Eckhart Tolle

[Reefs]

Interesting, based on what others here have said on the forum about Tolle***, I expected to find his review in the 5 star teachers category – but couldn’t find it. So I looked into the 4 star teachers category and still couldn’t find it. Shawn just gave him a 3 star rating. That’s almost Jed Mckenna** level! What’s going on here?

Anyway, personal ratings aside, his description of his realization/awakening rings very true to me, and interestingly, it clearly shows both the satori and kensho aspect of SR (although intermingled with some woo-woo, it seems). What is also interesting is the integration part after the event, that he realized that something profound had happened but didn’t know what exactly it was. This seems to be a rather common experience I can relate to as well.


Here’s what I am talking about:

Realization

ET: “I cannot live with myself any longer.” This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” “Maybe,” I thought, “only one of them is real.”

I was so stunned by this strange realization that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words “resist nothing,” as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

Aliveness

ET: I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such a sound before. My eyes were still closed, and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

Integration

ET: For the next five months, I lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss. After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it became my natural state. I could still function in the world, although I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.

That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world.

I knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to me, but I didn’t understand it at all. It wasn’t until several years later, after I had read spiritual texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that I realized that what everybody was looking for had already happened to me.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

[laughter]

Apr 26, 2019 5:53:46 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Interesting, based on what others here have said on the forum about Tolle***, I expected to find his review in the 5 star teachers category – but couldn’t find it. So I looked into the 4 star teachers category and still couldn’t find it. Shawn just gave him a 3 star rating. That’s almost Jed Mckenna** level! What’s going on here?

Anyway, personal ratings aside, his description of his realization/awakening rings very true to me, and interestingly, it clearly shows both the satori and kensho aspect of SR (although intermingled with some woo-woo, it seems). What is also interesting is the integration part after the event, that he realized that something profound had happened but didn’t know what exactly it was. This seems to be a rather common experience I can relate to as well.


Here’s what I am talking about:

Realization

ET: “I cannot live with myself any longer.” This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” “Maybe,” I thought, “only one of them is real.”

I was so stunned by this strange realization that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words “resist nothing,” as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

Aliveness

ET: I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such a sound before. My eyes were still closed, and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

Integration

ET: For the next five months, I lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss. After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it became my natural state. I could still function in the world, although I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.

That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world.

I knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to me, but I didn’t understand it at all. It wasn’t until several years later, after I had read spiritual texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that I realized that what everybody was looking for had already happened to me.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

ZD and my old TM buddies on a Tolle forum have pointed out that the time after his kensho was just as if not at least as important as that event in leading up to his writing "The Power of Now". In particular, at some point, he heard a Zen guy talk about the absence of thought, and realized that "80% of (his) thinking stopped" after the kensho. This is, at the very least, an informing of mind, after the fact. And since you just got done reading Jed, notice that both Tolle and Jed report the same experience of slowly coming to understand that they'd each already found what spiritual seekers were seeking, after they started encountering spiritual seekers.

[Reefs]

Apr 26, 2019 11:51:10 GMT -5 laughter said:

ZD and my old TM buddies on a Tolle forum have pointed out that the time after his kensho was just as if not at least as important as that event in leading up to his writing "The Power of Now". In particular, at some point, he heard a Zen guy talk about the absence of thought, and realized that "80% of (his) thinking stopped" after the kensho. This is, at the very least, an informing of mind, after the fact. And since you just got done reading Jed, notice that both Tolle and Jed report the same experience of slowly coming to understand that they'd each already found what spiritual seekers were seeking, after they started encountering spiritual seekers.

Yeah, I can clearly see why ZD likes Tolle, hehe. Lots of similar talking points. But the book is mostly a self-help book, isn't it?

[laughter]

Apr 27, 2019 22:57:51 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Apr 26, 2019 11:51:10 GMT -5 laughter said:

ZD and my old TM buddies on a Tolle forum have pointed out that the time after his kensho was just as if not at least as important as that event in leading up to his writing "The Power of Now". In particular, at some point, he heard a Zen guy talk about the absence of thought, and realized that "80% of (his) thinking stopped" after the kensho. This is, at the very least, an informing of mind, after the fact. And since you just got done reading Jed, notice that both Tolle and Jed report the same experience of slowly coming to understand that they'd each already found what spiritual seekers were seeking, after they started encountering spiritual seekers.

