of art comes out of a state of deep stillness.

Be alert and present and see that your identity is not from your past story; who you truly are is the alert presence that is inseparable from the present moment. You are this, which has no name and no form.

Be alert as you watch a dog at play or at rest. Let the animal teach you to feel at home in the now, to celebrate life by being completely present. You just watch the tail ... with some dogs you just look at them - just a little look is enough - and their tail goes ...'Life is good! Life is good!' And they are not telling themselves a story of why life is good. It's a direct realization.

Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.

Be aware of your breathing as often as you are able, whenever you remember. Do that for one year, and it will be powerfully transformative. And it's free.

Be aware of your breathing. Notice how this takes attention away from your thinking and creates space.

Be aware that what you think, to a large extent, creates the emotions that you feel. See the link between your thinking and your emotions. Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.

Because dogs and cats still live in the original state of connectedness with Being, they can help us regain it. When we do so, however, that original state deepens and turns into awareness.

Because of its phantom nature, and despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and insecure, and it sees itself as constantly under threat. This, by the way, is the case even if the ego is outwardly very confident.

Become an alchemist. Transmute base metal into gold, suffering into consciousness, disaster into enlightenment.

Become friendly with the present moment, because if you do not become friendly with the present moment you cannot become friendly with life.

Become intensely conscious of the present moment.

Before I wrote The Power of Now, I had a vision that I had already written the book and that it was affecting the world. I had a sense there was already a book somehow in existence. I drew a circle on a piece of paper and it said "book." Then I wrote something about the effect the book had on the world, how it influenced my life and other people's lives, and how it came to be translated into many languages affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

Being an outsider to some extent, someone who does not "fit in" with others or is rejected by them for whatever reason, makes life difficult, but it also places you at an advantage as far as enlightenment is concerned. It takes you out of unconsciousness almost by force.

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.

Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment - the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind.