The 100 Most Spiritual People Of 2013

I guess that makes sense. How else to explain Alex Jones or David Icke…..

A friend of mine kept telling me about him, and finally, a couple of years ago, he loaned me The Power of Now. I made it about 3/4s of the way through. By in large his message is harmless and probably helpful to many people. So perhaps I’ve been too rough on him. But I still believe him to be a phony and a fraud. Hopefully, unlike many others of his ilk, he’s harmless.

Well, I could give you a lot of what I consider “good” reasons as to why I believe that to be the case, but somehow I don’t think you’d think they were very good. Admittedly, none of my reasons would be a “smoking gun.” This kind of stuff doesn’t necessarily adhere to the normal expectations of logic. It’s more like art than math. It’s like recently I read an article about the director Tom Hooper and Hooper has apparently gone on record as saying his biggest influence is Stanley Kubrick. Now, even though Hooper makes boring, safe, gentle, mainstream films and Kubrick basically made the opposite, that fact struck me as obvious. I had never noticed before, but after I read that, it was easy to see the Kubrickian influence on Hooper. Certain things Hooper does with the camera or with the cinematography or the performances. It’s there. However, it’s also abundantly clear that Hooper doesn’t “have” whatever it was that Kubrick “had.” Hooper doesn’t “get” filmmaking the way that Kubrick did. I’m not the biggest fan of Kubrick’s films, but the man obviously understood the medium in ways that the vast majority of people never will. There was an “essence” of filmmaking that he knew how to elicit or arouse. Hooper does not.

Tolle is like Hooper. Nothing he says or writes is ever technically “Wrong,” but it’s missing something gravely important. And it betrays that he doesn’t truly know of that of which he speaks. (I don’t necessarily believe, however, that Tolle is purposely deceptive. I don’t believe he’s a scam artist–though he may be–I just don’t believe he is what he purports to be. It’s a lack of self-awareness, ironically.)

Like any of my reasons, it’s a flimsy argument in purely logical or rational terms, and I don’t expect it to sway you in any way. And that’s fine. You really have no reason to. I will however point out that I’ve called these sorts of things before. I was on the anti-Merzel bandwagon years before his scandal came through (and really he got in trouble for the wrong thing) and I was calling bullshit on “The Secret” before anyone was even open to that idea. That’s not to portray myself as something great or anything. That’s the point. I’m just a numbskull idiot but I am skeptical enough to see through some of this garbage.

“50 Shades of Grey” began as fanfic on a Twilight website. Through word of mouth it eventually got published with pretty much no marketing. Through word of mouth it eventually became an epic seller. Is E.L. James a great writer? Is 50 Shades of Grey a good book?

I thought we established a long time ago that popularity has very little to do with quality.

I think what has made his approach so popular is that it’s easy to digest and it’s very warm and fuzzy and it makes people feel good. Again, is this necessarily a “bad” thing? Not really. I don’t think it really solves anybody’s suffering, but I do think it might mitigate it slightly, from time to time.

Also, I agree with your assessment on Trungpa Rinpoche. Compared to him, Tolle is a goddamned saint.

I’m not sure what “Hardcore” means in this case. It’s not so much that he’s missing some kind of “hard core truth,” it’s that he’s simply reciting the same old platitudes and ideas he’s read from other, probably better, sources. It’s the “mysticism” of someone who doesn’t really know of what he speaks. I don’t know what else you want from me. I’ve already acknowledged that there’s nothing I’m going to tell you that is going to change your mind. If anything, I will recommend some other reading. You’ve probably read at least some of these, so you should be able to recognize the difference between these works and the works of Tolle. I would suggest the book of Chuang Tzu, the Lin-chi Lu, The Zen Sayings of Huang Po, the Platform Sutra, Penguin’s collection of Meister Eckhart’s homilies, anything by D.T. Suzuki, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the poems of Ryokan or Stonehouse or Ikkyu, the Zen Teachings of Bankei, anything by Ramana Maharshi, Wholeness and the Implicate Order and pretty much anything else by David Bohm, pretty much anything by Joseph Campbell or Alan Watts. That should keep most people busy for awhile.

I think that is the point. Especially in America, we need to be able to look past the superficial layers. If charisma were the mark of enlightenment, George Clooney could be the 5th Buddha.

enlightenment has nothing to do with the personality.

You are judging that “he’s coming across as a little odd” and since he’s not altering his persona, you, therefore, doubt he has insights into deeper matters of intellect and wisdom.
There really isn’t getting around the fact that your statement is shallow.

I have never defended Tolle, though it it is obvious his message has impact, despite his alleged faults. And I’m not judging you, I’m just pointing out that you are judging the authenticity of Tolle’s message based on his personality, which is a fallacy. There is no requirement that one’s personality dissolve upon reaching a certain stage of enlightenment. If the personality disappeared, all sages would sound the same. Tolle’s personality just isn’t that personalble.
I’m continuing the conversation because it amuses me.