r/EckhartTolle

A subject in deep trance had gone through a big spiritual awakening, but there was also a lot of pain around it.

At one point she connected with what she described as council of light. And the message became very simple: pain body had enough attention already.

Stop feeding it.

That phrase stayed with me because it is so close to Eckhart Tolle.

It was not "pretend nothing bad happened." The pain was real. But she had started carrying it forward as identity, almost showing the world from the pain first.

The guidance was very ordinary after that. Sun. Water. Nature. Body. Joy. When you speak, speak from what is alive now, not automatically from old pain because old pain is familiar.

This is something I notice in myself too. Pain body doesnt only wake when something huge happens.

Sometimes it wakes because somebody sends one annoying message and suddenly mind has 17 arguments ready.

Or one person disappoints us and now every old disappointment joins the meeting.

Then we feed it with thinking.

Replay conversation. Imagine next conversation. Explain ourselves to somebody who is not even there. Check phone. Check again. Build whole court case in the head.

For me practical Tolle exercise is very simple.

When you feel pain body wake up, dont immediately act.

Dont send message yet.

Feel feet. Feel chest. Feel breathing. Look at one real object in room. Listen to one sound.

Give body one minute without story.

Then ask: what is actually happening NOW?

Not what happened 10 years ago. Not what this "always means." Not what they will probably do tomorrow.

Now.

Sometimes action is still needed. Boundary. Conversation. Leaving situation. Whatever.

But now action comes from clearer place, not from pain body looking for more food.

Yesterday already ate enough.

Just a simple question. Thank you :)

Why?

I understand that creating distance between the observer and the one experiencing can relieve pain and the stress of our internal (and physical) world and, but I feel like (my conflict on the matter) observing everything creates a non human living experience that's too objective. Are we not emotional beings?

DMT/Changa made me transcend death I became aware of the afterlife I literally ascended to the actual heavens of consciousness I have no words, I felt like I died and realized there will never be death because life itself is a hallucination it’s not real in the first place, it happens within your heart or within God you could say, it’s an infinite awareness power, we were never bodies we were always that power from a dimension beyond and DMT allows you to become aware of that dimension that which allows you to understand life, death and the afterlife very simply since you just experience it it’s like we are meant and all have the capacity and capability for it it’s natural we are just misled, I don’t even know if we need drugs for it just the right people who experienced it and to share the experience that itself might even work honestly but yea the DMT helps more than anything could I feel, anyway I felt literally back home where there is absolutely no fear and absolute complete eternal bliss that is beyond all imagination. I feel like this life is extremely limited and a very weird claustrophobic version of life, true reality is immediate, this world makes no sense, it’s like I am God in a world that’s literally just born like why do we need to walk and go to buy stuff and pick stuff up and do stuff it should all be happening within the consciousness automatically and it’s an actual possibility once you experience ego death and expansion so big that life itself with how amazing it appears becomes literally like a sandbox game of very low quality and very low capabilities, like the video game is barely interactive everything needs to be done rather than just be happening it’s way too weird it’s a true hallucination I feel like in an old ass game or something and I am compared to it and all of its dimensions and existence am a literal all powerful all knowing God just nothing can come even close to my imagination and what is actually possible, bro I felt smart before but now I feel like I am actually visibly seeing the state of evolution we are apparently in and how absolutely ‘old’ it is, its like I know in my heart and consciousness what is truly possible and I’m looking at this world and I’m like man what the hell am I actually watching hahaha!? It’s like I am an alien from not just the future, but from another actual dimension and I have entered this hallucination/game of life and I am seeing it clearly, In a moment I feel like I am actually gonna simply warp reality by the power of my consciousness because I start seeing the background of life and the actual infinite possibilities beyond the daily limitations of our consciousness, I feel like even speaking and even telepathy is ‘lowly’ and a waste of potential, like there is an infinity to anything so just imagine if we are infinite and infinity and God himself to be aware of this limited suffering world is truly insane, idk I feel like truly I am seeing the real potential of pure consciousness and it’s like telling me ‘bro everything you can imagine and more could be yours’ but we need to do something, if we were all aware of this possibility I feel like reality would rearrange itself by the power of consciousness without even having to do anything because we are truly God

The great secret that lies at the heart of all the main religious and spiritual traditions is the understanding that the peace and happiness for which all people long can never be delivered via objective experience. It can only be found in our self, in the depths of our being.👁

I recently read about someone who met Eckart Tolle and apparently ET was non-stop talking about Bundesliga - which is the primary german soccer league (Eckart Tolle is german).