Yeah, I can clearly see why ZD likes Tolle, hehe. Lots of similar talking points. But the book is mostly a self-help book, isn't it?

heh heh yeah I'd have to say it is .. a wolf in sheep's clothing, that is.

I've only ever bought two books with the self-help intent, and both were on the same day: "The Power of Now" and "The End of Overeating" by a guy named Kessler. I've told this story before many times so you can skip it if you've read it before. I was idly channel-surfing one day and heard a guy say "I decided to stop listening to the voice in my head". That struck me as an odd and interesting idea. I had zero exposure to psychology at that point. So a few days later, before I take a trip, I'm lying there with the usual insomnia, and I try that trick, and it worked. The next night in the hotel, it didn't work, but I was intrigued enough to google the phrase, and Tolle came up, so I bought the book as a way to address chronic life-long insomnia. .. .. "mission accomplished" ...

[Reefs]

Apr 27, 2019 23:28:00 GMT -5 laughter said:

Apr 27, 2019 22:57:51 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Yeah, I can clearly see why ZD likes Tolle, hehe. Lots of similar talking points. But the book is mostly a self-help book, isn't it?

heh heh yeah I'd have to say it is .. a wolf in sheep's clothing, that is.

I've only ever bought two books with the self-help intent, and both were on the same day: "The Power of Now" and "The End of Overeating" by a guy named Kessler. I've told this story before many times so you can skip it if you've read it before. I was idly channel-surfing one day and heard a guy say "I decided to stop listening to the voice in my head". That struck me as an odd and interesting idea. I had zero exposure to psychology at that point. So a few days later, before I take a trip, I'm lying there with the usual insomnia, and I try that trick, and it worked. The next night in the hotel, it didn't work, but I was intrigued enough to google the phrase, and Tolle came up, so I bought the book as a way to address chronic life-long insomnia. .. .. "mission accomplished" ...

Sound practical advice in TPON, no doubt. After a while Tolle sounds a bit like a one trick pony though, but I think he's right when he says that in the end, what all teachings are essentially pointing to is presence. I made a similar point recently.

Interesting story. It seems that, in a sense, Tolle is to you what A-H is to me. It gave you some answers and something to work with. There's a lot of parallels to A-H in the book, btw. I mean, even Jed got some of his theories from A-H it seems, and A-H (and even Seth!) got an honorable mention in his book.

[Reefs]

I noticed something interesting yesterday while reading TPON. Tolle mentions clock time and psychological time and suggests to stick with clock time instead of psychological time. Seth also made that distinction but he suggests to do the exact opposite! Now, if you are very literally minded, you may get a little confused.

[laughter]

Apr 28, 2019 0:08:27 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Apr 27, 2019 23:28:00 GMT -5 laughter said:

heh heh yeah I'd have to say it is .. a wolf in sheep's clothing, that is.

I've only ever bought two books with the self-help intent, and both were on the same day: "The Power of Now" and "The End of Overeating" by a guy named Kessler. I've told this story before many times so you can skip it if you've read it before. I was idly channel-surfing one day and heard a guy say "I decided to stop listening to the voice in my head". That struck me as an odd and interesting idea. I had zero exposure to psychology at that point. So a few days later, before I take a trip, I'm lying there with the usual insomnia, and I try that trick, and it worked. The next night in the hotel, it didn't work, but I was intrigued enough to google the phrase, and Tolle came up, so I bought the book as a way to address chronic life-long insomnia. .. .. "mission accomplished" ...

Sound practical advice in TPON, no doubt. After a while Tolle sounds a bit like a one trick pony though, but I think he's right when he says that in the end, what all teachings are essentially pointing to is presence. I made a similar point recently.

Interesting story. It seems that, in a sense, Tolle is to you what A-H is to me. It gave you some answers and something to work with. There's a lot of parallels to A-H in the book, btw. I mean, even Jed got some of his theories from A-H it seems, and A-H (and even Seth!) got an honorable mention in his book.

