Stillness Speaks Quotes

“Throughout history humans have inflicted countless violent, cruel, and hurtful acts on each other, and continue to do so. Are they all to be condemned; are they all guilty? Or are those acts simply expressions of unconsciousness, an evolutionary stage that we are now growing out of?

Jesus’ words, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do,” also apply to yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Whenever any kind of deep loss occurs in your life — such as loss of possessions, your home, a close relationship; or loss of your reputation, job, or physical abilities — something inside you dies. You feel diminished in your sense of who you are. There may also be a certain disorientation. “Without this...who am I?” When a form that you had unconsciously identified with as part of yourself leaves you or dissolves, that can be extremely painful. It leaves a hole, so to speak, in the fabric of your existence. When this happens, don't deny or ignore the pain or the sadness that you feel. Accept that it is there. Beware of your mind's tendency to construct a story around that loss in which you are assigned the role of victim. Fear, anger, resentment, or self-pity are the emotions that go with that role. Then become aware of what lies behind those emotions as well as behind the mind-made story: that hole, that empty space. Can you face and accept that strange sense of emptiness? If you do, you may find that it is no longer a fearful place. You may be surprised to find peace emanating from it. Whenever death occurs, whenever a life form dissolves, God, the formless and unmanifested, shines through the opening left by the dissolving form. That is why the most sacred thing in life is death. That is why the peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance of death.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Surrender comes when you no longer ask, “Why is this happening to me?”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“All artists, whether they know it or not create from a place of inner stillness, a place of no mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life. Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this? Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Jesus’ words, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do,” also apply to yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Whenever you are immersed in compulsive thinking, you are avoiding what is. You don't want to be where you are. Here, Now.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does. With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion, peace. The ego doesn't like to hear this, because if it cannot be reactive and righteous anymore, it will lose strength.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“The playfulness and joy of a dog, its unconditional love and readiness to celebrate life at any moment often contrast sharply with the inner state of the dog's owner — depressed, anxious, burdened by problems, lost in thought, not present in the only place and only time there is: Here and Now. One wonders: living with this person, how does the dog manage to remain so sane, so joyous?”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“You discover that a “bored person” is not who you are. Boredom is simply a conditioned energy movement within you. Neither are you an angry, sad, or fearful person. Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not “yours,” not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“To know another human being in their essence, you don't really need to know anything about them — their past, their history, their story.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“There is something that matters more than any of those things and that is finding the essence of who you are beyond that short-lived entity, that short-lived personalized sense of self. You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Built into the very structure of the egoic self is a need to oppose, resist, and exclude to maintain the sense of separateness on which its continued survival depends. So there is “me” against the “other,” “us” against “them.” The ego needs to be in conflict with something or someone. That explains why you are looking for peace and joy and love but cannot tolerate them for very long. You say you want happiness but are addicted to your unhappiness. Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Become at ease with the state of “not knowing.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“The truth is: you don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or a blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy. Can you sense deep within that you already know that? Can you sense that you already are That?”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“A moment of danger can bring about a temporary cessation of the stream of thinking and thus give you a taste of what it means to be present, alert, aware.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not “yours,” not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that every day takes up most of your attention? A dash — one or two inches long, between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone. To the egoic self, this is a depressing thought. To you, it is liberating.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“How easy it is for people to become trapped in their conceptual prisons. The human mind, in its desire to know, understand, and control, mistakes its opinions and viewpoints for the truth. It says: this is how it is. You have to be larger than thought to realize that however you interpret “your life” or someone else's life or behavior, however you judge any situation, it is no more than a viewpoint, one of many possible perspectives. It is no more than a bundle of thoughts. But reality is one unified whole, in which all things are interwoven, where nothing exists in and by itself. Thinking fragments reality — it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces. The thinking mind is a useful and powerful tool, but it is also very limiting when it takes over your life completely, when you don't realize that it is only a small aspect of the consciousness that you are.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

“What it doesn't say — but only points to — is more important than what it says.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks