Who it is for
For readers who want an easily readable approach to presence and to everyday conflicts, without ties to a tradition.
Life and places
- He was born Ulrich Tolle in a town near Dortmund and later lived with his father in Spain. 4
- He studied languages and history at the University of London, began a doctorate at Cambridge and left it after a year, then spent two years in London. 4
- He began to run small group teaching sessions in friends' living rooms, and during a long spell on the west coast of the United States he started to write The Power of Now. 4
- In 2009 he lived in Vancouver with his partner, Kim Eng, who often teaches alongside him. 4
Public context
- His books became bestsellers through Oprah Winfrey from 2002 onwards. 3
Works
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The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Book · 1997 · New World Library
His first book, written largely in question and answer form, about leaving behind identification with the thinking mind and living in the present moment. It became a bestseller after Oprah Winfrey recommended it in 2002.
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A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Book · 2005 · Dutton; paperback Penguin
His second main book. It describes how identification with the ego leads to conflict and suffering, in the individual and in society, and how recognising it can begin a shift in consciousness. Oprah's Book Club chose it in 2008 and again in 2025.
The short summaries are ours.
In their own words
Short passages in the words of Eckhart Tolle, each with its source. Where the quoted text is not in the language of this page, a translation follows and says whose it is.
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When you recognize the unconsciousness in you, that which makes the recognition possible is the arising consciousness, is awakening. You cannot fight against darkness. The light of consciousness is all that is necessary. You are that light.
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose · Chapter 1, The Flowering of Human Consciousness: The Purpose of This Book, last paragraph (publisher's excerpt) · penguinrandomhouse.com -
When I talk about intense Presence, it has nothing to do with closing yourself to the other person, shutting down – this is energetically completely different.
The Painbody: Endure it or Walk Away? · Fourth paragraph of his answer · eckharttolle.com Recorded: Question and answer published on his website by Eckhart Teachings; whether it was transcribed from a talk or written is not stated. -
Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now
Interview with Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, 11 April 2009, paragraph beginning “The intention of The Power of Now” · theguardian.com Recorded: Spoken in an interview with the journalist Oliver Burkeman, who quotes him in The Guardian.
Documented teaching relationships
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Acknowledges a work by Deva Premal
Eckhart Tolle’s own shop includes music by Deva Premal in The Quieting the Mind Collection. What is documented is the selection of her music.
Self-reported · shop.eckharttolle.com
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Personal encounter with Ram Dass
Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle held a public conversation in Maui, Hawaii, in 2011, hosted by Tami Simon of Sounds True; it was their first time on stage together.
Stated by an institution · integralyogamagazine.org , mindfulnessexercises.com
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Acknowledges a work by Gangaji
Eckhart Tolle wrote the foreword to Gangaji's book The Diamond in Your Pocket; the publisher Sounds True quotes from it.
Stated by an institution · soundstrue.com
Teaching relationships are documented statements. They confer no trust and do not attest realisation.
Sources
- The Painbody: Endure it or Walk Away? His own written teaching dialogue, with commercial offers on the same page accessed 10 Oct 2026
- A New Earth · Penguin Random House Publisher's page with the opening of the book as an excerpt, the dates of the editions and the ISBN accessed 10 Oct 2026
- The Power of Oprah · Publishers Weekly, 16 December 2002 Trade press; sales figures of The Power of Now from the publisher accessed 10 Oct 2026
- The bedsit epiphany · Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, 11 April 2009 Newspaper interview at his home in Vancouver; his own account of his life with the journalist's observations, including on the marketing of his teaching accessed 10 Oct 2026
Compiled by us from the sources listed. Last checked 11 Oct 2026.
E-mails about gatherings with Eckhart Tolle: coming soon.