Thank You Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey

Written on July 12, 2008 by Tom Stine / 14 Comments »

credit: ((brian))

A short and sweet article for today. I simply want to state my gratitude to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey for what they’ve given us with their collaboration a few months back in the excellent series of webinars on Oprah.com. And what have they given us? A populace buzzing with interest in our passion: spirituality. And not just any old spirituality, not your garden variety spirituality that sounds like the humdrum world of church and religion. No, I’m talking the kind of spirituality that ultimately leads to spiritual awakening.

You see, Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth, is really about spiritual awakening. He never says it in his book, for quite likely good reasons, but nonetheless, that is the purpose of it. When the ego fades, when that which we are realizes that it is not a separate self living a life of separation from the rest of life and humanity, we call that spiritual awakening. The Buddhists call it enlightenment. But in contemporary terms, I prefer to think of it as an awakening, a waking up from the dream that we are separate.

By bringing this book to the awareness of millions of people, Eckhart and Oprah have put spiritual awakening on the playing field. No longer is it the province of eccentric spiritual seekers, Zen students and residents of ashrams. It is in the mainstream consciousness of the world.

I’ve been hearing stories, from friends, from people I meet on trips, in the media, everywhere, of people picking-up A New Earth and being changed by it. One friend in particular has reported a dramatic change in her otherwise conservative, devout Catholic mother, a change that has resulted in a happier person. I even saw a woman reading A New Earth at my son’s taekwondo school (and, if you recall, I live in the Bible Belt!).

If you visit Barnes & Noble or any large bookstore, you will notice that the books on spirituality, Eastern religions, new age metaphysics, etc, have grown in number. The end caps are filled with books about “the universal field,” consciousness, The Tao of Peeling Potatoes, Zen for Dummies, you name it. It really is astounding. Maybe the Age of Aquarius has finally arrived?

So, no matter what you think of Eckhart Tolle’s book (or Oprah for that matter), you cannot deny that they both have done you and me a service. Spritual awakening is out of the closet and in the consciousness of the world. So, thank you Eckhart and Oprah, and a deep bow to both of you. I think the “future” of our planet might turn out better than anyone could expect. Namaste.

Silence - Eckhart Tolle

Written on March 31, 2008 by Tom Stine / 5 Comments »

Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, every word. The Unmanifested is present in this world as silence. That is why it has been said that nothing in this world is so like God as silence. All you have to do is pay attention to it.

credit: Manatari

A New Earth: Eckhart Tolle and Oprah

Written on February 27, 2008 by Tom Stine / 5 Comments »

A friend called me yesterday to let me know about all the good things happening over at Oprah.com with regard to Eckhart Tolle’s new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.

I must be the last person to read Eckhart Tolle, although I’ve seen a few of his videos on You Tube. There is a real power in Eckhart’s words and presentation, so I’m diving into both of his books

It is strange how the universe often works in our lives. Another good friend bought A New Earth at the Phoenix airport when it first came out, right after we had finished a Sedona Method retreat. He loved the book, and kept texting me every time he read a few chapters. I, of course, ignored his urgings, as I was just getting interested Adyashanti’s teachings. So far I’ve been enjoying Eckhart’s books, and I feel a real resonance with his ideas.

After my friend called yesterday, I did something I thought I would never do: I typed oprah.com into my browser and surfed her site. All those years of my ex getting “O” magazine in the mail had left me with a somewhat bad taste in my mouth for Oprah, but as I perused her site, I found some pretty good stuff. The forum for A New Earth is excellent. Maybe I will take back all the snide Oprah comments I’ve made over the years (I even made an Oprah pun in the new video I did this weekend).

Oprah is going to be offering a live webinar for 10 weeks based on A New Earth. You can get all the details at Oprah.com.

And after you’ve been to Oprah.com and then headed over to Amazon to purchase A New Earth, check out fellow writer JoLynn over at The Fit Shack who has a nice write-up on the webinar and some good thoughts on how A New Earth fits into her specialty: weight loss.