The Fire In The Attic

Who is Eckhart Tolle?

    It seems as though the world, this neurotic matrix of time and space, has a mind of its own and it is constantly racing. Everything is a trend and everything seems to come and go like fleeting random thoughts. Through this we see trends born, die and are occasionally reborn (although sometimes not for the better). These trends are sometimes hilarious, voyeuristic or even the zeitgeist of our age.    
    And whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing, Mr. Eckhart Tolle is now one of these trends.
    This happens often with me and pop culture. I suddenly wake up and realize that something's a big deal. It happened with the NCAA Championships this year, something about Ashley Simpson, and the occasional band name or reference from co-workers that just flies right past my head. To my credit, I can indeed fill you in on Zimbabwe's election crisis, what happened on NPR this week, or can tell you how Donald Ray Pollock is the best new old writer for setting and violence since Chuck Palahniuk.    
    And somewhere in between came the cultural phenomenon of Mr. Eckhart Tolle.
    With the almighty power of Oprah behind him, Tolle has become more popular than he originally might have guessed and his books about spirituality, "The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" and "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose," are bestsellers on Amazon and have catapulted Tolle to the forefront of this recent emergence in the self-help genre.
    But who is this guy? I don't really know.
    I've watched some YouTube videos and read a couple articles about him and his teachings but I'm about as in the dark as I've ever been. His belongs to no one particular belief structure, but it can easily be seen that Zen Buddhism and some form of Rumi poetry are in his words

    "Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?  
    The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.
    The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind."
                                        -Tolle, "The Power of Now"

    In "The Power of Now," Tolle speaks to the awareness of the present, alluding towards a person's thought process and mental happiness being synonymous with the future and happiness there. Tolle's words are garnished with a Buddhist feeling of the now, a feeling that shouldn't be sacrificed for the things to come.   
    Shit, I'm doing things wrong then. Who is this Eckhart Tolle guy?
    If anyone out there really knows, shoot me an email.

   
    bspanner@graffitiwv.com

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