Can this be true ? Lol, I would not have expected ET to be invested in watching sports ? That was definitely not on my bingo card for 2026

The Non-Dual Message of Jesus...

It is one thing to be part of "the Way" and follow Jesus, the Nazarene, and a very different thing to be a Christian and not follow Him. The paradox is that many who claim to be Christians neither follow Jesus nor truly belong to the Way. Meanwhile, others who do not even consider themselves Christians, whether they are atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, or whether they belong to a religion or not, are indeed part of the Way and do follow Him.

Jesus Himself said that His disciples would be recognized by the LOVE they have for one another (John 13:35), not by the labels they put on themselves (whether Christian, Catholic, and so on).

"The madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila) loves labels, using them to feed the character (the ego) in this play and illusion of separation that we wrongly call life. This is what Eckhart Tolle describes as the conceptual ego, a dysfunctional fiction created by the unobserved mind that mistakes its own mental noise for the reality of Being. Yet, what we truly are lies far beyond the mind and its labels, which divide us and alienate us from our True Self. As the scriptures echo, there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, for we are all one (Galatians 3:28), and Christ is all, and is in all (Colossians 3:11).

We are, Here and Now, One with God, the All, with the One who is LOVE Himself, as you wish to call Him, and with all His creatures. In the silent spaciousness of inner stillness we are called to surrender and to quiet our minds, because we must be empty of everything that is not God in order to know that He is God (Psalm 46:10 / Vulgate 45:11). As the mystic Meister Eckhart famously prayed, "I pray to God to rid me of God," urging us to empty ourselves of our own limited ideas, mental idols, and human constructs. The Divine Reality is not an object to be possessed, but the pure space that remains when the madwoman of the house is silenced, and we let thoughts and emotions fall away like withered leaves. As Tolle frequently reminds us, we are not the fleeting thoughts or the passing emotions; we are the vast, silent background of Awareness in which they arise and dissolve.

Beyond the potential manipulations of human structures and written dogmas, these words simply point to what the heart already knows by direct experience: we are One with and in the One Who is LOVE itself, which means with the Father, just as Jesus was. Truly, there is no separation or distance between lover and Beloved; truly, there never was. This absolute union is perfectly captured in the Intimate Diaries of Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos, recorded in the biography written by his spiritual director Father Juan de Loyola, when the Lord intimately declared to him, "From now on, you are Bernardo of Jesus and I am Jesus of Bernardo." Remember, we are One with and in the One Who is LOVE Himself...

Precisely, as the mystic John of the Cross rightly points out, recalling what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-46: "In the evening of life, we shall be judged on LOVE."

It is LOVE; nothing else matters.

God is LOVE, and whoever does not know LOVE does not know God (1 John 4:8).

If we want to be one with Him, just as He is One with the Father (John 17:21), we must be one with LOVE. As Tolle points out, True Love can only flourish in the absolute Presence of the Now, where the mind's illusions of past and future crumble.

In the spaciousness of Presence, Here and Now, you realize that LOVE is the true frequency of God. Do not lose yourself in the play of illusions. Wake up to the vastness of who you are, anchor yourself in the Now, and let the fire of Love consume every fear. As Eckhart Tolle says, "Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you."

