Oliver, just in case anybody has preconceptions about Eckart Tolle:
There was a time in my life when I would've really dug what Tolle has to say. Now that I am more experienced I am able to see that even though he has some good things to say, not everything he says is accurate. Some of it is out of context. Some of it could cause a person to take an extreme approach that isn't productive.
Earlier you wrote that people shouldn't follow authority figures. Tolle refers to himself as enlightened. He speaks of his so-called enlightenment experience. A lot of people end up thinking of supposed enlightened people as if they are infallible. As a result they turn such supposedly enlightened people into authority figures. It is hard to question somebody if one believes that such a person is an infallible authority figure. Some people follow supposed enlightened people blindly just as some people follow doctors blindly. I figure that if one is truly interested in one's spiritual, mental and physical health, one won't follow anybody blindly.
I believe that a wise and responsible person would never present himself as if he is an infallible spiritual teacher because he would understand that if he did the above described kind of trap will probably take place for some people. Many people have given their power away to supposed enlightened people.
Tolle presents himself as if he is an enlightened person, yet he doesn't seem to understand about the above. If he does something such as quote ACIM, some people might assume ACIM is okay because they would assume that he wouldn't refer to ACIM if it isn't legit.
He was interviewed by Andrew Cohen who is one of the most scandalous American Gurus the United States has had. Some people might make the mistake of assuming that Andrew Cohen is trustworthy because they would conclude that an enlightened person wouldn't allow himself to be interviewed by Cohen (for Cohen's magazine) if such a (supposedly) enlightened person didn't believe that Cohen is legit. My feeling is that anybody who has a significant degree of spiritual wisdom wouldn't associate himself with Cohen in such a way. Cohen has been a highly abusive guru. Consider the below links. The books they refer to provide good examples of what it is like to be with an abusive guru.
http://www.themotherofgod.com/http://www.monkfishpublishing.com/books/enlighten.htmI agree with Tolle when he says that we need to live in the moment more than we do and to not make our happiness and peace conditional. I've found that the more I've let go of limiting thought patterns the more I've been able to live in my beingness quite naturally. Doing so now feels significantly different than it did years ago. In "The Power of Now" Tolle wrote that there is no point in trying to overcome your fears because they are endless. He said that the only way to overcome fear is to overcome your ego. (I am paraphrasing him because I don't remember his exact words). I believe such an all or nothing approach is a mistake. He might've gotten it from ACIM because it says something similar. The number of fears we have "aren't" endless. I've found that it has been very helpful to overcome some of my fears. If I would've listened to somebody such as Tolle I might not have bothered to deal with specific issues.
If a person isn't careful he (or she) might develop dissociative identity disorder if they follow Tolle's approach in a way that leads to such a result. It is fine to be aware of our spirit selves, but it is a mistake to in some way tell ourselves that we aren't our mind by saying something such as "I am not my mind, I am this presence I feel." The main reason unwanted thoughts appear is because of some underlying psychological condition we haven't taken care of. Such a condition doesn't go away simply by ignoring it and focusing on the now and whatever amount of presence we are able to experience. Eventually we will have to deal with our unwanted thought patterns. The more we do the more we'll be able to abide according to our spirit selves quite naturally.
Some people might say that Tolle doesn't suggest that people do as I described above. I'd say that such people are making a statement that is based on what they have allowed themselves to be aware of. I know of people who have focused their awareness on their presence as much as they could and believe that they have freed themselves from unwanted thought patterns when in fact they haven't. Rather, they have found a way to ignore them and sweep them under the carpet. Eventually the carpet will have to be lifted. Some people get into an all or nothing approach because they don't want to have to deal with their issues. They want a quick fix. They don't want to have to do the work. Below is an example of somebody being influenced by Tolle in the way I just explained.
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,86095Regarding ego, Tolle takes this is issue to a nondual teaching like extreme and says that there is no such thing as individual being. This isn't true. Our souls are distinct and at one with the oneness at the same time. Until we take responsibility for our issues we won't be able to completely abide with the oneness. The below article delves further into how people can deceive themselves into believing that they don't exist as an individual.
http://nondualityisdualistic.com/articles-2/jeff-foster-advaita-vedanta-and-nond...I saw a youtube video where a person asked Tolle what happens when we die. He answered that he doesn't know because he hasn't died yet. Some might say that such a response has merit, but if one considers the authority figure factor it could be misleading for some people because they might conclude that if an enlightened person such as Tolle doesn't know what happens after death, then nobody knows. This isn't so because numerous people have had experiences that have given them a fairly good idea of what happens after death. I say "fairly" because people experience death in various ways and it is hard for a living person to know about all of the ways. One thing spirit World experiencers have found is that we can't sweep our psychological issues under the carpet as if they don't have anything to do with us because such issues will play a part in what we experience after we die.
I believe it is a shame that a person who isn't as wise as many people believe has the stature that Tolle has. People who choose to strongly believe according to what he says will be limited accordingly.
On an earlier post I wrote that some people desire to be a guru. If the attached article is true Tolle had this desire. The first few paragraphs are the key paragraphs.
http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/Ytolle.htmRegarding whether in fact he has overcome his ego, a person who claims to know him says this isn't so. Here is a link (the first post).
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,73107
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