Eckhart Tolle quotes are some of the most powerful for when you want to take a step back and see everything from a much higher, more calm perspective.
It may appear that things are chaotic, out of control, and lacking in love, but the reality is that love is always present–we just have to bring our focus into the Now moment in order to become aware of it.
Who is Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle is a German-born metaphysical spiritual author and teacher. He has an incredible back story of how he manifested The Power of Now, which is a New York Times best-seller, through channeling the information and then getting it out into the world.
He doesn't identify with any specific religion but he is a spiritual teacher who takes the underlying principles of love from many of them. He has said that he suffered from depression in his younger years until the age of 29, when he underwent an inner transformation that changed him forever.
Spiritual texts he has mentioned in his teachings have come from the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu texts, the Buddhist texts, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and A Course in Miracles.
His teachings, specifically from this book The Power of Now, have personally helped me to greatly elevate my awareness in many ways. I recommend reading it more than once since the concepts need time to seep in and to be fully comprehended. It's in my top three must-reads.
Quotes are something I love to read when I'm falling asleep after a hard day, or when I need quick reminders of what I know to be true. I hope you find these quotes by Eckhart Tolle as soothing as I have found them to be.
Eckhart Tolle quotes on love
1. "To love is to recognize yourself in another."
2. "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."
3. "Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain."
4. "To the ego, loving and wanting are the same, whereas true love has no wanting in it, no desire to possess or for your partner to change."
5. "You are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while."
6. "You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level."
7. "How wonderful to go beyond wanting and fearing in your relationships. Love does not want or fear anything."
8. "The moment judgement stops through acceptance of what is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace."
9. "You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are."
10. "Love is the recognition of oneness in the world of duality."
11. "The reason why the romantic love relationship is such an intense and universally sought-after experience is that it seems to offer liberation from a deep-seated state of fear, need, lack, and incompleteness that is part of the human condition in its unredeemed and unenlightened state."
12. "True communication is communion–the realization of oneness, which is love."
13. “A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever."
14. "Real love doesn't make you suffer. How could it? It doesn't suddenly turn into hate, nor does real joy turn into pain."
15. "Love isn't a portal; it's what comes through the portal into this world. Your task is not to search for love but to find a portal through which love can enter."
16. "Giving space to others – and to yourself – is vital. Love cannot flourish without it."
17. "They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer."
18. "Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance."
19. "As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love–even the most simple action."
20. "Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”
21. “When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed."
22. "The more consciousness you bring into the body, the stronger the immune system becomes. It is as if every cell awakens and rejoices. The body loves your attention."
23. "Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love."
24. "All the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind."
25. "In any relationship, especially marriage, be as free of compulsive thinking as possible. In other words, the more space there is in the relationship – inner space – the more love there is because love arises out of the inner spaciousness."
26. "The intensity with which true love is felt can vary. There may be one person who reflects your love back to you more clearly and more intensely than others, and if that person feels the same toward you, it can be said that you are in a love relationship. The bond that connects you with that person is the same bond that connects you with the person sitting sext to you on a bus, or with a bird, a tree, a flower. Only the degree of intensity with which it is felt differs."
27. “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
28. "Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one."
29. “Life is the dancer and you are the dance.”
Eckhart Tolle quotes on fear
30. "Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally; not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life."
31. "The whole essence of Zen consists in walking along the razor's edge of Now–to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive in you. In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems dissolve. Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now."
32. "It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living."
33. "'This is my secret,' he said. 'I don't mind what happens.'"
34. "Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence."
35. "If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without."
36. "What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.”
37. "The power for creating a better future is contain in the present moment: you create a good future by creating a good present."
38. "The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it."
39. "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."
40. "Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance."
41. "If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity."
42. "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."
43. "Fear arises through identification with form, whether it be a material possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or an emotion. It arises through unawareness of the formless inner dimension of consciousness or spirit, which is the essence of who you are. You are trapped in object consciousness, unaware of the dimension of inner space which alone is true freedom."
44. "Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be."
