Reaching Eckhart Tolle’s state of presence: In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle explains the core ideas of his teaching while utilising all spiritual traditions to meet the requirements of the contemporary seeker. What the author refers to as “the state of presence,” or living in the “now,” is at the heart of the book and is both incredibly motivating and useful.
The power of the present: Fear and frustration are overcome by the present moment when the demands of the past and future cease to exist. The 200 individual items that make up Stillness Speaks are arranged into 10 theme clusters, ranging from “Beyond the Thinking Mind” to “Suffering and the End of Suffering.
Although each entry is succinct and comprehensive on its own, when read as a whole, they have a transforming effect.
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About the Author
Germany is where Eckhart Tolle was born. His life was drastically altered at the age of 29 when he underwent a deep spiritual metamorphosis that all but destroyed his previous identity. In addition to being the author of Stillness Speaks, Practising the Power of Now, and The Power of Now, he is currently a spiritual teacher and counsellor. He’s a Vancouver resident.
Review
With this new book about living in the present, Eckhart Tolle elaborates on his motto, “Get out of your head and into the moment.” The skill of “inner stillness”—where ideas, ego, and attachments constantly collapse and we are left with only the present moment—is highlighted by Tolle in this passage: “When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.”
You lose yourself in the world when you get disconnected from yourself. This is not a book that should be read quickly or even thoroughly. Like his previous best-selling book The Power of Now, Tolle employs short entries and lots of white space to provide readers with quick access to enticing spiritual insights that elaborate on inner stillness, like how to end suffering, overcome the fear of death, and understand the difference between surrender and resignation.
Actually, this is meant to be a continuous discussion. You may pick it up anywhere and at any time, but be sure to schedule enough of time for thoughtful reflection. Tolle begs, “Don’t abandon the teachings, even if you sometimes abandon the book.” “If humanity is not to destroy itself, then embracing and practicing inner stillness is no longer a luxury,” he argues.
Both the emergence of the new consciousness and the malfunction of the old consciousness are currently speeding up. Ironically, things are simultaneously growing worse and better, yet “the worst” is more noticeable because it creates so much noise.
It’s unlikely that those who have already read every one of Tolle’s books and audio recordings would discover anything new here. However, they might like the refresher course, which revisits well-known ideas in a slightly different format. Hudson, Gail
The supposedly wise and kind Tolle states in the opening of this small follow-up to the best-selling The Power of Now that his new book “can be seen as a revival for the present age of the oldest form of recorded spiritual teachings: the sutras of ancient India.
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This statement may worry some readers. According to Tolle, the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddha’s teachings, Jesus’ parables, and the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching may all be regarded as sutras since they are brief and “do not engage the thinking mind more than is necessary.
Tolle goes on to say that his writings are inspired by inner peace, much as those great spiritual texts. “Unlike those ancient sutras, however, they don’t belong to any one religion or spiritual tradition but are immediately accessible to the whole of humanity.
He adds that this unparalleled accessibility is because mankind must wake up immediately if we are not going to kill itself, echoing a familiar but no less sinister theme in modern spiritual life. Our shared Being, which is the formless container for what is happening in the now, is the quiet that “will save and transform the world.
Tolle uses lyrical economy to depict silence in the short chapters that follow. Beautiful stand-alone paragraphs provide insight into the protective tendency of the ego in contrast to what he perceives to be our genuine selves, the open, receptive mind that underlies cognition, and the inner space and tranquillity that arise when we embrace death and everything else.
Your mental programming is ultimately the source of your misery rather than the events in your life. Nobody will question Tolle’s liberation from persistent worries and thoughts. The others, though?
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Summary
Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle delves deeply into the importance of presence and silence in our lives. Tolle demonstrates how to reach the silence inside ourselves with useful lessons and perceptive advice, which results in increased contentment, pleasure, and tranquility. The following are the main takeaways from this groundbreaking work: