Eckhart Tolle Quotes

The more you are focused on time-past and future-the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.

Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time.

The most decisive event in your life is when you discover you are not your thoughts or emotions. Instead, you can be present as the awareness behind the thoughts and emotions.

Love is a state of Being. 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 primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.

The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space.

When you say “yes” to the “isness” of life, when you accept this moment as it is, you can feel a sense of spaciousness within you that is deeply peaceful.

The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am.

Instead of asking, “what do I want from life?,” a more powerful question is, “what does life want from me?

I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.

Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.

Non-reaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not only of going beyond ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective human ego.

True Power is within, and it is available now.

Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and listen. No more is needed.

The sun never sets. It is only an appearance due to the observer's limited perspective. And yet, what a sublime illusion it is.

The word Buddha comes from the Sanskrit word Budh, meaning, to be awake. So Buddha is not a name and ultimately not a person, but a state of consciousness.

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

Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.

To be aware of little, quiet things, you need to be quiet inside. A high degree of alertness is required. Be still. Look. Listen. Be present.

How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.

Presence is when you're no longer waiting for the next moment, believing that the next moment will be more fulfilling than this one.

All you realy need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.

You get there by realizing you are already there.

Surrender is the inner transition from resistance to acceptance, from no to yes.

As long as we define ourselves in terms of our pain and our problems, we will never be free from them.

Don't think of yourself as having a past, don't think of yourself as having a future. What's left?

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

Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.

Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.

If you don't have a good relationship with the now, you don't have a good relationship with life.

If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself, then you are probably creating suffering for others too

When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

Nonresistance, nonjudgment, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.

Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.

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

I call animals "guardians of Being," especially animals that live with humans. Because, for many humans, it's through their contact with animals they get in touch with that level of being.

The human condition: lost in thought.

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness.

Negative states of mind, such as anger, resentment, fear, envy, and jealousy, are products of the ego.

Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.

Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind.

Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. A portal is opening up.

To stay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply rooted within yourself; otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag you along like a wild river.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it.

Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have remained a secret.

All you need to know and observe in yourself is this: Whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that's the ego in you.

True salvation is freedom from negativity.

I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats.