Eckhart Tolle and Marriage

[silentstar]

In general I haven’t heard very good things about him. He seems to want admiration a little too much. I skimmed through one of his books once and talked to a couple of people about him.

 

[CardManningFan]

As far as understanding his philosophy, there is no philosophy in either book.

Yes, there is a very bad philosophy in his thinking. His New Ageism is a conglomeration of every bad philosophy and heresy, starting with relativism.

Here are my observations of his or Opera’s errors, after watching this.
Tolle is a:

1. 
   *]quietist, which the Catholic Encyclopedia defines as the “man’s highest perfection consists in a sort of psychical self-annihilation and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence even during the present life.” This anti-intellectualism is evidenced when Tolle says: “The important question is not what you believe in; it’s ‘Are you present in the present moment?’”
   *]Luddite (against technology): “Technology amplifies the egoistic dysfunction in human beings.”
   *]relativist (no absolute truth): “The moment you say ‘My belief is true’, and you deny other people’s believes, is when you’ve adopted an ideology.”
   *]anti-dogmatist: “Religion should not be an ideology.” (Catholicism is certainly not just an ideology/philosophy, however.)
   *]anti-apostolic: “hierarchy has the authority” (We Catholics believe in the “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic” {i.e., hierarchical, papal} Church.)
   *]dualist: There’s an “economy” of negative/positive “energies.”
   *]pantheist: God is the world.
   *]panpsychist (everything is alive): “They don’t see the world around them is vitally alive.”)
   *]syncretist (all religions lead to God): “If you get deep enough in your religion, you all get to the same place.” This denies[BIBLEDRB]Matthew 12:30[/BIBLEDRB][BIBLEDRB]John 6:44[/BIBLEDRB]
   *]Protestant: “The new spirituality is: You are your own best authority.”
   *]ultra-transcendentalist (that God is unknowable): “absolute indescribable of that which we call God” (cf. Catholic teaching); he also thinks God cannot be named, which is against Catholic teaching as well.
   *]anti-organized religion: Religion cannot “contain God;” “It’s important to join with others but not be dependent on any one group.”
   *]naturalist: Only natural means are necessary for our salvation.
   *]Pelagian: We can save ourselves.
   *]Modernist: We must free ourselves from “old conditioning” (e.g., Catholicism).
   *]Human evolution: He believes human beings fundamentally change over the ages.
   *]Rousseauean: Humans are born perfect, thus he denies original sin.
   *]Egoism: “Just worry about yourself.”[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 4:9[/BIBLEDRB]
   
   …and the list of his heresies goes on and on.
   
   Oprah doesn’t “believe Jesus came to start Christianity;” this totally denies His mission. She also thinks “Jesus was a revolutionary that got misinterpreted a lot;” Jesus was not revolutionary; He was infinitely submissive and meek.
   
   Remember, every heresy has some admixture of truth.
   His focus on
   1. 
      *]nature is reminiscent of[BIBLEDRB]Romans 1:20[/BIBLEDRB]
      *]wonder is good, too; after all, we must “be as little [wondering] children” to enter God’s Kingdom.
      *]the senses is also good. We are sensual beings; that’s why the sacraments are necessary for our salvation.
      *]“living in the present moment” is also taught by Jesus.
      *]how material things cannot ultimately satisfy, because our desire is infinite, is held by Christianity (detachment).
      
      But, unfortunately, Tolle is full of many more very grievous errors.

 

[EasterJoy]

Eckhart Tolle…
Has anyone read his views of relationships?
My wife started reading him all the time when things started to fall apart for us.
She quoted him to me a couple times saying that all relationships are just addiction, and that I should be mindful and not angry at our separation. Mindfullness is his big thing.
I don’t have anything against buddhism but this guy is just a chancer.
I read a couple chapters at the back of one of his books and that’s what he says, relationships are addictions and illusions. Anyway I saw his books at a catholic bookstore over the weekend and I thought about what I had been through, how those books really supported my wife towards a separation…
OK rant over.

I have friends who raved over “The Power of Now”, but it didn’t do much for me. I thought he took a very simple idea (don’t waste a lot of anxiety on things over which you have no power) and then went way overboard with it because he didn’t have enough text for a book, otherwise. When I saw he’d written another book, my first thought was, “I thought the whole point of your first book was that all you need is one idea, and the rest is practice. How many books can you milk out of that?”

Why is staying in the present necessarily even a good, anyway? I’m a very happy, successful individual, but when I trance out, I’m in the past, the future, or some alternate-timeline daydream. And I find that it helps me relax, and is also an outlet for my creative side.

But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. Matt. 6:33-34

Mindfulness is nothing but paying full attention to where you are and what you are doing. That is fine as far as it goes, but he talks as if it is the Great Commandment. We know what happens to philosophers who do that with their pet idea. It’s not long before they’re getting ridiculous.

 

[mamaslo]

people who have depression like to read his books. We had someone who was a huge fan of this guy’s writing and it totally irritated me, but since it is not a religious site, I decided not to state my beliefs.

Since I have not read the book I took from it what I took from it. It sounds to me like he wants all the mystery without the One who made it. There is nothing wrong with keeping your thoughts on the present istead of projecting into the future, especially if you have trouble with depression, ocd etc. the Bible even says not to worry about what you will eat, drink or wear…We need to trust God in the hear and now. He has proven Himself in our past, and will in our future.

But Tolle’s philosophy creepily strips mystery from God. We, as Catholics, I think have a leg up on mystery given all we experience every time we go to Mass, or study liturgy, canon law etc…all of it. History…but this guy wants the good stuff and has plageurised it as his own, and stripped all references of where it came from.

I find the theory a good one, but He left out someone very important…The Author.

 

[rebuta]

It’s my first time blogging on this site
I became interested in figuring out more about how I can defend my catholic faith due to my friend’s recent conclusion on converting from catholocism to the New Age movement, more precisely, Eckhart Tolle’s theory. He’s a very good person in search of truth, but he’s going the wrong direction. I’m in high school and it seems like a lot of young people are catching onto this “fads”
Then I found this article expressing a Catholics view on Eckart Tolle’s “philosophia perrenis”

I strongly suggest that this be read, whatever your stance is

corjesusacratissimum.org/2009/04/article-2/

“Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair”
-Chesterton

Your marriage will be kept in my prayers

 

[RACJ]

Eckhart Tolle…
Has anyone read his views of relationships?
My wife started reading him all the time when things started to fall apart for us.
She quoted him to me a couple times saying that all relationships are just addiction, and that I should be mindful and not angry at our separation. Mindfullness is his big thing.
I don’t have anything against buddhism but this guy is just a chancer.
I read a couple chapters at the back of one of his books and that’s what he says, relationships are addictions and illusions. Anyway I saw his books at a catholic bookstore over the weekend and I thought about what I had been through, how those books really supported my wife towards a separation…
OK rant over.

Charlatans like Tolle know that humans look for justifications and rationalizations for sinful behavior. For a Catholic bookstore to sell this amoral shill is a disgrace. To this jerk, we are all our own autonomous “gods”. I wish that my mom’s mourning for my dad were an “addiction” or “illusion” that she could discard. As they say, if you don’t believe in something (God), you’ll fall for anthing. And Tolle is one of those “anythings”, a transparent fraud. So sorry. Rob

 

[eonporter]

I don’t have anything against buddhism but this guy is just a chancer.

Well, I do.

Buddhism is a fake religion and should be treated for all of us catholics for what it is.

A book that teaches such things about relationships is pure poison. It should never stand on a catholic library and even less in a catholic home. I feel sorry that you couldn’t stop the poisoning on time, really sorry.