45. "A great deal of what people say, think, or do is actually motived by fear, which of course is always linked with having your focus on the future and being out of touch with the Now. As there are no problems in the Now, there is no fear either."
46. "Do not resist your pain. Surrender to the grief, despair, fear, loneliness, or whatever form the suffering takes. Witness it without labelling it mentally. Allow it to be there. Embrace it. Then see how the miracle of surrender transmutes deep suffering into deep peace."
47. "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."
48. "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."
49. "Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time."
50. "When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life."
51. "Are you worried? Do you have many 'what if' thoughts? You are identified with your mind, which is projecting itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear. There is no way you can cope with such a situation because it doesn't exist. It's a mental phantom. You can stop this health and life-corroding insanity simply by acknowledging the present moment."
52. "Internal and external are ultimately one. When you no longer perceive the world as hostile, there is no more fear, and when there is no more fear, you think, speak and act differently. Love and compassion arise, and they affect the world."
53. "Above all, the only thing you have to heal is the present thought. Get that right and whole picture will change into one of harmony and joy."
54. "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 cause 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."
55. "Whenever you step out of the noise of thinking, that is meditation, and a different state of consciousness arises."
Eckhart Tolle quotes on death
56. "Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. Death is the opposite of birth."
57. "Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to 'die before you die' – and find that there is no death."
58. "A culture that denies death inevitably becomes shallow and superficial, concerned only with the external form of things. When death is denied, life loses its depth."
59. "Death means that a form of life dissolves or that the imminent possibility of dissolutions exists, whether through our own death or through illness or old age."
60. "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 stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end."
61. "The acceptance of suffering is a journey into death. Facing deep pain, allowing it to be, taking your attention into it, is to enter death consciously."
62. "In the face of death, especially violent death, things don't make sense anymore. So death is the dissolution of either physical form or psychological form. And when a form dissolves, always something shines through that had been obscured by the form. This is the formless One Life, the formless One Consciousness."
63. "When you have died this death, you realize that there is no death, and that there is nothing to fear. Only the ego dies."
64. "The more you live in the present moment, the more the fear of death disappears."
65. "Whenever death occurs, whenever a life form dissolves, God, the formless and unmanifested, shines through the opening left by the dissolving form."
66. "When great loss happens – deaths close to you or your own approaching death – this is an opportunity for stepping completely out of identification with form and realizing the essence of who you are, or that the essence of anyone who is suffering or dying is beyond death."
67. "Nothing that was real ever died, only names, forms, and illusions."
68. "The end of illusion – that's all death is. It is painful only as long as you cling to illusion."
69. "When you go deep enough into the formless, the dreadful is no longer dreadful, it's sacred. Then you will experience the two levels, when somebody dies who is close to you. Yes it's dreadful on the level of form. It's sacred on the deeper level. Death can enable you to find that dimension in yourself. You're helping countless other humans if you find that dimension in yourself – the sacred dimension of life. Death can help you find the sacred dimension of life – where life is indestructible."
70. "That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were."
Quotes from A New Earth
71. "Whatever you think people are withholding from you–praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on–give it to them."
72. "Humanity is now faced with a stark choice: evolve or die. 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."
73. "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your soul. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because it's the one you are having."
74. "To recognize one's own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence."
75. "Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment – the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind."
76. "Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet–because it is the purpose of humanity."
77. "Anybody who is one with what he or she does is building the new earth."
78. "If the thought of lack – whether it be money, recognition or love – has become part of who you think you are, you will always experience lack. Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance."
79. "Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world."
80. "You don't need to own anything to feel abundant, although if you feel abundant consistently, things will almost certainly come to you."
81. "Give up defining yourself–to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem."
82. "To awaken within the dream is our purpose now. When we are awake within the dream, the ego-created earth-drama comes to an end and a more benign and wondrous dream arises. The is the new earth."
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article and found something to take away with you.
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With love,
Jessica
Jessica Dimas is the creator of Anything Can Be: A Reference Guide for Applying the Law of Attraction.
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