Living a Life of Inner Peace

Please pardon the pun on Eckhart Tolle's initials. I couldn't resist the fact that he has the initials E.T. I think this is an appropriate coincidence considering his approach to "living in the now" is an "alien" concept to most people :)

I originally found out about Eckhart Tolle because of a quote in Rolf Gate's wonderful Book "Meditations From The Mat". I was intrigued and started searching for more about him. Fortunately my library has quite a bit of E.T.'s books and audio so I was able to sample his work. I was blown away!

While I had been introduced to the idea of mindfulness by such wonderful teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabot-Zinn and others, Eckhart Tolle has a way of teaching that I can connect with in a more meaningful way. He is non-sectarian and non-dogmatic. He steps on no one's "spiritual toes" and is embracing and respectful of all paths. I feel he can help us see the essence behind all religious teachings, away from the egocentric...Read more

This is the best place to start if you are curious about Tolle. While his books are provocative, interesting, and (if you take the time) enlightening, this particular recording is a very accessible and oftimes entertaining introduction to his thinking. It is a recorded seminar with an audience and his delivery is conversational and sometimes quite funny as well. He comes across as this diminutive Yoda with a German accent but his ideas about consciousness, identity and spirituality are transfixing in a way that makes the catchy soundbites from the Chopra-like self help crowd seem amateurish and commercial by comparison. His thoughts on "presence" and "the NOW" will cause you to rethink your understanding of how we live our lives. You do yourself a big favor by at least exposing yourself to these ideas.

Eckhart Tolle's astonishing popularity (including this wonderful series, "Living a Life of Inner Peace) as part of a retreat/presentation in front of a live audience firmly establishes with gusto why many true-to-life-seekers are listening, learning, and laughing out loud.

For those of you, who may feel as I do: in that perhaps no one anywhere has ALL THE ANSWERS to humanity's woes and does not presuppose to judge others, or worse, claim to know the mind, heart and soul of God -- it is so refreshing to hear an open-hearted human being challenge set-in-stone belief systems many of us have acquired over time that often do us more harm than good.

So, when nothing else will do for your month, week, day, hour or minute to spare as a result of a continuum of calamities (large or small), thank goodness there is a peaceful spot you can seek as refuge that quite inexplicably lifts one out of the doldrums and encourages us to laugh with each other and at ourselves!