Eckhart Tolle’s Most Important Saying: “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”

Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash

Eckhart Tolle has offered up many profound nuggets of wisdom over the past decades. Among my favorites are:

“You are the sky. The clouds are what happens, what comes and goes.”

“Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.”

“You are never more essentially, more deeply, yourself than when you are still.”

But topping my list is:

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”

Why?

Because the concept expressed carries the most value for the greatest number of people. How so?

Most people try to solve their inner problems by attempting to directly change their behaviors. For example, a parent feels badly that they lose their temper when their young children act up. And they say to themselves, “I have to stop blowing up at Brian when he smacks kid sister Cindy.”

Non-judgmental awareness is key

The better, more effective way to deal with this is for the parent to make a point of just being aware when they do this. And, crucially, to be as non-judgmental as possible when doing so.