He has had some impact on my thought patterns. Mostly, in that, I'm doing much better in staying in the NOW. (If this sounds like basic Buddhism, it is.) Tolle just gives a slightly different perspective on the importance of staying in present time. I feel getting different perspective on the same ideas can often help to understand the basic idea better. It's like studying different religions.
I got the book "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle on tape from the library and copied it onto my computer. I listen to this sometimes before going to sleep at night. Chapter two of this book is especially relevant to my life. His writing on physical illness is right on. A long time ago, I learned how to use my mind to eliminate physical pain, and the way he explains it is exactly how I do it, but I couldn't put it in words like he does. I know how to cure illness with my mind, but I can't describe it or put it into words as Eckhart Tolle can. His description is like a secular version of what I've been doing which is more religious, but the mental process is the same. Tolle is like giving me a secular description of my religious ideas, but the psychological results are the same.
All I can say is that it's important to outgrow the ego.
We have two minds. One mind is the ego and the other mind is the universal mind, the mind that is our connection to God. We are using our other mind separate from the go mind when we look at something we said or done that is pure ego and we know it and can see it from the outside.
One of the basic struggles of old age (I'm 72) is thinking about the past, because there is so much of it. However, what amazes me about it is that I remember things that I never thought about for a second after they happened 50 years ago, give or take a few years. I don't know why this happens. These things that I remember (sometimes they come in my dreams) aren't things that I particularly want to recall. However, I feel that they things are perhaps necessary for me to face and deal with inorder to move forward in my mentality or spiritual life, which for me are the same thing. However, all of these memories floating into my mind make staying in the present time just that much more of a challenge. Maybe that's the reason for them: to strengthen the mind.
(this post will be refined and continued)