Note: The churches, as institutions created by the madwoman of the house, have tried to silence all those who had a direct experience of Him. As happened to the mystic Marguerite Porete, author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, who was burned at the stake by the devout members of the Inquisition. Her only "heresy" was to remind us that the soul must dissolve its own character and will to merge completely into the ocean of Divine Love, where there is no longer any separation. And as happened to so many persecuted and silenced mystics like Meister Eckhart. This reminds us, as the saint of gentleness Francis de Sales warns in his Introduction to the Devout Life, that "one can be very devout and yet very wicked." We should remain confident in LOVE, who is deeply within, beyond the mind and the illussion of separation.

Just saw this video in my feed that criticise Ekchart Tolle teachings when it comes to people who dont have their lower needs security in Maslov hierarchy met. What do you think?

For the past month, after one night of waking up scared of vomiting at night (I wasn't sick, it was a trick of the mind) I have had a looming dread, it isn't even about vomiting anymore, I have ben trying to practice presence even before this but now it seems to almost scare me, what do I do?

A specific Eckhart Tolle teaching popped up on my YouTube feed last night that I watched, and I must say, it really spoke to me. It was possibly a voice narration from one of his books — it wasn’t an actual live talk or seminar but rather just him talking — but it resonated very deeply within me, to the point where I felt much more “OK” and “complete” as is afterwards.

The talk was a basic teaching on simply not identifying with thoughts and thinking — much like the numerous other talks that he has given on the subject. But for some reason, this particular talk resonated deeply within me.

And it came at the right time, because I struggle with not identifying with my thoughts and thinking; I too often get sucked into the deluded belief that my thoughts/thinking are synonymous with “Me” or “I” — or my conceptual Me or I. To truly understand that I am simply presence and/or awareness is life changing; it’s incredibly freeing and liberating.

I have suffered immensely, however, because my conditioned mind is often times filled with ugly, judgmental, nasty, or mean-spirited thoughts — and to see myself or my essence as being defined by my mind activity is horrible: after all, if my mind and thinking are a mess, then, logically, I, too, must be a mess!

But I can see how deluded that is. Yes, I have mental tendencies and habits that were honed over time that can be unwholesome, ugly, rude, or simply weird — but that’s all simply baggage that I’ve accumulated over time for different reasons. I can witness all that and be aware of it without believing that any of it defines or represents “Me” in any way. I can better see now how much freedom I have as a person, how much agency and flexibility I have to go any number of different ways in life, regardless of whatever my brain may be doing at any given moment.

I can use my rational, logical mind to navigate through life without being pulled astray or misled by ingrained, habitual thought patterns and reactions. I can also see how I can instead operate and think and respond out of simple presence/awareness, knowing full well that I don’t have to follow along with any mental chatter or habitual thought responses or reactions that pop up in any given situation. Pure presence is bright, luminous, and warm/loving — and I can root myself in that and let that be the base from which I respond and navigate daily life.

That’s all I have. I just felt like sharing. I’ve been suffering greatly for quite sometime now, but yesterday after listening to Eckhart I experienced a sort of awakening or intense realization, perhaps, more so than I had at any previous time listening to any of his talks.

I've had feedback from a partner that I am very guarded, especially around his friends and people I don't know, and this is causing strain on our relationship.

I know it's a part and it's a part that shuts down when it feels like it may be rejected or not accepted, it's a little dissociative and stops me from feeling free and being myself.

It's something I've already been working on, but now it's been pointed out I'm having a lot of shame around it. The part that was created to stop me being rejected has caused me to essentially be rejected.

Are there any podcasts/audiobooks or talks about grounding yourself in self/adult energy and operating from the heart? Being genuine and authentic and staying open?

Thanks!

I’ve been building YeshiAI, an AI-powered platform designed to support people’s daily spiritual practice across Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Universal Spirituality.

One thing became obvious pretty quickly:
You can’t just build one generic “religious AI.”

A Catholic and an Orthodox Christian may approach certain practices differently. The same applies to Sunni, Shia and Sufi Muslims; Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews; or Theravāda, Zen and Tibetan Buddhists.

So instead of treating each religion as one category, I started building YeshiAI around both the user’s religion and their specific tradition.

