Yesterday I asked people what they thought of Eckhart Tolle.

I wrote that question with the intention of writing a critique of Eckhart Tolle, but as I revisited the depths of his Wikipedia page I found myself very much aligned with where’s coming from, based on a number of key quotes and the breadth of the traditions he’s pulling from. Perhaps I will read A New Earth in 2014.

Favorite quotes:

1) “The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth … The words are no more than signposts.”

2) “The most significant thing that can happen to a human being [is] the separation process of thinking and awareness” and that awareness is “the space in which thoughts exist””

3) “Tolle says that “the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it”

He is however still missing one of the pieces I intended to critique, which is THE crucial next piece for spirituality to be relevant to our modern times:

The evolutionary perspective and moral imperative on the other side of ego transcendence.

Eckhart Tolle’s overemphasis on the now and the present moment blinds people from the Big History we are very much a part of, and the Big Future we are very much tasked with creating.

That responsibility that only grows stronger the more AWAKE we become.

The present matters.

But so does the past and the future.