Stillness Speaks [Hardcover]

Eckhart Tolle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2003

In Stillness Speaks, best-selling author Eckhart Tolle illuminates the fundamental elements of his teaching, addressing the needs of the modern seeker by drawing from all spiritual traditions. At the core of the book is what the author calls “the state of presence,” a living in the “now” that is both intensely inspirational and practical. When the pressures of future and past thinking disappear, fear and frustration also vanish, conquered by the moment. Stillness Speaks takes the form of 200 individual entries, organized into 10 topic clusters that range from "Beyond the Thinking Mind" to "Suffering and the End of Suffering." The entries are concise and complete in themselves, but, read together, take on a transformative power.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Expanding on his mantra—Get out of your head and into the moment—Eckhart Tolle offers this new book on living in the now. Here Tolle emphasizes the art of "inner stillness"--the place where thoughts, ego and attachments fall always and we are left only with what the moment has to offer: "When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world." Don't expect this to be a quick skim or even a straight-through read. Like his previous bestselling book The Power of Now, Tolle uses brief entries and numerous white spaces to give readers easy in-and-out access into enticing spiritual insights that expound on inner stillness, such as learning the difference between surrender and resignation, overcoming the fear death, and how to end suffering. In fact, this is designed to be an ongoing conversation. Pick it up any time or any place, but be sure to allow for plenty of breaks for serious contemplation. Even as you occasionally abandon the book, don't abandon the teachings, pleads Tolle. Embracing and practicing inner stillness is no longer a luxury, he writes, "but a necessity if humankind is not to destroy itself. At the present time the dysfunction of the old consciousness and the arising of the new are both accelerating. Paradoxically things are getting worse and bett! er at the same time, although 'the worse' is more apparent because it makes so much noise." Devotees who have read all of Tolle's books and audio tapes probably won't find new ideas or information here. But they may appreciate the refresher course --revisiting familiar concepts in a slightly different package. --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Some readers of this slim follow-up to the bestselling The Power of Now may be alarmed that the seemingly wise and gentle Tolle writes in the introduction that his new work "can be seen as a revival for the present age of the oldest form of recorded spiritual teachings: the sutras of ancient India." Tolle explains that the Vedas and Upanishads, as well as the words of the Buddha, the parables of Jesus and the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching can be thought of as sutras in the sense that they share a brevity that "does not engage the thinking mind more than is necessary." Like those great sacred works, Tolle continues, his writings come from inner stillness. "Unlike those ancient sutras, however, they don't belong to any one religion or spiritual tradition, but are immediately accessible to the whole of humanity." Repeating what has become a familiar if no less ominous note in contemporary spiritual life, he adds that this unprecedented accessibility is due to the urgent need for humanity to wake up if we are not to destroy ourselves. It is the stillness that is our common Being-which is the formless container for what is happening in the now-"that will save and transform the world." In the brief chapters that follow, Tolle describes stillness with eloquent economy. Beautiful stand-alone paragraphs offer insight into the defensive nature of the ego versus what he sees as our true being, the attentive, receptive mind behind thought, the spaciousness and peace that blossoms inside when we accept what is, including death. "Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind." No one will doubt that Tolle has freed himself from nagging thoughts and fears. But the rest of us?
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: New World Library; First Edition edition (August 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157731400X
• ISBN-13: 978-1577314004
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (184 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Self-Help > Spiritual

More About the Author

Spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating, and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Eckhart Tolle is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time. In 2008, A New Earth became the first spiritual book to be selected for Oprah's Book Club as well as the subject of a ten-week online workshop co-taught by Eckhart and Oprah.

Eckhart's profound yet simple teachings have helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

132 of 135 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't trust your ego, November 25, 2003

By 

Michael Indgin (Westchester, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stillness Speaks (Audio CD)

This is another great gift from the delightful Mr. Tolle, a soul who has done the nearly impossible: achieved stillness in a human incarnation.

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.

83 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The feel of an Upanishad, September 29, 2003

By 

Rohit Arya (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stillness Speaks (Hardcover)

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.

94 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words that point beyond words, November 11, 2003

By 

Xan (Colorado USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stillness Speaks (Hardcover)

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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.