Quote Comparison Slideshows

All comparative quote slideshows from this site’s articles are gathered below. They juxtapose Eckhart Tolle’s words with those of earlier authors, mainly Maurice Nicoll and Barry Long, and show Tolle similarly expressing corresponding ideas to these authors. Use the forward and back arrows near the top corners of the images to cycle through them, or just swipe if using a mobile device. Some have captions underneath with further information. To browse quotes by category, use the links at the bottom of the page.

Mixed reel

This slideshow, which features on the homepage, compares the words of Eckhart Tolle to similar statements made by Maurice Nicoll and Barry long on a variety of topics. You can also view these comparisons in a table with citations.

“ ‘Self-observation is an act of attention directed inwards—to what is going on in you.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“‘Monitor your mental-emotional state through self-observation. . . . Direct your attention inwards.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘The power of self-observation is an inner sense, rarely used. . . . We are unaware of what we are doing.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“‘You need to have some power of self-observation, which is another word for awareness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘We have the power of choice internally [by observing our state].’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘With the seeing [of inner dysfunction] comes the power of choice.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘You become responsible . . . when one begins to apply [this Work] to oneself and to the state one is in at any moment.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘To end the misery . . . you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘By practice you can observe your mood more and more distinctly.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1953)

“ ‘With practice, your power of self-observation, of monitoring your inner state, will become sharpened.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Negative emotions . . . are extremely infectious.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1953)

“ ‘The negative mental-emotional force fields of others . . . are highly contagious.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘A person who is thoroughly negative . . . can infect people in a much more dangerous fashion than bacteria or viruses.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1950)

“ ‘Any negative inner state is contagious: Unhappiness spreads more easily than a physical disease.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Your “unhappy body” is composed entirely of . . . painful emotional material, [so] I will refer to it . . . as your emotional body.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Almost everyone carries . . . an accumulation of old emotional pain which I call “the pain body.”’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘By the time your “unhappy body” matures, you are emotionally hooked — addicted to . . . emotional pain or unhappiness.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Any emotionally painful experience can be used as food by the pain-body. . . . The pain-body is an addiction to unhappiness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘The emotional body is a living thing, living off you like a parasite.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘The pain-body [is] a parasite that can live inside you for years, feed[ing] on your energy.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ It’s ‘a cunningly intelligent entity.’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ It’s ‘an entity . . . [with] primitive intelligence, not unlike a cunning animal.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ It ‘is the living past in you.’

- Barry Long (1987)

“‘It is the living past in you.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘When two people marry they do not only marry their physical bodies but they marry their Time-bodies.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1949)

“ ‘You don’t just marry your wife or husband, you also marry her or his pain-body.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘By true self-observation we let a ray of light into ourselves. . . . Not . . . physical light but the light of Consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘Just observe the emotion. . . . Attention is like a beam of light – the focused power of your consciousness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘By the method of self-observation . . . [we] bring this not yet known side of ourselves into the light of consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘You are the watcher, the observing presence. If you practice this, all that is unconscious in you will be brought into the light of consciousness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Get to work and make it conscious by means of candid self-observation.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease, discontent, and tension arise within you.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Focus your inner attention on the feeling in the area of your navel, and hold it.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘You have to be able to feel the presence of your emotional body within you. If you cannot feel it, you can’t begin to deal with it.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘You need to be present enough to be able to watch the pain-body directly and feel its energy. It then cannot control your thinking.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘He’ll fight furiously to keep you from putting the spotlight of intelligence, your attention, on him.’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ ‘This means putting the spotlight of your attention on it. . . . Feel the strong energy charge behind it.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘So it will try to distract you, and it usually succeeds. One way it does this is by affecting other parts of the body with aches and pains. These are not lasting.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘The pain-body will . . . try to trick you into identifying with it again. . . . At this stage, it may also create physical aches and pains in different parts of the body, but they won't last.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘It will try to throw you off, like the momentum of a spinning disc. Stay with it.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘It has a certain momentum, just like a spinning wheel that will keep turning for a while.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Nothing can change in us unless it is brought into the light of self-observation—that is, into the light of consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘If you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the [emotional] pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘There is only one thing in your life you can be sure of. That one thing is this moment, now.’

- Barry Long (1996)

“ ‘You discover that there is only ever this moment. . . . Your entire life unfolds in this constant Now.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘You realise this now and in every succeeding moment, which is the eternal now. . . . The Spirit is now. Life is now.’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ ‘The eternal present is the space within which your whole life unfolds, the one factor that remains constant. Life now.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘What’s the problem, now? There is no problem, is there? Isn’t it extraordinary?’

