Eckhart Tolle has a gentle, calm way about him that’s appealing. I don’t know how closely his worldview corresponds to reality but it’s certainly a way of thinking about the world - and how to orient oneself within it - that’s freeing and uplifting.
(And I rather like the way he pauses and goes into a sort of trance before answering questions like a modern day Delphic Oracle!)
I agree with previous posters who value his ‘Power of Now’ message. If there is one thing I’m bad at, it’s letting go of the past.
I’m not saying he’s original, though it doesn’t matter anyway because helpful ideas are worth repackaging. He deserves his New Age guru crown.
Some musings of his I like:
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 the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.
Man made God in his own image. The eternal, the infinite and the unnameable reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as my God or your God
All religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them. You can use them in the service of the ego, or you can use them in the service of the Truth. If you believe only your religion is the Truth, you are using it in the service of the ego. Used in such a way, religion becomes ideology and creates an illusory sense of superiority as well as division and conflict between people.
I would like to think Eckhart Tolle is genuinely a good guy. I hope he’s not in the spiritual self-help business just to sell a shedload of books and pick up appearance fees. I don’t think he is. Surely the homely tank tops and waistcoats would go if he were more of a slave of Mammon? However he does apparently drive a Jaguar … I don’t know – it’s tricky!