Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama and Ken Robinson at Vancouver. Photo by kris krüg. Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle is widely regarded as one of the world’s most inspiring and visionary spiritual teachers. He has introduced millions to the joy and freedom of living life in the present moment through his international bestsellers: The Power of Now and A New Earth, which have been translated into 52 languages.

According to the New York Times, he is “the most popular spiritual author in the United States,” and Watkins Review named him “the most spiritually influential person in the world” in 2011.

Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have assisted countless people all over the world in experiencing a vibrantly alive inner peace in their daily lives. His teachings emphasize the importance and power of Presence, an awakened state of consciousness that transcends ego and discursive thinking. Eckhart considers this awakening to be the critical next step in human evolution.

1. Eckhart Tolle had a difficult childhood

Boy playing in sand. Photo by Fermin Rodriguez Penelas. Unsplash

His childhood was filled with anxiety and fear because he was raised in a dysfunctional household where his parents were constantly at odds. He moved in with his father, who was based in Spain, after his parents divorced.

2. Eckhart was acutely depressed

Letters- forming the word depression. Photo by Nick Fewings. Unsplash

He lacked a sense of purpose in his life and was constantly afraid and insecure about his future and existence. Eckhart Tolle has admitted to feeling suicidal as a result of his intense anxiety.

Eckhart awoke one night in a tremendous state of anxiety, feeling acutely depressed and his mind racing with fearful thoughts about life. In this state of agony, he felt thoughts moving through him that said, “This is enough, I can’t stand it any longer, I can’t live like this, I can’t live with myself.” At that point, an inner voice asked, “If there is a ‘I’ and a’myself,’ then there are two entities, and only one of them can be true.”

His mind abruptly stopped, and he felt himself being dragged into an inner void, where he fell unconscious. He awoke the next morning in complete peace and stillness. Everything felt likeable and joyful to his senses, and he felt complete bliss within himself.

He didn’t understand why he felt so peaceful, and it wasn’t until years later, after spending time in monasteries and with other spiritual teachers, that he intellectually understood that he had experienced “mind freedom.”

3. Eckhart was a spiritual teacher

In the years since, Eckhart become a spiritual teacher and the author of books such as “The Power of Now” and “The New Earth,” both of which have sold millions of copies.

These books are extremely transformative and have the power to awaken anyone who truly understands their essence. These books, according to Eckhart, arose from “stillness” rather than the conditioned mind.

4. He’s a very reserved person

Eckhart is a very humble and “reserved” person who enjoys spending time alone in solitude. He adores nature and is well-known for recommending it as the best spiritual teacher.

Many people wonder if Eckhart Tolle is married, and the answer is yes. He married a woman named Kim Eng, whom he met in 1995 while working as a spiritual teacher and writing his book.

5. Eckhart refused to attend school as a teenager

He was born into an unhappy marriage between a fiery mother and an eccentric journalist father. He disliked going to school because of the hostility of the teachers and other students. Instead of going to school, he would ride his bike to the woods and sit in the middle of nature.

 Following his parents’ divorce, his mother sent him to live in Spain with his father, who was content to let his son school himself. He went on to study literature and eventually became trilingual, speaking English, German, and Spanish.

Formal education followed. He was a Ph.D. student in London by 1979, and a neurotic, suicidal mess. And then, one morning, he wasn’t. He was reborn, like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol or Paul on the road to Damascus. When he was 29, he went through this inner transformation from being depressed and basically insane—normally insane—to suddenly feeling a sense of underlying peace.

6. Eckhart Tolle’s book was chosen by Oprah Winfrey’s book club

Oprah Winfrey. Photo by INTX: The Internet & Television Expo. Wikimedia Commons

The remarkable spiritual teacher whose book Oprah calls “the most important she’s ever chosen for her book club” explains how to break free from the tyranny of the past, live more fully in the present, and arrive at the calm, joyful place where intuition, creativity, and wisdom live and breathe.

After Oprah interviewed Meg Ryan, she mentioned Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. It’s one of the most transformative books she’s ever read. She carries a copy with her everywhere she goes, flipping through its highlighted pages over and over.

7. Eckhart Tolle’s birth name is Ullrich

Eckhart Tolle in a brown jacket. Photo by Saffarelli. Wikimedia Commons

Eckhart Tolle born Ulrich Leonard Tölle. In honor of German theologian Meister Eckhart, he officially changed his name to “Eckhart.”

8. Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany

German national flag. Photo from Unsplash

Ulrich Leonard Tölle was born in 1948 in Lünen, a small town north of Dortmund in Germany’s Ruhr region. 

He moved to Spain at the age of 13 to live with his father, who did not insist on him attending high school, so Tolle chose to study literature, astronomy, and languages at home.

At the age of 15, he was “heavily influenced” by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken’s gift of five spiritual books. 

9. He taught at a language school in London

Tolle moved to England at the age of 19 and taught German and Spanish at a language school in London for three years.  In 1977, he completed a postgraduate course at the University of Cambridge after graduating from the University of London. 

10. Eckhart Tolle abandoned his doctrate

Eckhart had been studying for a doctorate, but he dropped out and spent the next two years sitting on Russell Square park benches, blissfully “watching the world go by.”