- Barry Long (1995)

“ ‘Narrow your life down to this moment. . . . Do you have a problem now?’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘The diagram of the Cross . . . represents a single moment in a man’s life. In this single moment the vertical line is cut across by the horizontal line of Time. . . . The point of intersection of the vertical with the horizontal line is now.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1942)

“ ‘There’s the vertical dimension and the horizontal dimension. One could even say that the cross . . . symbolizes that also. . . . Most people only know the horizontal dimension, unaware of the vertical dimension which is . . . the present moment.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2017)

“ ‘It is only this feeling of the existence and meaning of the direction represented by the vertical line that gives a man a sense of now.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1942)

“ ‘And so you enter the vertical dimension by being—becoming present, by bringing your attention into the now.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘[Real] I dwells in now, and not in passing-time.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘It is only now that you are truly yourself.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Personality is formed in Time, and belongs to Time.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1942)

“ ‘The “you” that has a past and a future [is] the personality.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘The Personality . . . is not you . . . but it calls itself I . . . and you say I to it.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘What you usually refer to when you say “I” is not who you are.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘This imaginary oneself. . . . formed by ourselves and by the environmental influences of our upbringing. . . . is . . . called the False Personality, which is formed in the preparatory period of life.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1942)

“ ‘As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are, based on your personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego. . . . a false self.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘This accursed artificial thing “oneself” . . . causes so much trouble and . . . possesses us without our seeing it.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘It's almost as if you were possessed without knowing it, and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘In adulthood the possessing psychic entity is well and truly entrenched — as the unhappy, contradictory personality itself.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Most people are so completely identified . . . that we may describe them as being possessed. . . . You take the thinker to be who you are. This is the egoic mind.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘You have to die to the old man in you. You must die to the past. You must die to this thinker every moment.’

- Barry Long (1995)

“ ‘Die to the past every moment, and let the light of your presence shine away the heavy, time-bound self you thought of as “you.”’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘You cannot tell yet what you are save by seeing what you are not and getting gradually . . . away from this great fiction.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘In the seeing of who you are not [the illusory self], the reality of who you are emerges by itself.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘As you dismantle the personality . . . you will start to feel some disintegration of yourself. . . . Know that it’s your personality you’re losing, not your [true] identity. Nothing you [truly] are or have will disappear.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Your radiant true nature remains [in death], but not the personality. In any case, whatever is real or of true value in your personality is your true nature shining through. This is never lost. Nothing that is of value, nothing that is real, is ever lost.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘I die now — not in agony, not in pain, but in conscious life, dying to everything except what is. And in dying daily to my unhappiness, dying for life, I finally realise the incredible truth: There is no death. All that dies is my fear of dying. Only fear dies.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘The acceptance of suffering is a journey into death. Facing deep pain, allowing it to be, taking your attention into it, is to enter death consciously. When you have died this death, you realize that there is no death – and there is nothing to fear. Only the ego dies.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Essence is the indestructible part of us.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1944)

“ ‘I know that the essence of who I am . . . is indestructible.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘Real inner change is a development of essence . . . the most real and the deepest part of you.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘Discover and live from your true essence—what I sometimes refer to as the “Deep I.”’

- Eckhart Tolle (2021)

“ ‘Now I’m going to introduce you to some finer energies. These energies are of your true body behind the flesh and blood.’

- Barry Long (1995)

“ ‘What I call the “inner body” isn't really the body anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘We’re going to go around the body with our attention so we can bring more consciousness into it.’

- Barry Long (1995)

“ ‘The more consciousness you direct into the inner body, the higher its vibrational frequency becomes.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Can you feel your body as a whole? The whole thing is tingling. The whole body. I’m asking you all if you can feel this. Hold the feeling of the whole body from within. It can be done.’

- Barry Long (1995)

“ ‘Can you feel your body from within, so to speak? Sense briefly specific parts of your body. Feel your hands, then your arms feet, and legs. . . . Then become aware again of the inner body as a whole.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘“Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”. . . This is a pretty good example of what the Work says about observing yourself instead of finding fault with everyone else.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1950)

“ ‘The egoic compulsive habit of faultfinding and complaining about others. Jesus referred to it when he said, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘The faults we dislike most in others are usually those that we display ourselves without being conscious of them.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1951)

“ ‘The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others . . . tend to be the same . . . that are also in you, but that you are unable or unwilling to detect.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Everything that you are so critical of in others is expressing itself in you.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Anyone able to read this book right through will have developed to a certain stage of consciousness. To a less developed person it would seem meaningless.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘This book . . . will change your state of consciousness or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken those who are ready.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

Spiritual Psychology

These quote images come from articles comparing how Tolle and earlier authors similarly discuss aspects of the psyche, such as the personality and essence.

Self-Observation

These images come from an article series comparing how Nicoll and Tolle present the practice of self-observation.

Negativity Within

These comparisons come from articles comparing how Tolle and earlier authors discuss how negativity operates in the psyche and its detrimental effects.

