Eckhart-Tolle - German Mystic - Self Inquiry

“Time isn’t precious at all,
because it is an illusion.
What you perceive as precious
is not time but the one point
that is out of time: the Now.

That is precious indeed.

The more you are focused
on time—past and future—the
more you miss the Now,
the most precious thing there is.”
– Eckhart Tolle Quotes Power of Now

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Eckhart-Tolle - German Mystic - Self Inquiry

Born 1948 - Germany

Born Ulrich Leonard
Tölle in Lünen
in the Ruhr Valley,
Germany in 1948.

Tolle describes his
childhood as unhappy.
His parents fought and
eventually separated,
and he felt alienated
from a hostile school
environment.

He also experienced
considerable fear and
anxiety growing up in
post-war Germany, where
he would play in
bombed-out buildings.
He later stated that pain
"was in the energy field
of the country".

At the age of 13,
he moved to Spain to
live with his father.

His father did not
insist that he attend
high school, so Tolle
elected to study literature,
astronomy and languages
at home.

At the age of 15,
he read several books
written by the German
mystic Joseph Anton
Schneiderfranken,
also known as Bô Yin Râ.

Tolle has said he
responded "very deeply"
to those books.

At the age of 19,
he moved to England
and for three years
taught German and Spanish.
Troubled by "depression,
anxiety and fear",
he began "searching for
answers" in his life.

In his early twenties,
he decided to pursue
his search by studying
philosophy, psychology,
and literature, and
enrolled in the
University of London.

After graduating,
he was offered a
scholarship to do
postgraduate research
at Cambridge, which
he entered in 1977
but dropped out.

One night in 1977,
at the age of 29,
after having suffered
from long periods of
depression, Tolle says
he experienced an
"inner transformation":

That night he awakened
from his sleep, suffering
from feelings of
depression that were
"almost unbearable,"
but then experienced a
life-changing epiphany.
Recounting the experience:

I couldn’t live
with myself any
longer. And in
this a question
arose without an answer:
who is the ‘I’ that
cannot live with the self?
What is the self?
I felt drawn into a void!
I didn’t know at the
time that what really
happened was the
mind-made self,
with its heaviness,
its problems,
that lives between
the unsatisfying past
and the fearful future,
collapsed.
It dissolved.

The next morning I woke
up and everything was
so peaceful. The peace
was there because there
was no self.

Just a sense of
presence or "beingness,"
just observing and
watching.

Tolle's first book,
The Power of Now,
was first published
in 1997 by Namaste
Publishing.

Eventually his 3rd book
' A New Earth' was a great
success and a relation with
Oprah Winfrey made him tv-famous.

He formed a company to
sell products related
to his teachings called
Eckhart Teachings.
He created a website
called Eckhart Tolle TV,
with streaming video of
monthly group meditations
and other videos.

Authors note: His method of
realization is classical
Buddhism and Ramana Maharashis
self-inquiry (follow the 'I-I').
It is also a classic zen
method. His term of 'depression'
is what in Buddhism we call
simply suffering. They teach
that the spiritual path
starts with the realization
of the truth or fact of
suffering in life and in ones
mind. The 1st of 4 noble truths.
The influence of German Mystics
also harp on these methods.
-raul

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle

Ref:
https://www.eckharttollenow.com/
https://www.eckharttolle.com/
https://www.eckharttolle.com/books/
https://eckharttolle.com/events/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4493.Eckhart_Tolle

As reference we note that
Germany has had a number
of remarkable mystics
we expand below since they
are related to Tolle.

About:
Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken
http://www.boyinra.org/
He was influenced by Jakob Böhme
In 1920, he founded the
Jakob Böhme Society.
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Böhme
A German philosopher,
Christian mystic,
and Lutheran Protestant
theologian. In 1600 Böhme
had a remrkable vision, and
wrote his insights in
over 30 of very deep books,
like 'The Way to Christ'.

Meister Eckhart fiery sermons
have also rose to prominence
among spiritual seekers.

Meister Eckhart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/73092.Meister_Eckhart
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meister-Eckhart
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/eckhart/sermons.html