Top 1167 Quotes & Sayings by Eckhart Tolle - Page 2

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the 'we' rather than the 'I.'

There's not some idea I'm going to create a work that's going to change everybody's consciousness.

To me the ego is the habitual and compulsive thought processes that go through everybody's mind continuously. External things like possessions or memories or failures or successes or achievements. Your personal history.

Many people in this world are still so identified with every thought that arises in their head. There is not the slightest space of awareness there.

When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what's around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without.

The 'soul' is one of the words you can use to talk about your innermost being, the essence of who you are.

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

You are not a problem that needs solving.

We should purify our innate well of contentment - what a wonderful expression - and then external things will be in harmony with us.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say 'recognize' because you're not... it's not new.

Often, little situations trigger enormous reactions. Be there, present for it. Your partner will find it easier to see it in you, and you will find it easier to see it in them.

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.

I believe that Jesus realized his oneness with God and he showed, what he attempted to do was show the way to all of us, how to realize our own onenes with God also, so he's a precursor.

Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form.

The more you live in the present moment, the more the fear of death disappears.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it's applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you're dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

Thinking fragments reality - it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.

Love is a state of being.

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

The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it's beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one.

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.

If you are not living this moment, you are not really living.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.

How wonderful to go beyond wanting and fearing in your relationships. Love does not want or fear anything.

When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.

Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.

Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there'.

Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.

Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.

All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.

You might say, 'What a dreadful day', without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance.

Get the inside right, and the outside will take care of itself.

When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life.

When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it, all else is madness.

The recognition of the false is already the arising of the real.

Observe your thoughts, don't believe them.

See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

The significance is hiding in the insignificant. Appreciate everything.

Evil is an extreme manifestation of human unconsciousness.

To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer the universe.

You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are life.

No matter how long your journey appears to be, there is never more than this: one step, one breath, one moment... Now.

Much suffering, much unhappiness arises when you take each thought that comes into your head for the truth.

If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does. With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion and peace.

Ultimately, there is no such thing as "my consciousness," but just the one consciousness and to sense your connectedness with the one (I can sense that continuously, which is why I can say that I know this for sure) to sense that connectedness with the one consciousness that pervades the universe, which in some traditions is called God, to sense that frees you of fear, from anxiety, and takes you to a very deep place of peace, but also of heightened aliveness.

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

I do not put much emphasis on periods of meditation - if you do meditation, it's fine - but the important thing is to bring the awareness into everyday life, into every little action that you do, into the varied challenges of everyday life.

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

Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly.

When you are trapped in a nightmare, your motivation to awaken will be so much greater than that of someone caught up in a relatively pleasant dream.

When you look upon another human being and feel great love toward them, or when you contemplate beauty in nature and something within you responds deeply to it, close your eyes for a moment and feel the essence of that love or that beauty within you, inseparable from who you are, your true nature. The outer form is a temporary reflection of what you are within, in your essence. That is why love and beauty can never leave you, although all outer forms will.

Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every moment - allow it to be as it is - then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose

You can be very much aware that when you are stressed, it always is a sign you have lost the present moment. So, you can choose to re-enter the present moment.

If peace is really what you want, then you will choose peace. If peace mattered to you more than anything else and if you truly knew yourself to be Spirit rather than a little me, you would remain nonreactive and absolutely alert when confronted with challenging people or situations. You would immediately accept the situation and thus become one with it rather than separate yourself from it.

The secret of awakening is to unconditionally accept this moment as it is.

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

Nothing that is of real value can be lost, only the false dissolves.

Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love - you have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.