Eckhart Tolle, Barry Long and the “pain body”

This set of quotes comparisons showcases specific similarities between Tolle and Long on the concept Tolle calls the “pain-body”—a notion also encountered in the previous slideshow.

“ ‘Your “unhappy body” is composed entirely of . . . painful emotional material, [so] I will refer to it . . . as your emotional body.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Almost everyone carries . . . an accumulation of old emotional pain which I call “the pain body”’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ It is a ‘dark body of accumulated emotional energy’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ It is ‘a semi-autonomous energy-form . . . made up of emotion’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘[Your] earliest of emotions did not remain fragmented. In their pain and isolation they drew together inside you.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘The remnants of pain left behind by every strong negative emotion . . . join together . . . in the very cells of your body.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ It ‘lives in each one of us’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ It ‘lives within most human beings’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘By the time your “unhappy body” matures, you are emotionally hooked — addicted to . . . emotional pain or unhappiness.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Any emotionally painful experience can be used as food by the pain-body. . . . The pain-body is an addiction to unhappiness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ It’s ‘a cunningly intelligent entity’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ It’s ‘an entity . . . [with] primitive intelligence, not unlike a cunning animal’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Is the living past in you’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ ‘It is the living past in you’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘A parasite’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘A psychic parasite’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Does not want to be found out’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Afraid of being found out’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Does not want to die’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Wants to survive’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ Has ‘dormant’ and ‘active’ periods

- Barry Long (1994)

“ Has ‘dormant and active’ modes

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Responsible for all your negative moods . . . and unhappiness.’

- Barry Long (1987)

“ ‘Any sign of unhappiness in yourself, in whatever form . . . may be the . . . pain-body.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Affect[s] . . . parts of the body with aches and pains.’

- Barry Long (1994)

“ ‘Creates[s] physical aches and pains in different parts of the body.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

The Law of Opposites

These come from articles comparing how Nicoll and Tolle discuss what has been called the “law of opposites”.

Eckhart Tolle and Maurice Nicoll – mixed reel

This slideshow compares similar statements made by Nicoll and and Tolle on a variety of topics.

“ ‘The power of self-observation is an inner sense, rarely used. . . . We are unaware of what we are doing.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘You need to have some power of self-observation, which is another word for awareness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘Self-observation is an act of attention directed inwards—to what is going on in you.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘Monitor your mental-emotional state through self-observation. . . . Direct your attention inwards.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Notice what thoughts crowd into your mind . . . what they are saying, what unpleasant emotions surge up, and so on.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘Have a look inside yourself. What kind of thoughts is your mind producing? What do you feel?’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘You must try to observe everything in yourself at a given moment—the emotional state, thoughts, sensations, intentions, posture, movements . . . and so on.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1941)

“ ‘Give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘The impressions gained from self-observation are . . . from an internal sense . . . a silent witness, a spectator of what goes on in me.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘A clear and still space of pure awareness . . . come[s] into being . . . the silent witness, the watcher.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘People . . . mistake thinking for observing. To think is quite different from observing oneself.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘[This] does not mean that you start thinking about it. It means to just observe.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Observe . . . without criticism or analysis.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘Don’t judge or analyze what you observe.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘By practice you can observe your mood more and more distinctly.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1953)

“ ‘With practice, your power of self-observation, of monitoring your inner state, will become sharpened.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Now if you are observing your thoughts and your emotions . . . you may [after a time] laugh at these thoughts, these emotions, and wonder why you took everything in that way.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘When you detect egoic behavior in yourself, smile. At times you may even laugh. How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long?’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘You are not your thoughts.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘You are not your mind’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Consciousness is not the same as your thought, feeling or sensation. Through consciousness you become aware of them as contents, but . . . consciousness can exist without any content.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1951)

“ ‘Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. . . . Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘By true self-observation we let a ray of light into ourselves. . . . Not . . . physical light but the light of Consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘Just observe the emotion. . . . Attention is like a beam of light – the focused power of your consciousness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘By the method of self-observation . . . [we] bring this not yet known side of ourselves into the light of consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘You are the watcher, the observing presence. If you practice this, all that is unconscious in you will be brought into the light of consciousness.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Nothing can change in us unless it is brought into the light of self-observation—that is, into the light of consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘If you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the [emotional] pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Get to work and make it conscious by means of candid self-observation.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease, discontent, and tension arise within you.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘When you become conscious of something that you constantly say or feel or think . . . it begins to be ‘not I’. . . . You rise a little in your level of being through . . . the light of consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1949)

