Eckhart Tolle
8 Ridiculous Things Said by Eckhart Tolle Which Don’t Stand Up to Scrutiny
Apparently, if you’re upset, it’s all just an illusion in your mind
Eckhart Tolle has said some wise things that have helped many people. He’s also said some stupid things.
I have two of his books — The Power of Now and A New Earth — and have found them helpful. But in recent years I have found myself questioning some of the things he’s said.
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”
NEVER the situation? Are you sure?
I get where he’s coming from with this, but is it always true?
For example, what if you saw your whole family get murdered by someone with a chainsaw? That would be a traumatic event. There’s no getting away from it, no matter how much you try to control your thoughts.
But even if it was all down to your thoughts, do we control our thoughts anyway? If something happens, thoughts pop into my mind about it. I don’t consciously choose the thoughts from a menu of available thoughts.
This quote is an example of the type of definitive statements Tolle likes to make. It may be true that the cause of all his own unhappiness was his thoughts. But does that mean it’s necessarily true for everyone else?
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.”
The problem with this quote is it makes it sound like there is a conscious wisdom to events, like a God or something. But the truth is, terrible things can happen to good people and good things can happen to terrible people. Often with no discernable reason.
Sometimes, people have traumatic experiences that are utterly devastating. They might never recover from them. Victims of repeated torture rarely end up more enlightened as a result. Often, they end up destroyed.
“How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
What kind of circular logic is that?! That’s like saying “you are meant to be with your husband/wife because you are married to them”.
How convenient it is that the best thing that could happen is the thing that’s happening. There is something awfully fatalistic about this philosophy.
By the way, fatalism is NOT the same thing as a lack of a belief in free will. I explain why in this article: Do We Have Free Will? Almost Certainly Not.
“Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”
This can sometimes be true, but not always. If someone is homophobic, it might be because they are secretly gay themselves. But if I was to hate someone because they murdered a friend of mine, that doesn’t mean I’m a repressed murderer.
There is a danger in saying something is always true just because it’s sometimes or often true. It might always be true for Eckhart, but that doesn’t mean it’s always true for everyone else.
“Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.”
Okay, so if someone tries to mug me, I should just lie down and let them get on with it?
Yes, I know this is referring to psychological problems rather than physical ones. But it’s still not necessarily true.
Yes, sometimes, it is best to just ignore an annoying person. But other times, you might need to put a bully in their place by telling them to piss off.
Even if we’re talking about issues that are entirely within us, it’s not always best to ignore them. Talking about them can be a great help, which is why psychotherapy can be so effective.
It can be dangerous to tell people the best thing is to accept all bad things. For example, if you’re feeling suicidal, you should seek professional help.
“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.”
How does he know this?
Often, creativity can come from being wound up about something. Some of the best works of art come from people expressing their inner demons. The most powerful songs are often written when people are broken-hearted or in despair. There’s no “inner stillness” or “no-mind” there.
This is one thing that irritates me about Tolle. He comes out with things without even knowing whether they are true or not. He says whatever is most fitting to the message he’s trying to get across. Regardless of whether it’s true.
“All problems are illusions of the mind.”
No, they’re not!
If a tiger is running towards you, you have a problem. The tiger doesn’t care what the state of your mind is. It just wants to eat you.
But even with psychological problems, it’s still not true. It’s a form of gaslighting to tell someone their troubles are only illusions of the mind. Don’t tell a torture victim that their problem is that they keep thinking about it in the wrong way. That’s a form of psychological abuse.
It also gives bullies a free get-out clause. What if I was to shout racist abuse at a black person or call a disabled person a useless cripple? It would be wrong for me to then tell them that any upset they are feeling is only an illusion in their mind. No, in such a situation, the problem would be ME, not their thoughts.
“Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness”
Does he know this for sure? How many people who have sought happiness have found it? And how many people who didn’t seek happiness found it by mistake?
I’m not saying that all those who seek happiness will always find it. Or that happiness doesn’t sometimes find those who aren’t seeking. I’m just saying that if you seek happiness you might find it, and if you don’t seek it you might not find it.
What do you think of Eckhart Tolle? And what do you think of these particular quotes? Do you find them to be true? Or do you find them helpful, regardless of whether they are true or not?
Notable responses
From Jan Barley:
I love your thinking, Edward. From my experience of the last two years, I can counter argue all of these Eckartisms.
My fiance was killed in a cycling accident in May 2020. No matter how I think about it, he’s dead and the catastrophic effect on my life had **** all to do with my thoughts. Neither did I create his death or the subsequent experiences.
His family treated me brutally, cruelly. One sent me a 4 page pdf of hate and vitriol. They took everything of his (he had nothing of value) and refused to give me any ashes, so I could scatter them with his dog’s ashes in his favourite place. A reflection of the inner me? No ****ing way. I am an empathetic, compassionate person. Treating a person in deep pain, the way they did was beyond belief.
I’m a deeply spiritual person but this kind of assumptive waffle is dangerous. To a degree, our thoughts do have “some” influence over “some” of our life experiences, but it’s subjective and cannot be generalised with global platitudes.