Tolle's advice is multi-faceted because it can help a person get to a relatively less disturbed inner state, but for me and many others, it was the beginning of an undoing. He invites his readers into meditation, without telling them that this is what he's offering.

There is quite a bit of cross-interest in A-H among the Tolle crowd, and to be honest with you this struck me as really strange when I first encountered it, because "LOA" just didn't seem to me to have anything to do with Tolle's pointing. There's a guy who's very active on the Tolle forum, one of the more assertive moderators, who's big into A-H, and he always replies to (what he likely suspects as) potential brown-bears with the personal side of the story.

[laughter]

Apr 28, 2019 0:52:04 GMT -5 Reefs said:

I noticed something interesting yesterday while reading TPON. Tolle mentions clock time and psychological time and suggests to stick with clock time instead of psychological time. Seth also made that distinction but he suggests to do the exact opposite! Now, if you are very literally minded, you may get a little confused.

Seth isn't sugar coating anything, and while Tolle gently guides his readers attention from the personal to the impersonal, he tells us the existential truth, but he tells it to a person. The way I'd put what little I've read of Seth, is that the message isn't impersonal: it's all about an individuated transpersonal identity, and yet, from an assumed context of impersonality (oneness).

The apparent contradictions from either Tolle or Seth are obvious from the perspective of someone approaching the messages with rational mind, especially tethered to the SVP trance. Either consciously, or subconsciously. If you ever read along when people ask questions based on Tolle's materials or talks in more generalized venues, the objections are very similar to what an Advaita speaker usually gets.

[bluey]

Apr 26, 2019 5:53:46 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Interesting, based on what others here have said on the forum about Tolle***, I expected to find his review in the 5 star teachers category – but couldn’t find it. So I looked into the 4 star teachers category and still couldn’t find it. Shawn just gave him a 3 star rating. That’s almost Jed Mckenna** level! What’s going on here?

Anyway, personal ratings aside, his description of his realization/awakening rings very true to me, and interestingly, it clearly shows both the satori and kensho aspect of SR (although intermingled with some woo-woo, it seems). What is also interesting is the integration part after the event, that he realized that something profound had happened but didn’t know what exactly it was. This seems to be a rather common experience I can relate to as well.


Here’s what I am talking about:

Realization

ET: “I cannot live with myself any longer.” This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” “Maybe,” I thought, “only one of them is real.”

I was so stunned by this strange realization that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words “resist nothing,” as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

Aliveness

ET: I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such a sound before. My eyes were still closed, and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

Integration

ET: For the next five months, I lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss. After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it became my natural state. I could still function in the world, although I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.

That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world.

I knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to me, but I didn’t understand it at all. It wasn’t until several years later, after I had read spiritual texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that I realized that what everybody was looking for had already happened to me.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

I don't feel Eckhart will be too bothered how Shawn rates him after all Shawns ratings are just that his ratings. He may say is that so if told of where he was rated. I would too.

Some sages feel a need to see how switched on the lights are in another some don't

As an experiment it would be interesting if Eckhart brought out a book with a great title and just repeated F**k Y*u in all the pages

After all whether a sage can write or draw a masterpiece surely the same applies if he or she does the opposite and draws a straight line or publishes a book full of errors

As they are free of the limitations of the mind

It's just not the book but his presence too. I'm sure he's not to bothered about the PON

As he is pointing at Here and Now in everything even away from his book

[Reefs]

Apr 28, 2019 15:59:37 GMT -5 bluey said:

I don't feel Eckhart will be too bothered how Shawn rates him after all Shawns ratings are just that his ratings. He may say is that so if told of where he was rated. I would too.