“ ‘By making this pattern conscious, by witnessing it, you disidentify from it. In the light of your consciousness, the unconscious pattern will then quickly dissolve.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Whatever we bring into the light of consciousness loses the power it has over us if it remains unconscious.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘Anything unconscious dissolves when you shine the light of consciousness on it.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘The remedy is the light of consciousness.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘The light of consciousness is all that is necessary.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘“Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” . . . This is a pretty good example of what the Work says about observing yourself instead of finding fault with everyone else.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1950)

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘The faults we dislike most in others are usually those that we display ourselves without being conscious of them.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1951)

“ ‘The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others . . . tend to be the same . . . that are also in you, but that you are unable or unwilling to detect.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Everything that you are so critical of in others is expressing itself in you.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘People project [their] unaccepted psychology on to others.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1950)

“ ‘[You] project your own unconsciousness onto another person.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘You take life-realities and your reaction to them as the same. They are not the same.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1951)

“ ‘They cannot tell the difference between an event and their reaction to the event.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Life is a changing kaleidoscope of events. . . . The difficulty is that people take life and their reactions to life as the same thing.

- Maurice Nicoll (1948)

“ ‘The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ They find it difficult to realize that . . . a thunderstorm, is not the same as their mechanical reaction to it. . . . The storm, which . . . is a neutral, impersonal thing, and their mechanical reactions . . . [of], say, alarm, seem identical to them.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1948)

“ You might say, ‘What a dreadful day,’ without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘We have the power of choice internally [by observing our state].’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘With the seeing [of inner dysfunction] comes the power of choice.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Try to notice where you are in yourself at this moment, to what thoughts you are consenting. . . . Have you yet attained any power of inner freedom from . . . your mechanical thoughts and feelings induced by external circumstances?’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ ‘By watching the mechanics of the mind, you step out of its resistance patterns, and you can then allow the present moment to be. This will give you a taste of the state of inner freedom from external conditions.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘You are entirely dependent on the events of external life. . . . How can you think that inner peace depends on what happens to you?’

- Maurice Nicoll (1950)

“ ‘[Ordinary] happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘In our psychological world . . . we have gradually to become more responsible.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘You become responsible . . . when one begins to apply [this Work] to oneself and to the state one is in at any moment.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1945)

“ ‘To end the misery … you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

- Maurice Nicoll (1942)

- Eckhart Tolle (2017)

“ ‘It is only this feeling of the existence and meaning of the direction represented by the vertical line that gives a man a sense of now.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1942)

“ ‘And so you enter the vertical dimension by being—becoming present, by bringing your attention into the now.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘Eternity is vertical to Time and this is . . . the feeling of oneself now. . . . To remember oneself the feeling of now must enter. . . . Eternity is always in now.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘Entering the vertical dimension requires a high degree of Presence. The Now needs to be the main focus of our attention.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2016)

“ ‘[Real] I dwells in now, and not in passing-time.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘It is only now that you are truly yourself.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ Real inner change is a development of essence . . . the most real and the deepest part of you.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1943)

“ “Discover and live from your true essence—what I sometimes refer to as the ‘Deep I.’”

- Eckhart Tolle (2021)

“ ‘Essence is not of passing Time. It is not a temporal thing. . . . [But external] life makes us identify with the Personality.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘Most humans . . . are unaware of their own essence and identify only with their own physical and psychological form. ‘

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘One is not the same as one's acquired Personality . . . this artificial figure that life has built up, and that one takes as oneself, not knowing any better.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1944)

“ ‘You behave and act as if . . . that were who you are. So you get trapped inside that conditioned personality. And whatever you do, then it's the personality [that] is acting out.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘This prison that [Gurdjieff] so often spoke about is first of all your Personality.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1944)

“ ‘Your personality, which is conditioned by the past, then becomes your prison.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘The Personality . . . is not you. . . . but it calls itself I. It says I to you and you say I to it.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘What you usually refer to when you say 'I' is not who you are.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2005)

“ ‘Essence cannot be stripped off. The real person, the person that remains after Personality is removed, is the Essence.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1946)

“ ‘Whatever is real or of true value in your personality is your true nature shining through. This is never lost.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Essence is the indestructible part of us.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1944)

“ ‘I know that the essence of who I am . . . is indestructible.’

- Eckhart Tolle (2008)

“ ‘The Gospels speak of a peace passing all understanding. Have you got this inner peace?’

- Maurice Nicoll (1948)

“ ‘Inner peace and serenity . . . come from a very deep place. . . . It is “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.”’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘The quality of happiness that comes from being first, or having most . . . is not . . . genuine or deep.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1952)

“ ‘The happiness that is derived from some secondary source is never very deep.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)

“ ‘Love . . . as a [real] positive emotion has no opposite and attracts no contrary to it, having everything in itself as one.’

- Maurice Nicoll (1944)

“ ‘The love that you feel deep within, the love that comes with the realization of your oneness with all that is. This is the love that has no opposite.’

- Eckhart Tolle (1997)