The Failure of Now: How Eckhart Tolle Coddles the Status Quo and Why it Matters

I'm aware that there has been long term support for Eckhart Tolle and enthusiasm around his teachings. Indeed, I have been among his proponents and in years past I drank in his talks and tapes, devoured "The Power of Now," and shared and recommended all of the above to others. As much as I don't like labels or believe that they serve larger and more complex pictures, at that time I may have been among what is referred to as being part of New Age teachings and dynamics that were sweeping our nation and beyond.

All of that began to shift for me as I continued on my journey of gradual awakening. While I do not disrespect those who continue to endorse Eckhart Tolle as a wise spiritual teacher, for quite some time now I have no longer been able to do so myself. What I've been discovering, and personally recognizing as potentially harmful and limiting, is when spiritual truths are mixed in with what I have come to experience as teachings which actually inhibit our capacity to feel and learn from the depths of what we carry in our hearts. And to the degree that we are cut off from the heart within our own physical bodies is the degree that we will also likely be cut off from the hearts of others. This disconnect feeds our sense of separation, and this can occur even while we may be seeking to grow and evolve spiritually. This certainly happened for me.

The problem, among many, about a strong focus on my own personal "enlightenment" is that I continued to be unknowingly rejecting and estranged from parts of myself. I remained fragmented, stuck in shame and abandoned grief I did not know I had, and, on a deep level, not open to the vulnerability, trust, and conscious awareness that is essential to evolving into greater wholeness. The belief systems that I sought and tried to use to heal and awaken — including those of Eckhart Tolle — actually ended up contributing to the places where I'd been stuck for a very long time. And these blind spots inhibited not only my own personal growth, but also recognizing and embracing what my sacred role is in addressing the suffering in our world. As long as I neglected and denied places of pain within myself, I remained impaired in my capacity to empathize more deeply with others and to be of service in our world.

For many years now I have been moving away from beliefs, attachments, and resonance I once held with much of what the New Age movement adheres to, but which I ultimately found misleading and unhelpful. Over the many years of my awakening I have been blessed with many hard lessons from some well renown spiritual teachers and healers who in reality contributed to my stuck places and enabled me to keep some of the walls I'd built around my heart intact. I eventually came to recognize that I cannot catapolt into enlightenment and that this was never a wise goal to begin with. Instead I have learned that there is a necessity to go through the messy middle and feel what I feel, see what I see, need what I need, and risk to open to life's deepest lessons. This is the path which has been teaching me how to nourish, deepen, and expand my capacity for love, compassion, courage, humility, kindness, and wisdom. This is the journey of opening to the gift of how to embrace my divinity while also being a fully embodied human being.

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This essay that I'm sharing from several years back is something I very much resonate with today. The essence here, for me, illuminates the shadow side of the teachings of Eckhart Tolle — and I would add for many other "New Age" teachers who seek to teach people how to bypass the deeper experiences, truths, and wisdom of our hearts. This journey from our heads to our hearts is what I have learned is an essential part of learning how to embody the gifts of the alchemist — embracing life's most difficult, painful, and challenging experiences as catalysts for both our personal growth and for claiming clarity as to what our role is in alleviating the suffering of humans, other beings, and the Earth.

It is my experience that we cheat ourselves if we are seeking enlightenment at the expense of an intimate relationship with ourselves and others. Yes, we are sacred souls having human experiences. And to claim the gifts of who we are as human beings means learning how to embrace the fullness of our humanity. And, for me, this means moving towards all of life, all that we feel in our hearts, all that connects us with other humans and other beings. I have learned that if we try to go around or under, rather than through, our hearts that we cut ourselves off from our wholeness. And once cut off from our wholeness we are inclined to be cut off from other humans and all the vulnerability, trust, humility, compassion, and love that comes with true intimacy. That authentic intimacy arises out of acceptance, not rejection, of ourselves in all of our fullness. I believe that embracing this wholeness is a lifelong journey for most of us, if we are so blessed.