Some sages feel a need to see how switched on the lights are in another some don't

As an experiment it would be interesting if Eckhart brought out a book with a great title and just repeated F**k Y*u in all the pages

After all whether a sage can write or draw a masterpiece surely the same applies if he or she does the opposite and draws a straight line or publishes a book full of errors

As they are free of the limitations of the mind

It's just not the book but his presence too. I'm sure he's not to bothered about the PON

As he is pointing at Here and Now in everything even away from his book

Well, sure. The ratings are mostly just personal opinion. I've just finished reading TPON. And I have to say, I like it a lot. I think Shawn didn't like the sole focus on money-making of the Tolle website. To me, that's not necessarily an issue, because to me, ET teaches thriving. And why should he say no to thriving financially? So I disagree with the 3 star rating. However, I wouldn't give him a 5 star rating either because there's a couple of things in his ontology that didn't ring true at all to me and seem a bit TMT:

- the pain body
- the alarmism

Apart from that, the book is excellent. His style is very simple, his language very clear and no matter what topic, he always brings it back to his main message, presence - the power of NOW. Actually, it felt a lot like reading A-H, just with a different set of vocabulary but basically very similar concepts. And both A-H and ET are very heavy on the kensho aspect of SR. The only difference is that ET also mentions the satori aspect of SR, A-H don't. And I'd give A-H a 4 star rating, so I think ET should get at least a 4 star rating as well.

[Reefs]

Apr 28, 2019 13:35:28 GMT -5 laughter said:

Tolle's advice is multi-faceted because it can help a person get to a relatively less disturbed inner state, but for me and many others, it was the beginning of an undoing. He invites his readers into meditation, without telling them that this is what he's offering.

There is quite a bit of cross-interest in A-H among the Tolle crowd, and to be honest with you this struck me as really strange when I first encountered it, because "LOA" just didn't seem to me to have anything to do with Tolle's pointing. There's a guy who's very active on the Tolle forum, one of the more assertive moderators, who's big into A-H, and he always replies to (what he likely suspects as) potential brown-bears with the personal side of the story.

Yes, I noticed. Also very heavy on ATA.

Interesting, you've got a link? Wouldn't surprise me, actually. I'd say ET is 90% A-H. Basically, ET teaches alignment. He's got a slightly different approach to it than A-H, but they share similar core concepts. Off the top of my head, what comes to mind is this:

Inner Body = Inner Being (A-H) or Inner Self / Inner Ego (Seth)
Presence = Alignment (A-H)
Being = Source (A-H) or Vitality (Seth)

[Reefs]

Apr 28, 2019 13:44:58 GMT -5 laughter said:

Apr 28, 2019 0:52:04 GMT -5 Reefs said:

I noticed something interesting yesterday while reading TPON. Tolle mentions clock time and psychological time and suggests to stick with clock time instead of psychological time. Seth also made that distinction but he suggests to do the exact opposite! Now, if you are very literally minded, you may get a little confused.

Seth isn't sugar coating anything, and while Tolle gently guides his readers attention from the personal to the impersonal, he tells us the existential truth, but he tells it to a person. The way I'd put what little I've read of Seth, is that the message isn't impersonal: it's all about an individuated transpersonal identity, and yet, from an assumed context of impersonality (oneness).

The apparent contradictions from either Tolle or Seth are obvious from the perspective of someone approaching the messages with rational mind, especially tethered to the SVP trance. Either consciously, or subconsciously. If you ever read along when people ask questions based on Tolle's materials or talks in more generalized venues, the objections are very similar to what an Advaita speaker usually gets.

No, it's much simpler than that. They just use different definitions. To Seth, clock time is linear time the outer self relies on and psychological time is non-linear time or no-time with which only the the inner self is familiar with (similar to presence in ET terms). So they actually give similar advice. Seth is a bit confusing here because what he calls psychological or psyche usually isn't what the dictionary meaning refers to. To Seth the psyche is akin to what A-H call non-physical which is similar to what we call the impersonal or the absolute. Seth sometimes calls it the Unknown.

[Reefs]

Only one teaching

ET: Since every person carries the seed of enlightenment within, I often address myself to the knower in you who dwells behind the thinker, the deeper self that immediately recognizes spiritual truth, resonates with it, and gains strength from it.

I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don’t know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten. Living knowledge, ancient and yet ever new, is then activated and released from within every cell of your body.

The mind always wants to categorize and compare. Don’t get attached to any words. They are only stepping stones, to be left behind as quickly as possible.

