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STILLNESS
SPEAKS
Also by Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now
Practicing the Power of Now
STILLNESS
SPEAKS
ECKHART TOLLE
New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949
and
NamastePublishing
P.O. Box 62084
Vancouver, Canada V6J 1Z1
Copyright © 2003 Eckhart Tolle
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Cover design by Mary Ann Casler
Text design and typography by Tona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tolle, Eckhart, 1948 –
Stillness speaks / by Eckhart Tolle.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-57731-400-x (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Spiritual life. I. Title.
BL624.T647 2003
291.4'4—dc21 2003007916
First printing, September 2003
ISBN 1-57731-400-x
Printed in Canada on acid-free, 100% post-consumer waste, recycled paper
Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Chapter 3
The Egoic Self
Chapter 4
The Now
Chapter 5
Who You Truly Are
Chapter 6
Acceptance & Surrender
Chapter 7
Nature
Chapter 8
Relationships
Chapter 9
Death & the Eternal
Chapter 10
Suffering & the End of Suffering
About the Author
A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs, or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are and what you already know in the depth of your being. The spiritual teacher is there to uncover and reveal to you that dimension of inner depth that is also peace.
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. It is good to remember that, to feel that, as you read. The words are no more than signposts. That to which they point is not to be found within the realm of thought, but a dimension within yourself that is deeper and infinitely vaster than thought. A vibrantly alive peace is one of the characteristics of that dimension, so whenever you feel inner peace arising as you read, the book is doing its work and fulfilling its function as your teacher: it is reminding you of who you are and pointing the way back home.
This is not a book to be read from cover to cover and then put away. Live with it, pick it up frequently, and, more importantly, put it down frequently, or spend more time holding it than reading it. Many readers will feel naturally inclined to stop reading after each entry, to pause, reflect, become still. It is always more helpful and more important to stop reading than to continue reading. Allow the book to do its work, to awaken you from the old grooves of your repetitive and conditioned thinking.
The form of this book can be seen as a revival for the present age of the oldest form of recorded spiritual teachings: the sutras of ancient India. Sutras are powerful pointers to the truth in the form of aphorisms or short sayings, with little conceptual
