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Eckhart Tolle Quotes (Gratitude, Thoughts & The Now)

ByGemma Kate Last Update:

If you’re interested in learning more about a philosophy on peace, gratitude and self awareness, then the following Eckhart Tolle quotes are a great introduction, or a powerful reminder of his literary works.

Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual author and public speaker. He was born in Germany but lived most of his life in London and now Canada.

His written works are mostly self-help oriented, discussing various topics including the power of now, the pain-body and ego and moving beyond your past.

Tolle is most famously known for his published works ‘The Power of Now‘ and ‘A New Earth‘ where he discusses his philosophies.

What is the philosophy of Eckhart Tolle?

Tolle’s philosophy combines spiritual teachings and psycho-spiritual growth.

It has been often stated that while the concepts discussed have been around for hundreds of years, Tolle has simply found a unique way of presenting them, with the ability to cut through overly complicated and amended religious texts.

Tolle believes that rehashing the past, worry for the future and letting our thoughts run on auto-pilot are destructive to our happiness. Instead, we should focus on becoming more self-aware, stay in ‘the now’ and truly understand the separation of our being from our conditioned thoughts. 

Tolle discusses how living in the now is good for your psychological health as it helps you put things into perspective and realise that worrying about the past or future is never helpful. By not dwelling on these concepts you are able to stay more grounded and enjoy the current moments, releasing unnecessary worry, stress and unhappiness.

Easier said than done right?

The following quotes are a great way to contemplate bite-sized pieces of an often deep topic. Read them, consider them and let us know if you have any interesting points to add:

 

Eckhart Tolle Quotes

 

Life is an adventure, it’s not a package tour. Eckhart Tolle

 

It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living. Eckhart Tolle

 

To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually. Eckhart Tolle

 

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the ‘now’ the primary focus of your life. Eckhart Tolle

 

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. Eckhart Tolle

 

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it. Eckhart Tolle

 

Discontent, blaming, complaining and self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make. Eckhart Tolle

 

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. Eckhart Tolle

 

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. Eckhart Tolle

 

The past has no power over the present moment. Eckhart Tolle

 

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. Eckhart Tolle

 

Some changes look negative on the surface, but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” Eckhart Tolle

 

Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts. Eckhart Tolle

 

It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. Eckhart Tolle

 

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself. Eckhart Tolle

 

Even the most seemingly unpleasant situations – if you become aligned with it, something good will emerge from that. Eckhart Tolle

 

Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not ‘yours,’ not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you. Eckhart Tolle

 

People don’t realize that now is all there ever is – there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind. Eckhart Tolle

 

Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you. Eckhart Tolle

 

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

 

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment. Eckhart Tolle

 

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing. Eckhart Tolle

 

Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now. Eckhart Tolle

 

Fear seems to have many causes. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego’s fear of death, of annihilation. To the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this mind-identified state, fear of death affects every aspect of your life. Eckhart Tolle

 

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. Eckhart Tolle

 

Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a steppingstone to the next moment – a means to an end. Eckhart Tolle

 

If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go. Eckhart Tolle

 

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are. Eckhart Tolle

 

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success. Eckhart Tolle

 

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip. Eckhart Tolle

 

Always say ‘yes’ to the present moment… Surrender to what is. Say ‘yes’ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to start working for you rather than against you. Eckhart Tolle

 

Some people awaken spiritually without ever coming into contact with any meditation technique or any spiritual teaching. They may awaken simply because they can’t stand the suffering anymore. Eckhart Tolle

 

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose. Eckhart Tolle

 

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it. Eckhart Tolle

 

The only thing you ever have is now. Eckhart Tolle

 

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person. Eckhart Tolle

 

Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness. Eckhart Tolle

 

You are not a problem that needs solving. Eckhart Tolle

 

When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator – instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence. Eckhart Tolle

 

There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain. Eckhart Tolle

 

You can have religion with spirituality. You can also have religion without spirituality. Eckhart Tolle

 

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level. Eckhart Tolle

 

If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction. Eckhart Tolle

 

Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Eckhart Tolle

 

Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be. Eckhart Tolle

 

 

Eckhart Tolle’s philosophies encourage people to become more self-aware and understand that if we continue to live with our conditioned modes of thinking, we will remain in ego and continue to live with suffering. We hope the above quotes have got your mind ticking with inspiration!

For more interesting quotes and perspectives, be sure to check out:

 

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