You wrote a simple little article with a lot to think about. Good work!
For the last 60 years I have contemplated the meaning of life. In the past ten years I became serious about it and then something changed — a shift if you will. So now I listen to others and it is immediately clear to me whether they "get it" or not. Tolle doesn't get it. He is rehashing New Age ideas and repeating what he has heard from enlightened people like Krishnamurti, Nisargadatta, Ramana, and the others. This does not mean that Tolle is a bad person, but he is not what he pretends to be. On the other hand, he delivers what most people want, which is not to be awake but rather just to have a more peaceful, calmer, and less stressful life with a dash of purpose. When Tolle suggests, as he's done, that people outside of his auditorium do not have the same higher consciousness as those who have come to sit in front of him, then a light should go on in your head, because it smacks of a lack of true perception.
The Truth is quite simple: We suffer (and cause suffering) because of the egoic self that is the result of psychological conditioning, and behind this self is consciousness, which is the undivided whole of existence; and even behind this is something else to be apprehended in some inexplicable way. What more can be said?
When we simply learn about such things there is no transformation, no realization. It is only when we can actually see it for what it is that the separation between the seer and the seen becomes nonexistent. Tolle doesn't get it, to be sure, so it's really a matter of what someone wants and whether they have the energy and interest to attend to it. Listening to Tolle, or anyone else, and trying to understand him with the same mind that has fragmented itself from the totality of consciousness will never culminate into a realization beyond the self.
Tolle uses all the familiar buzz words and phrases, enough to convince others that he is the real deal. He speaks of duality, consciousness, the now, and other things that anyone can learn if they pay attention. But when you actually have the realization that is required for the duality to be known, it becomes obvious that Tolle has a long way to go beyond providing comfort and entertainment for people in fear and suffering.
I spent years explaining concepts such as the self and consciousness in my books, but I am the first to say that this is only information. You have to find out for yourself whether it is true, and you have to have an epiphany of sorts. No one, no matter if it is the Dalai Lama, Tolle, or Ramana Maharshi, can do this on your behalf. This is your life and you can only see for yourself. Your own journey into the self must begin with a clear idea of what you want.
I am sure there are people who will take offense with what I wrote here, because this is always what happens when you are honest. I don't have any animosity for Tolle or condemn his small fortune. My only message is that one must know what he/she wants and must have a realization for him/herself. A true awakened guru must guide others back to themselves and not lecture them or tell them what reality is. Your life is your own and you may question why you would want to simply accept the words and teachings of others as truth, because this would mean you are living their lives through their ideas and experiences.
