Here at Tolle Teachings, we speculated during the presidential election about Oprah sharing her experience with Eckhart with then presidential candiate Barack Obama. Now that Oprah has participated deeply in Obama's inauguration, we are still asking the same questions. Michelle and Barack just spent Valentine's Day at Oprah's special restaurant in Chicago. Have Oprah and the Obama's discussed Eckhart?
A presidential candidate who understands the Power of Now might be the ideal Commander-in-Chief -- someone who lives in the moment and is not subject to reactivity and prejudice. Will she tell him about her experiences on A New Earth? Will she recommend that Obama and Eckhart meet? Could Eckhart Tolle be the next Billy Graham of the Oval Office? And finally, should we who were so changed by watching Eckhart and Oprah together urge Oprah to share her experience with Barack and Michelle Obama?
If you think Obama should ask Oprah about Eckhart, send our new president an email about it at www.whitehouse.gov.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Evolutionary Impulse of the Universe
Oprah and Eckhart's discussions about religion and evolution in part II of Chapter 10 have even more significance with creationist Sarah Palin running for vice-president. Suddenly the culture wars are back this fall as atheists like Richard Dawkins attacks religion with renewed fervor thanks to Palin's fundamentalist political positions, which include supporting the teaching of creationism along side evolution in science classes.
In this section of Chapter 10 you will see Eckhart resolving these differences, which as he says, "only add more content" and finding resolution to the war between science and religion in the notion of "the evolutionary impulse of the universe".
In this section of Chapter 10 you will see Eckhart resolving these differences, which as he says, "only add more content" and finding resolution to the war between science and religion in the notion of "the evolutionary impulse of the universe".
Monday, September 29, 2008
Oprah and Eckhart shine in Chapter 10
Chapter 10 is the grand finale of the webinar series. The show ran 2 hrs and 2 minutes and was beautifully paced. You get a sense that these 2 guys really got a groove going & could do any show in any length or format. Because it is so long we will be presenting it in 2 parts. Chapter 10 Part 2 will be delivered to subscribers next week.
This program, like Chapters 8 and 9, are a must see. Chapter 10 stands alone as an excellent example of the Oprah-Eckhart paradigm shift. Oprah and Eckhart kept the heat on their interpretation of religion and Christianity and how the Eckhart teachings are NOT a belief system. Instead of backing off the word 'evolution', as a fundamentalist couple requested in Chapter 9, Oprah and Eckhart kept returning to that term again and again.
This program, like Chapters 8 and 9, are a must see. Chapter 10 stands alone as an excellent example of the Oprah-Eckhart paradigm shift. Oprah and Eckhart kept the heat on their interpretation of religion and Christianity and how the Eckhart teachings are NOT a belief system. Instead of backing off the word 'evolution', as a fundamentalist couple requested in Chapter 9, Oprah and Eckhart kept returning to that term again and again.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Things fall into line when you are in alignment
Wow! Chapter 9 started with a bang & certainly did not end with a whimper. Despite Eckhart appearing again a little under the weather (perhaps the unwanted side-effect of all the fame & attention), Chapter 9 was by any measure the finest program in the series.
With 52 seconds of silent meditation on an Old Testament Bible quotation from the Book of Psalms, Eckhart fires the opening salvo on the recurring theme that has developed in these programs -- integrating contemporary Christianity with direct spiritual experience.
The show has barely started & Eckhart is reminding his audience that many contemporary Christians do not associate silence with their faith & yet for contemplative Christians this has been their principal form of worship for 2 millennia. The silent meditation on Psalms 46:10 immediately followed to prove the point.
There can now be no doubt that Oprah & Eckhart are openly responding to e-mails, Skypers, & callers with the specific purpose of inviting them to integrate their Christianity with the Power of Now.
It's not so much that they took the gloves off with fundamentalists, it's more like they don't care. Both made it clear that A New Earth may not be the book for people who believe the earth is only 6,000 years old.
And even though fundamentalists have accused Oprah on her message boards of being a sinner and a Scientologist, she goes right ahead on the very same program talking about her visit to the Colorado mountain retreat of her friend Tom Cruise -- a vocal Scientologist.
All of this is to say that each of us has to find out what path we are aligned with or as Eckhart taught in this class: "Things fall into line when you are in alignment."
With 52 seconds of silent meditation on an Old Testament Bible quotation from the Book of Psalms, Eckhart fires the opening salvo on the recurring theme that has developed in these programs -- integrating contemporary Christianity with direct spiritual experience.
The show has barely started & Eckhart is reminding his audience that many contemporary Christians do not associate silence with their faith & yet for contemplative Christians this has been their principal form of worship for 2 millennia. The silent meditation on Psalms 46:10 immediately followed to prove the point.
There can now be no doubt that Oprah & Eckhart are openly responding to e-mails, Skypers, & callers with the specific purpose of inviting them to integrate their Christianity with the Power of Now.
It's not so much that they took the gloves off with fundamentalists, it's more like they don't care. Both made it clear that A New Earth may not be the book for people who believe the earth is only 6,000 years old.
And even though fundamentalists have accused Oprah on her message boards of being a sinner and a Scientologist, she goes right ahead on the very same program talking about her visit to the Colorado mountain retreat of her friend Tom Cruise -- a vocal Scientologist.
All of this is to say that each of us has to find out what path we are aligned with or as Eckhart taught in this class: "Things fall into line when you are in alignment."
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Christain protest-fest continues as McCain chooses a Creationist veep
Like Oprah's friend Michael Jordan, folks are publishing books to "be like Eckhart", Oprah's new spiritual friend.
After sitting on book store shelves pretty much unnoticed in 2005, Eckhart's book A New Earth is enjoying a fantastic revival, having sold over 3 million copies this spring during Oprah & Eckhart's joint webcast.
Other spiritual teachers, psychics, mystics--even fundamentalist Christians--are trying to ride the Eckhart phenom to bring attention to themselves, their books, workshops, & teachings.
Fundamentalist Christians have been the most organized & vocal in protesting Eckhart's teachings because he paraphrases Jesus & the Bible often. So it's no surprise that a book called A New Earth An Old Deception: Awakening to the Dangers of Eckhart Tolle's #1 Bestseller just happens to look exactly like the cover of ANE. (How handy for Google search rankings.)
Now that a Creationist vice-presidential nominee is running on the republican ticket, we'll see how that plays out with Oprah's endorsement of Obama. Next week we'll give a report on Palin on the Oprah.com message boards.
Other folks are offering classes, webcasts, even channelings, claiming to facilitate Eckhart's teachings. Their own Google ads sometimes appear in the advertiser column of this blog!
After sitting on book store shelves pretty much unnoticed in 2005, Eckhart's book A New Earth is enjoying a fantastic revival, having sold over 3 million copies this spring during Oprah & Eckhart's joint webcast.
Other spiritual teachers, psychics, mystics--even fundamentalist Christians--are trying to ride the Eckhart phenom to bring attention to themselves, their books, workshops, & teachings.
Fundamentalist Christians have been the most organized & vocal in protesting Eckhart's teachings because he paraphrases Jesus & the Bible often. So it's no surprise that a book called A New Earth An Old Deception: Awakening to the Dangers of Eckhart Tolle's #1 Bestseller just happens to look exactly like the cover of ANE. (How handy for Google search rankings.)
Now that a Creationist vice-presidential nominee is running on the republican ticket, we'll see how that plays out with Oprah's endorsement of Obama. Next week we'll give a report on Palin on the Oprah.com message boards.
Other folks are offering classes, webcasts, even channelings, claiming to facilitate Eckhart's teachings. Their own Google ads sometimes appear in the advertiser column of this blog!
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Timeless Now and Daily Life
Chapter 7 is advertised as the program that will help each of us understand who we really are.
After the opening moment of silence, which has grown to an all time record of 54 seconds, Eckhart leads all of us in an Awareness Meditation. He says that the most fundamental question of your life is knowing who you are and who you are not.
This is also the web cast where Eckhart introduces a wonderful new interpretation of the Christian cross. He explained that the horizontal bar represents daily life and the vertical bar represents spiritual life. The spiritual vertical is the Timeless Now and the daily horizontal brings the stress that comes from "not being in the present moment."
So once again, Eckhart indirectly hammers away at the negative connotations of Original Sin & the Crucifixion by saying "negativity is never a good way of dealing with a situation". You'll see all of this and more in Chapter 7.
After the opening moment of silence, which has grown to an all time record of 54 seconds, Eckhart leads all of us in an Awareness Meditation. He says that the most fundamental question of your life is knowing who you are and who you are not.
This is also the web cast where Eckhart introduces a wonderful new interpretation of the Christian cross. He explained that the horizontal bar represents daily life and the vertical bar represents spiritual life. The spiritual vertical is the Timeless Now and the daily horizontal brings the stress that comes from "not being in the present moment."
So once again, Eckhart indirectly hammers away at the negative connotations of Original Sin & the Crucifixion by saying "negativity is never a good way of dealing with a situation". You'll see all of this and more in Chapter 7.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Breaking Free of the Pain Body
The subject matter for Chapter 6 was "Breaking Free of the Pain Body" & yet a caller from Dubai got into a meaningless dialogue with Tolle about whether she should wait for her boyfriend to commit.
So even though it looks like the Oprah-Eckhart team kind of jumped the groove they had so powerfully settled into there still were some jewels in the media desert. Oprah kicked off the show with a beautiful reading from Eckhart's tiny tome Stillness Speaks.
Despite the thousands of e-mails of protesting Protestants, Eckhart gave a beautiful description of Jesus on the Cross symbolizing humanity's limitations & deep sufferings. He then contrasted that with just the cross symbol by itself symbolizing the Divine. He went on to say that being trapped in Ego = Evil and that another word for Satan is Ego.
Many viewers will agree, but I fear that the fundamentalists have been given even more cannon-fodder. With Sarah Palin the presumptive Republican Vice-Presidential nominee portrayed in the press as "an anti-abortion, pro-creationism, death penalty diva" raised in the Pentecostal Church, fundamentalism has a new entree to confront Oprah's endorsement of Barack Obama. More on that as the story develops.
So even though it looks like the Oprah-Eckhart team kind of jumped the groove they had so powerfully settled into there still were some jewels in the media desert. Oprah kicked off the show with a beautiful reading from Eckhart's tiny tome Stillness Speaks.
Despite the thousands of e-mails of protesting Protestants, Eckhart gave a beautiful description of Jesus on the Cross symbolizing humanity's limitations & deep sufferings. He then contrasted that with just the cross symbol by itself symbolizing the Divine. He went on to say that being trapped in Ego = Evil and that another word for Satan is Ego.
Many viewers will agree, but I fear that the fundamentalists have been given even more cannon-fodder. With Sarah Palin the presumptive Republican Vice-Presidential nominee portrayed in the press as "an anti-abortion, pro-creationism, death penalty diva" raised in the Pentecostal Church, fundamentalism has a new entree to confront Oprah's endorsement of Barack Obama. More on that as the story develops.
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