Conscious Event ~ Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle & Wayne Dyer In Hawaii
Starting this Friday, October 28th, 2011, spiritual teachers/authors Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, and Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., will be in Maui, Hawaii “conversing” and leading a spiritual retreat.
For those of us who cannot make it over to Maui, there will be three events live-streamed including; A Dialogue with Ram Dass & Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer & Eckhart Tolle in Conversation, and A Retreat with Eckhart Tolle (Tuesday-Thursday). The price for the two talks are $19.95 USD for live-stream, and $99.95 USD for Eckhart Tolle’s Retreat. Kim Eng (Tolle’s wife,) is participating as well, leading her trademark “Presence through movement” retreat for three days.
I’ll definitely be tuning in for as much as I can. Particularly interested to hear the conversations between Tolle, Dyer, and Dass.
Visit Eckhart Tolle’s website to learn more about purchasing tickets.
Photo Courtesy of Eckhart Tolle TV
Contemporary Spiritual Teacher Series ~ Eckhart Tolle
Biography:
Eckhart Tolle was born Ulrich Tolle in Germany in 1948. He often speaks of the pain he suffered emotionally during his childhood, growing up in a home with parents who constantly argued. He has also revealed that he often thought of suicide from the young age of 9 or 10.
He stopped attending school at the age of 13, as he found the environment “too hostile,” and was sent to live with his father in Spain. From this point he moved on to England where he attended university and had a promising career as a scholar. He suffered a deep depression and as he revealed in The Power of Now, at the age of 29 he experienced an inner transformation.
He revealed that he awoke one evening and experienced a feeling of “complete dread.” He felt something overcome his body, and heard the words “resist nothing.” He succumbed to the feelings and has no recollection of what happened next. He awoke the next morning and saw everything in a new way. He has said that the next five months he lived in a state of “complete bliss.” He eventually learned that his great suffering caused his body to separate itself from his “ego” which is the basis of his teachings.
Tolle began teaching small groups and received many questions, which he then turned into The Power of Now. Eventually he was compelled to write the follow up A New Earth which was featured in Oprah’s Book Club and catapulted Tolle into the spotlight.
Tolle now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife, Kim Eng. The two met in 1998 at one of Tolle’s retreats and now work together teaching Tolle’s practices, with Eng focusing on Presence in Movement. This past March Tolle was given the #1 spot on the Most Spiritually Influential Living People list by the Watkins Review.
Teachings:
Tolle’s teaching bases around the concept that we are not our minds and if we live in only in the now, will cannot have anything to be unhappy about. Our minds are a separate entity from our “essence,” and there is no time other than the present moment. He coined the term “painbody” which is the collection of all of our past painful experiences.
The pain-body is responsible for all discord in our lives, as it feeds our Ego. Tolle says that our Ego’s are not our true selves, and if we can dissolve our pain-bodies/Ego’s by becoming the space between our thoughts and our essence, than we can live in a state of peace and true happiness.
In addition to our own pain-bodies, Tolle says that there are also “collective pain-bodies” which are passed down from generation to generation and through cultures.
Quote:
Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
Website/Other Notable Links:
Source: Oprah’s Webcast / WikiCommons / A New Earth / The Power of Now