Depending on the path, it includes things like:
• AI spiritual companion
• Prayer and daily practices
• Journaling and reflection
• Daily wisdom and mood cards
• Scripture/study resources
• Spiritual growth tracking
• Tradition-specific experiences

But there’s a bigger question I’ve been thinking about while building it:

Where should AI stop when it comes to spirituality?

I don’t think AI should replace priests, pastors, imams, rabbis, teachers, sanghas, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, or real human community.

I’m trying to build it as a tool that supports the person practicing their faith or spiritual path, rather than an AI pretending to be a spiritual authority.

I’m still building and improving it, so I’d genuinely like some outside opinions.

Would you use something like this?

And more importantly: what would an AI spiritual companion have to get right before you would trust it?

YeshiAI: Prayer, Journaling, Study & Spiritual Growth with AI

YeshiAI: yeshi.ai

✝️Christianity: https://yeshi.ai/christianity
☪️Islam: https://yeshi.ai/islam
✡️Judaism: https://yeshi.ai/judaism
☸️Buddhism: https://yeshi.ai/buddhism
🧘‍♂️Universal Spirituality: https://yeshi.ai/spirituality

Would love criticism too. That’s more useful to me right now than compliments.

This came from a different spiritual framework, not from Eckhart Tolle, but it reminded me strongly of his distinction between awareness and compulsive thought. Years ago I was the subject in a deep session and asked about a relationship that was teaching me a lot, not always comfortably.

I expected some complicated spiritual answer about soul contracts, karma, past lives, maybe detailed instructions about what to say or what the other person needed to change. Instead one piece of guidance stayed with me because it was painfully practical: practice the pause. The explanation was simple — when your mind tells you something, do not follow it immediately. Pause and don't become automatic.

Honestly this might be one of most useful relationship teachings I got from any spiritual work, because most damage in relationships does not happen during the first emotion. It happens in the next 30 seconds. Something is said, body reacts, and mind instantly builds a story: she doesn't respect me, he always does this, I need to correct this now, this means the whole relationship is wrong, I have to defend myself. Then mouth joins the meeting before awareness or even basic common sense has arrived.

The guidance was not to become passive or tolerate everything. It was about putting a small space between trigger and action, enough space to notice what I'm feeling, what story mind created, whether I actually need to respond now, and whether the response is coming from love, fear, pride, old hurt or just need to win.

That small pause changes the whole architecture. Without it, the other person presses button and your old programming answers. With it, you have choice. This is where it reminds me of Tolle: the thought still appears, but there is awareness of the thought, and you do not have to become it immediately.

Another part of the guidance was interesting too. The lesson was not “teach the other person how to behave.” It was more like: teach by being. Stay respectful, stay gentle, be patient, and show what presence looks like instead of giving lectures about it. This is much harder than spiritual theory because it has to survive an actual Tuesday evening when both people are tired.

I also think people misunderstand “follow intuition” here. The first impulse is not automatically intuition. Sometimes it is nervous system, sometimes anger, sometimes old fear speaking incredibly fast. Clean guidance for me usually has different quality — less frantic and less interested in winning.

So now I think of the pause almost like opening a door. Trigger happens, human mind arrives first because it is fast, but I don't have to let it drive immediately. Give everything else ten seconds to catch up, maybe twenty, sometimes ten minutes, then decide.

Very unglamorous spiritual practice, but also very effective. Curious if others here use something similar in conflict — a deliberate pause before identifying with the first thought.

Hey everyone. I recently started reading The Power of Now at a friend's suggestion. Long story short, we got close and tried to start something romantic, but since he just got out of a long-term relationship, he pumped the brakes and said he only wanted to be friends because he's "wary of emotional attachments."

A little while later, I brought up my feelings again. He reacted pretty abruptly, telling me he definitely didn't want a relationship. Afterward, he texted an apology for being so curt and blamed his reaction on his "pain-body," referencing Eckhart Tolle's teachings.