And out of being fully embodied human beings, we are able to more fully experience our sacred interrelationship with all of life and contribute to the healing and awakening within our families and friendships, our communities and nations, and beyond. Moving beyond our own individual needs into the embrace and conscious awareness of our fellow planetary sisters and brothers is essential if we are to evolve as a species and transform our world. This is messy, courageous, hard, and beautiful work that is not meant to simply do alone or keep to ourselves. We all have gifts. We are all needed, all related, all family. We are truly all in this together. — Molly 

  

Written by Nathan G. Thompson

The following is a combined version of two posts I wrote recently about Eckhart Tolle on my home blog. Given how popular Tolle is, even amongst Buddhist practitioners, I think it’s worthwhile to consider what he’s up to. Feel free to check out the original posts and the comments that followed.


Fellow 21st Century Yoga contributer Be Scofield has a provocative, new essay out on the limitations of Eckhart Tolle’s spiritual writings, particularly when it comes to addressing systemic social issues. Some folks just roll their eyes when they see the name Tolle, but I think if you want to understand the modern, American spiritual landscape, you gotta pay a bit of attention to his work. Before we go on to look at a few points in Be’s essay, I want to state where I stand on Tolle.

First off, I don’t think he’s a charlatan. The guy seems to me to have some clear insight into how our minds work, and the ways in which humans get trapped by their thinking and habit patterns. In addition, he has figured out how to bring together elements of different religious traditions in a way that speaks across them and beyond them. I’d say this is a positive, especially in terms of spreading insights to the masses. I also like the guy’s general optimism about humanity’s potential, and that he sees practices like meditation as being a means towards awakening on a larger, collective scale.

On the flip side, like Be, I disagree with Tolle’s sense that “inner work” alone will somehow solve the systemic misery that plagues so many in this world. Having read a fair amount of his writing, and listened to some of his talks, I find his general approach to be far too individualistic in focus for my taste. Not only is social and political action downplayed or dismissed outright, but you rarely hear talk about communities, serving others, or anything else associated with being together in groups. Just as is true of a lot of American convert Buddhism,in Tolle’s writing you can’t help but notice how heavily individual psychology and psychological theories color what’s being said.

Beyond all that, there’s the fierce, capitalist machine behind Tolle’s work to contend with. Nearly everything this guy touches these days is being turned into a product intended for “your awakening,” and I don’t get the sense that he has any problem with that. In fact, I think the packaging of Tolle as a non-threatening spiritual guru has not only lead to wildly higher sales and spreading of his message, but also wholesale rejection of his work by those like myself actively resisting capitalism, colonialism, and the commodification of spiritual practice.

Along those lines, let’s take a look at a few paragraphs from Be’s essay:

In A New Earth Tolle goes so far as to claim all of the atrocities associated with Communism could have been avoided had their been a shift in their “inner reality, their state of consciousness.” Again, his absolutism in regards to the power of internal transformation is quite extreme. If communists would have only stilled their minds, connected to their bodies and dis-identified with their false egoic self he believes countless lives would have been saved. It’s important to understand that when Tolle is referring to shifting inner consciousness, he is specifically talking about stilling the mind, not shifting inner social or political consciousness. Of course the issues are far more complex than Tolle presents. No simple solution like cultivating presence, stillness or embodiment would have changed a profoundly complicated socio-political experience that spanned vast territory and numerous decades. Furthermore, he falsely believes that spiritual awakening supports his social and political positions.

Tolle is suggesting that what communists needed and what environmental polluters need is internal spiritual transformation – not education, training, relationship building, diversity training, political understanding, environmental awareness or anything else. Why? Because Tolle believes in an all-knowing divine power that once channeled knows exactly what to do. This universal intelligence is unfolding and working through humans. If only environmental polluters and communists were to connect with God the world would be a much better place. For those who successfully do, they are contributing to more joy, peace, creativity and happiness on the planet. Spirit is unfolding in a direction and it supports Tolle’s social and political agenda and reflects his social location as a wealthy, heterosexual, white male with $4 million in the bank and a Jaguar in his driveway.

Social positioning, and specifically a lack of critical consciousness around his position in society, are major players in Tolle’s philosophy. It’s so much easier for folks from privileged backgrounds to focus on “inner” transformation, and to dismiss addressing systemic social issues. Not only do they benefit from the status quo, but they’re are less likely to see how the status quo creates suffering in their own lives, let alone anyone else’s. Be’s absolutely right to point out this failure in Tolle’s work to critically examine social positions, and how they’re plugged into systems built on patterns of injustice and deliberate oppression.     

Please continue this essay here: http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/the-failure-of-now-how-eckhart-tolle-coddles-the-status-quo-and-why-it-matters/