Stillness Speaks

The essence of Eckhart Tolle's message is easy to grasp: If we connect to the stillness within, we move beyond our active minds and emotions and discover great depths of lasting peace, contentment, and serenity. Tolle gives us the essence of his teaching in short, simple pieces, drawing from the essence of all spiritual traditions and expressing these truths in startlingly fresh ways.

I have called the Power of Now the best self-help book ever and have listened to it over a hundred times. I always hear something new because my ego feels threatened and doesn't want me to learn this stuff.

My ego almost fooled me once again when I first listened to Stillness Speaks. It said to me "Eckhart is just rehashing stuff in aphorisms". But soon I found that there is much richness and wisdom to be mined here and if I can just take the principles to heart and start practicing them I might very well achieve inner peace in this lifetime. The deeper truth about this work is that it is divinely inspired and is of incredible depth and value.

What we do with this priceless gift is up to us.


Words that point beyond words   November 11, 2003
 54 out of 57 found this review helpful

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The fact that this book stirs up controversy speaks of its real power, and the power of any teaching that goes beyond the narrow range of our human expectations.

In the Introduction, Tolle says, "If you come to a spiritual teacher - or this book - looking for stimulating ideas, theories, beliefs, intellectual discussions, then you will be disappointed. In other words, if you are looking for food for thought, you won't find it, and you will miss the very essence of the teaching, the essence of this book, which is not in the words but within yourself."

And later, "Allow the book to do its work, to awaken you from the old grooves of your repetitive and conditioned thinking."

"This book, of course, uses words.... the thoughts within this book don't say 'Look at me.' but 'Look beyond me.' Because the thoughts came out of stillness, they have power -- the power to take you back into the same stillness from which they arose."

I have nothing to add to this clarity.


Stillness Speaks Clearly   November 15, 2003
 141 out of 158 found this review helpful

Destined to be a classic in the non-dualist tradition, Stillness Speaks is a modern day manifestation of Eternal Truth in book form. Here E.Tolle has presented us with the very living heart of his timeless realization: we can't think our way out of the human dilemma, indeed thought itself is the great stumbling block. But behind all the mental noise, before concepts even arise, there is the pure awareness, the clear blissful consciousness that we really are. These pithy aphorisms can't take us there via ego interpretations and understandings, but they do point so very clearly to That. That which we really are. In the tradition of the great no-self Masters, Mr Tolle is telling it like it really is. This book is not for everyone, not nearly,because few are ready to go beyond the small minded idea that we exist individually as separate beings. For those ready to go beyond doing to being, beyond concepts to consciousness, this book is a wise and wonderful collection of "fingers pointing at the moon."


The feel of an Upanishad   September 29, 2003
 30 out of 30 found this review helpful

Eckhart Tolle's second book has been awaited for a while by those who found the wisdom and grace of the first to be an extraordinary experience. This book is smaller on content and perhaps more complex in profundity. The Power of Now operated at all levels; it was one of those rare books which could actually get people to begin a spiritual practice with some seriousness, while those already in the swim found it to be a valuable guide. Stillness Speaks tilts a bit towards the already serious spiritual practitioner. Not that a beginner would not profit from it but my guess is that people who have done their processes and transformed themselves are likely to extract the most from this tight little spiritual classic.

Stillness Speaks has some of the feel of an Upanishad. A master discourses on important spiritual issues and you access the level you are capable of. When you come back to it, you find that the book has changed too, speaking to you at a depth you might not have suspected even existed - in you! Tolle is evolving towards an aphoristic style of communication; anything longer would tend to be false to the essence of being in the Now which is his difficult/simple message. It is a book that triggers rumination in you even more powerfully than The Power of Now. My personal favorite, something that set off a liberating snort of laughter, is the conclusion to Chapter Six -"Leave Life alone. Let it be."

I feel that not learning from this book would be a blunder.


Missing the point   September 21, 2003
 28 out of 28 found this review helpful

For all those that choose to criticise this book, they are clearly missing the point. First of all, the guy that read the entire book while standing in the bookstore cannot have possibly gotten the full impact of what Tolle is saying. Yes, you can wolf down a $100.00 meal and say there was nothing there, but that is more a reflection of you than the meal. Having authored 8 books, including a popular motivational one here on amazon.com, I can tell you that Tolle says more, using fewer words, than any other writer I know.

Indeed, even savoring one sentence can instantly change your state. Yes, the material is simliar to "The Power of Now," but that's like saying a gold ring is not good because it's made out of the same thing as a gold necklace. Hello! When you have the best there is, there is no need to improve on it. Everything Tolle puts out comes from that same golden place, and indeed, I found "Stillness Speakers" to have many even deeper and more refined ideas than the brilliant "The Power of Now." Or should I say, he finds new and creative ways to further drive home his life altering concepts. If you "get it," you will know what I mean, if not, than no amount of words will change your mind.