I’m really confused about what he was trying to say here. What actually is a "pain-body" in this context, and how does it apply to someone pulling away from a relationship due to past baggage? Is this a legit concept from the book or kind of a cop-out?
I honestly hate that I'm spending time researching this after getting turned down, and I don't want to go down a massive rabbit hole. But the main reason I'm trying to figure it out is because the next time we saw each other, I gave him some distance—figuring that's what he wanted—and he actually seemed upset by it.

I feel like I missed something he was trying to communicate with the whole pain-body thing, and I just want to understand so I can be a good friend. If anyone familiar with Tolle's work has any insights, I'd really appreciate it.

Hello everyone.

I discovered "The Power of Now" at the beginning of the year through reading one of the posts on Reddit. I must admit that this book has significantly impacted the way I perceive the world and has definitely lifted the mental burden I was carrying before, thus making my life feel so much "lighter".

At the beginning of my journey I was able to achieve a state where I was so happy and loved every second of my life. Wow, that was amazing. I struggle to achieve that today, because as soon as I focus on being present by listening, watching, and feeling the environment I am currently in, the ego appears with thoughts about people from the past, making me mad, paranoid, or willing to take revenge. I especially notice it when I'm at home next to my neighbor who is one of these people. Every other time, I try to switch my focus to something positive, but the cycle repeats itself.

I don't know if this is just my weakness of being present "muscle" or I resist the present moment in some way. Did anyone go through that process? How do you stay present for as long as possible without negative thoughts?

I’m struggling with a situation involving a coworker who has become very attached to me, and I’m not sure how to create some distance without making any arguments or drama.

I suspect she may have some anxious attachment tendencies (?). She told me that her parents divorced when she was young, so she had to go back and forth between their homes.

She suddenly became much closer to me earlier this year. The turning point was when some coworkers and I went out drinking, and she opened up about her breakup (She is always willing to share her private life stories with us). Around the same time, I talked about some difficulties I was having with my apartment. I think she felt that we had something in common because I was lonely at that time.

After that, she started inviting me to her home and even to her family events, and we gradually began seeing each other more and more. At one point, I realized we were seeing each other more than three times a week.

At first, I didn’t really mind. It wasn’t interfering with my life, and I enjoyed spending time with her and her family. But over time, I started feeling like she was becoming overly attached to me.

For example, I went on a date with a guy I met on a dating app, and I didn’t mention it to her (I mean, I don't even think about sharing this with her). The next day, she texted me something like 'why didn't I know about it?"

Another time, I had some friends over at my place for a party and didn’t invite her. The following week, she had her own party and invited some of our other coworkers, but deliberately didn’t invite me.

I feel like she needs me mainly to fill a sense of loneliness rather than because she genuinely wants to have a healthy friendship with me.

I’ve actually encouraged her several times to build a life outside of work and outside of me. I’ve suggested that she spend more time with friends outside our workplace, join a running club, or find hobbies where she can meet new people.

What really made me start pulling away, though, was the feeling that she was trying to control me and would somehow “punish” me when I did something outside of her control.

For example, if I spend a weekend with other friends without her, she may suddenly stop inviting me to lunch at work.

I work alone in an office, so I usually have lunch with her team. She knows this. When she wants to spend time with me, she’ll invite me to lunch, but when she’s upset with me, she won’t invite me.

There is actually another part of this situation that makes me think this may be a recurring pattern for her.

Before she became close to me, she was very close to a male coworker from India. After she became closer to me, she started distancing herself from him. She began telling me that he was strange and that he was too attached to her.

So, she becomes very close to someone, the relationship becomes intense, and then when another person enters her life, she starts distancing herself from the previous person. I suspect that eventually I may become the next person she distances herself from when someone new comes along (which is totally okay for me)

But, in counter of this kinds of attitudes or ego, how do I remain peaceful and present instead of getting caught up in the needs of her ego?

How would Eckhart Tolle approach this? How can I observe this pattern without becoming emotionally invested in it, while still taking care of my own boundaries?