Best Eckhart Tolle Books for Spiritual Enlightenment
Eckhart Tolle is a well-known spiritual teacher and had written a few of the best books on spiritual enlightenment. Born in Germany, he now lives in Vancouver, Canada and married a woman, called Kim Eng.
Having an unhappy childhood and after suffering from long periods of depression, Eckhart Tolle had an epiphany and an inner transformation one day when his sufferings were unbearable.
Since then, his life changed. He felt a deep sense of peace within and became a spiritual teacher. He began sharing his experiences and insights in his talks and books.
His teachings will help you to be in the now, realize your being, have more acceptance and less resistance to life. He sees spiritual awakening as the next step in human evolution and you don’t need to have any religious beliefs to understand his insights.
Below you will find 10 of his best works. Scroll down and see which of his books resonate with you the most.
Top 10 Best Eckhart Tolle Books
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1. The Power of Now
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
This is the first book that Eckhart Tolle published and it is one of the bestselling guides to spiritual enlightenment.
The book is written in a Q&A format. The author also uses examples from our daily life instead of unrelatable spiritual terms to explain his insights, so it’s easy to understand and suitable for anyone who is new to spirituality.
This book shows you how your mind gets caught up in the past and future, and how this makes you suffer as a result. It also shows you how to connect with your spirit by living in the now. If you have problems staying in the present and have an over-reactive or noisy mind, this is the recommended book for you.
Bookshop: Print
2. A New Earth
“Once you awaken, you still use the word “I”, but it will come from a much deeper place within you.”
This is the first spiritual book to be selected for Oprah’s Book Club and similar to The Power of Now, this book is a bestseller. This book is about transcending one’s ego to enhance personal happiness and impact the world positively.
Most of us aren’t aware of how our thoughts control us and derived our sense of self from our mind. This identification with our mind is what the author refer to as an ego-based state of consciousness or being unconscious.
If you are looking to awaken to a new state of consciousness and discover your life’s purpose, read this book. It will help you be more aware of the subtle things your ego does to make you unhappy and suffer.
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3. Stillness Speaks
“Stillness is your essential nature. It’s the inner space or awareness. You are that awareness, disguised as a person.”
As suggested by the author, this book is not a book to be read from cover to cover. Written in short entries like the sutra, you will feel inclined to stop and reflect after reading each entry.
This book serves as a good reminder to stay in the presence and connect with the stillness within. It’s suitable to be picked up whenever life gets overwhelming or out of control. You will experience inner peace as you read this book.
If you love to want a book that is simple to read but yet profound and gets you reflecting on your life, then this is the book for you.
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4. Guardians of Being
“True happiness is found in simple, seemingly unremarkable things.”
If you enjoy the comic strip Mutts, this little book is for you. Illustrated by Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the acclaimed comic strip Mutts, you would be delighted by the combination of his art and the words from Eckhart Tolle.
This book shows you the spiritual teachings that your pet dogs and cats offer you. It captures the spiritual bonds you share with your pets and reminds you to be present.
It is suitable for anyone who loves the nature or animals, especially dogs and cats. Reading this book will put a smile on your face.
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5. Oneness With All Life
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”
This is a companion volume to A New Earth. Similar to Stillness Speaks, this book is suitable for inspirational or meditative reading. It consists of short passages selected from A New Earth.
But this is not the abridged version of A New Earth. It hardly talks about the ego or the pain-body which are important insights in the original book. It is meant to inspire deeper reflection and inner transformation instead.
Package with beautiful artwork, this book speaks to the heart and soul. For those who have already read A New Earth, this book will help you receive a deeper understanding of what is taught in the original book.
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6. Practicing the Power of Now
“It’s not so much that you use mind wrongly — you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease.”
If you feel that the teachings of The Power of Now too overwhelming for you to understand, you can try this companion workbook instead. Not only does this book contain shorter passages from the original book, it also includes exercises for your meditation practice.
Eckhart Tolle wrote this book to present the practical aspects of the original teaching in a more readily accessible format. Similar to Oneness with All Life, this book is suitable for meditative reading. You can open the book randomly, reflect on the passages and remind you of the teaching.
Read this book if you want something more practical that you can use in your daily life. It will show you how to free yourself from your mind.
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7. Milton’s Secret
“You see, the light is in everything, always. It gives life to everything.”
Even though Milton’s Secret is meant to be a children’s book, the teachings of the book are also suitable for adult readers, especially parents.
The story is about an eight-year-old boy who is bullied in school and becomes fearful of going to school. This simple book teaches us to live in the now and not be lost in fear or the past and the future.
In 2016, this children’s book is also made into a film that is suitable for the whole family. If you are a parent or a teacher, the book and the movie are great resources for you to share insights on mindfulness and staying present with your kids or students. It also makes a wonderful gift for your children, nephews or nieces.
Bookshop: Print
8. Living a Life of Inner Peace
“Nothing wrong with thinking, of course. But if that’s all it is to you in life, then you become your mind. Your entire sense of self is bound up by the activity of thinking.”
In this transformative talk, Eckhart Tolle teaches us to access a deeper dimension of our consciousness that exists in every human being.
We humans are so lost in doing, so lost in past and future and time, and so lost in thoughts that we have forgotten about the present moment. Most of our sufferings come from the incessant mental noise that is conditioned by their past or the expectations we have about the future.
Eckhart Tolle has a great sense of humor. He has the ability to make people laugh at themselves while sharing the truth. If you want something that touches the deepest part of your soul in a relaxed manner, this is the audio to get.
Amazon: Audio
9. The Art of Presence
“There is no such thing as a perfect situation unless you live in a complete surrender to what is, which in that case, the situation is perfect.”
We can always find something that isn’t right which we can complain about, but it is what it is. There are always certain limitations that cause our mind’s expectations to not be met. Instead of getting offended, why not learn to enjoy the present moment?
Being here now is like any other skills. It requires practice. In this audio retreat, Eckhart Tolle shares insights that allow presence to naturally arise in you. He also shows you the differences between absence and presence and how to detect when you are absent.
Again, Eckhart Tolle’s lecture is relaxed, informal and funny. If you are not afraid to laugh at yourself, this audio will be suitable for you.
Amazon: Audio
Bookshop: CD
10. Even the Sun Will Die
“We live in a time when we define ourselves through our enemies, and science and technology are in the service of human madness. Yet even in the face of disaster, a miracle happens when we say ‘yes’ to living in this moment and no other.”
This audio is an interview with Eckhart Tolle that was planned and recorded on 9/11 (the same day when the United States faced terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda). Unlike his usual audio, Eckhart Tolle sounds much calmer and compassionate in this recording.
If you are someone who feels affected by the negative news around the world, this audio interview will help you find peace in those conflicts. It’s also suitable for anyone who has personal struggles and finds it difficult to find inner peace.
Listen to this recording with an open mind and it will help you shift your state of consciousness and be present.
Amazon: Audio
Hey there, I’m Yong Kang, best known as Nerdy Creator. I’m an author of seven books. I write about spirituality, self-compassion, and mindfulness. I love reading books, especially non-fiction. The list above is a combination of what I have read and my research. Each year, I create a Top 10 list of my favorite books.
