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Tolle
Actually enlightened? Or fake? He seems genuine, but what do you guys think?
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like we know when someone is speaking bullshit. we have good bullshit detectors. enlightened or unenlightened if they are speaking bullshit something just smells like bullshit. so trust your intuition and your logic.
no one knows "exactly" what the buddha said. they wrote stuff after he died. so accuracy is arbitrary.
do the words line up with your experience? if not drop them. simple as that.
8 fold path is enough for me.
I myself have just seen no need to read modern thinkers like Tolle because IMO the Buddha has already covered it completely. And I am suspicious, rightly or not, of modern thinkers who appear to speak from their own authority or just their own experience. Buddhism, to me, is tried-and-true. I just don't feel I need to read Tolle. I just have no interest.
Personal history says a lot. Perhaps if you could present us with some of his personal history it may speak to his writings.
for instance the phrase, "the sky is blue" can mean various things based on what state a person is at.
for a normal person (say like ourselves/seekers) its just a relative saying. okay the sky is blue. doesn't mean anything to me because i haven't thought about it's implications.
for someone who is awakened the phrase, "the sky is blue" can show their understanding of both the absolute and relative. the relative just being one fragment of the absolute but one realizes that truth has no hierarchy. either it is all truth or it isn't. so to say the sky is blue is describing both the absolute and relative.
the implication is that the sky is all sorts of colors. so the sky changes in color. the sky is blue, red, orange, white, etc. thus the sky itself is constantly changing. thus it is empty of any inherent qualities, other than the one we overlay.
so from one view, the sky is blue just is the sky is blue. now when a "realized being" says the sky is blue. he comes from the understanding that it is both the absolute/relative.
this is just for future reference and not aimed directly towards you.
what's important is to try to understand from where a person is saying something. once you understand that then you can understand if they are the buddha or not.
You can never know for sure. In the time of the Buddha most enlightened people couldn't even tell if another was enlightened for sure, only the Buddha could do that.
If he inspires you, does it really matter? You can follow his teachings, I find them very similar to Buddhism, especially his teachings about the mind consisting of an observer and doer. Some other things he says like "state of being" I don't know what that's about, but whatever.
He's a cool guy anyway.
Let's just keep up our own good practice and, as best possible, enjoy the ride.
You are always full of wisdom it seems. :clap:
he and he only knows whether it is 'been there, done that'
So, even though I am not really ready to go much beyond Buddhism myself for now, I think Mtns's comment that Tolle has "been there and done that" is accurate and apt.
For example how can you know, that his kindness is not being used by greedy people who work with him? Or how can you know, what's exactly been done with all that money the company receives etc...
I see it very unfair to judge him like that, when we actually have so little known information.
tolle "hits it" at times as clearly/directly as anyone i've ever read. i'd say he is either enlightened (whatever that means) or spends a significant chunk of his waking life in an enlightened state. but he'd be the first to tell you: those are just words ... the proof is in the pudding of presence. ;-)
To come out with the stuff he does, either you have done it or you are one heck
of an actor/genius. Just like Buddha.
Also, I dont see anything wrong with it. You pay for what you think its worth.
He does not promise to make you a millionaire or enlightened.
Also, what he did on Oprah was free.
Definitely, money well spent compared to going for a talk by Donald Trump.
then you know his ego has taken over.
It is easy to get enlightened. It takes more to fully implement it or 'do the laundry'.
Nowness is a powerful old hat. But 'new earth' suggests not all fetters are laid down.
:om:
I gave my opinion.
You may not agree.
That's fine.
But it's still my opinion.
I don't happen to believe he is.
As for enlightenment, he is at the first two stages of http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html
Not enlightenment by Buddha's definition but a crucial insight nonetheless.