Eckhart Tolle was born Ulrich Leonard Tolle, February 16, 1948 in Lünen, Germany.

Law of Attraction Teachers:

Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle changed his name from Ulrich to Eckhart because of his admiration for the German philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhart.

He has described his childhood as unhappy, especially the years up to age 13, spent in Germany. There was much conflict in his home, and he did not enjoy attending German primary school, perceiving it as a hostile environment.

At 13 he moved to Spain to live with his father, who gave him the choice of attending school or studying at home. He opted for the latter and from then until age 22 took no formal schooling. Instead he pursued creative and philosophical interests, studying literature, astronomy and language on his own.

At 19, he moved to England and for three years taught German and Spanish to businessmen in a London language school.Toward the end of this time, motivated by “depression, anxiety and fear,” he started “searching for answers to life.” He says,

“At age twenty-two or twenty-three … I became interested in intellectual matters. My mind became more and more active. I was seeking some kind of answer through the intellect, through philosophy, psychology, and literature. And I believed that the answer was to be found in the intellect and philosophy. So that is when I started getting qualifications in preparatory evening classes that I needed to get into the university in England.”

After graduating from the University of London, he began research at Cambridge University as a postgraduate student, matriculating in 1977.

After having suffered from long periods of suicidal depression, Tolle says he experienced an “inner transformation.”He woke up in the middle of that night, suffering from feelings of depression so intense that it was “almost unbearable.” He says,

“I couldn’t live with myself any longer. And in this a question arose without an answer: who is the ‘I’ that cannot live with the self? What is the self? I felt drawn into a void. I didn’t know at the time that what really happened was the mind-made self, with its heaviness, its problems, that lives between the unsatisfying past and the fearful future, collapsed. It dissolved. The next morning I woke up and everything was so peaceful. The peace was there because there was no self. Just a sense of presence or “beingness,” just observing and watching.”

Eckhart Tolle recalls going out for a walk in London the next morning, and finding that “everything was miraculous, deeply peaceful. Even the traffic.” He says he began to feel a sense of underlying peace in any situation. For a period of about two years after this, according to the Telegraph, he spent a great deal of time sitting “in a state of deep bliss” on park benches in Russell Square, Central London, “watching the world go by.” He stayed with friends or occasionally in a Buddhist monastery, and slept rough in Hampstead Heath. His family thought him “irresponsible, even insane”.

After this period, various people, including former Cambridge students and people met by chance, began to ask him about his beliefs. Over the next five years, more students came to Tolle and he relocated to Glastonbury, three hours West of London, a major center of alternative living. Eventually, he began working again in London as a counselor and spiritual teacher.

In 1995, after having visited the West Coast of North America several times, he settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the age of 47.

Soon after, Tolle published his first book, The Power of Now, which by 2008 had been translated into 33 languages. In 2005, Tolle published his second book, A New Earth. Both books reached the New York Times Best Seller list for “hardcover Advice.”

Eckhart Tolle formed a company called Eckhart Teachings, to sell products related to his teachings. Tolle gives speeches and workshops, and travels for speaking engagements, seminars and retreats.

In 2009, he created an Internet site, called Eckhart Tolle TV, with streaming video of weekly group meditations.

His most recent book, Guardians of Being, is a picture book illustrated by Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the comic strip Mutts.

Eckhart’s Official Website
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