Eckhart Tolle and Sri Aurobindo

Note on Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle, recognized as one of the foremost contemporary spiritual teachers, was born in 1948 in Germany where he spent the first thirteen years of his life. He graduated from the University of London, after which he was a research scholar and supervisor in physics at Cambridge University.

Until his thirtieth year he lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety and depression, at times of a suicidal nature. One night, not long after his twenty-ninth birthday, he had a sudden and profound spiritual experience that radically transformed him and entirely changed the course of his life. Following this transformative experience, he devoted a few years to the study of spiritual texts and spending time with spiritual teachers in order to understand and integrate his spiritual experience. Then, for about ten years, he engaged himself in spiritual counseling and teaching, working with individuals and groups of spiritual seekers in Europe and North America. His epoch-making book, The Power of Now (1997), represents the essence of this work. He has since conducted numerous seminars and retreats throughout the world and has written three more books: Practicing the Power of Now (1997), Stillness Speaks (2003), and A New Earth (2005).

He now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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