When I occasionally quote the words of Jesus or the Buddha, from A Course in Miracles or from other teachings, I do so not in order to compare, but to draw your attention to the fact that in essence there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching, although it comes in many forms. Some of these forms, such as the ancient religions, have become so overlaid with extraneous matter that their spiritual essence has become almost completely obscured by it. To a large extent, therefore, their deeper meaning is no longer recognized and their transformative power lost. When I quote from the ancient religions or other teachings, it is to reveal their deeper meaning and thereby restore their transformative power – particularly for those readers who are followers of these religions or teachings. I say to them: there is no need to go elsewhere for the truth.


Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Introduction

www.eckharttolle.com/power-of-now-excerpt/

[laughter]

Apr 29, 2019 7:38:29 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Apr 28, 2019 13:35:28 GMT -5 laughter said:

Tolle's advice is multi-faceted because it can help a person get to a relatively less disturbed inner state, but for me and many others, it was the beginning of an undoing. He invites his readers into meditation, without telling them that this is what he's offering.

There is quite a bit of cross-interest in A-H among the Tolle crowd, and to be honest with you this struck me as really strange when I first encountered it, because "LOA" just didn't seem to me to have anything to do with Tolle's pointing. There's a guy who's very active on the Tolle forum, one of the more assertive moderators, who's big into A-H, and he always replies to (what he likely suspects as) potential brown-bears with the personal side of the story.

Yes, I noticed. Also very heavy on ATA.

Interesting, you've got a link? Wouldn't surprise me, actually. I'd say ET is 90% A-H. Basically, ET teaches alignment. He's got a slightly different approach to it than A-H, but they share similar core concepts. Off the top of my head, what comes to mind is this:

Inner Body = Inner Being (A-H) or Inner Self / Inner Ego (Seth)
Presence = Alignment (A-H)
Being = Source (A-H) or Vitality (Seth)

The guy I'm talking about is "Webwanderer" over on the tolle forum. My guess is you might find a dialog with him to be interesting.

[laughter]

Apr 29, 2019 8:01:39 GMT -5 Reefs said:

Apr 28, 2019 13:44:58 GMT -5 laughter said:

Seth isn't sugar coating anything, and while Tolle gently guides his readers attention from the personal to the impersonal, he tells us the existential truth, but he tells it to a person. The way I'd put what little I've read of Seth, is that the message isn't impersonal: it's all about an individuated transpersonal identity, and yet, from an assumed context of impersonality (oneness).

The apparent contradictions from either Tolle or Seth are obvious from the perspective of someone approaching the messages with rational mind, especially tethered to the SVP trance. Either consciously, or subconsciously. If you ever read along when people ask questions based on Tolle's materials or talks in more generalized venues, the objections are very similar to what an Advaita speaker usually gets.

No, it's much simpler than that. They just use different definitions. To Seth, clock time is linear time the outer self relies on and psychological time is non-linear time or no-time with which only the the inner self is familiar with (similar to presence in ET terms). So they actually give similar advice. Seth is a bit confusing here because what he calls psychological or psyche usually isn't what the dictionary meaning refers to. To Seth the psyche is akin to what A-H call non-physical which is similar to what we call the impersonal or the absolute. Seth sometimes calls it the Unknown.

I'll have to give Jane's stuff a more thorough read and get back to you. I can comment on Tolle's idea from the perspective of an unconscious seeker following Tolle's invitation into meditation. His distinction between types of time is meant for someone "watching the thinker" to get present to how the mind is constantly throwing shade over what Niz would call the "I AM" by drifting attention to the past or the future.

Now, it's definitely possible to get hung-up on what Tolle means by "clock time". I noticed myself getting tempted into trying to nail it down in intellectual terms, and I've read along with many others losing themselves in the TMT of it. There's a 100% parallel between that and the times in the past folks on this forum questioned what the 2nd 'A' in "ATA" is supposed to mean. But that's self-defeating of the intent. Ultimately, he's just pointing to the false, as false: the constant tug at attention away from the present. Here, the subtle seduction of his gentleness is evident again. It's natural to pursue the question "what is that pull?", but he doesn't put that on the reader's plate directly .. or, at least, that I recall.

Seth, also challenges the reader to meditate, and, unlike Tolle, does so directly. So although the meditation advice is similar, it seems to me different from Tolle, in that Seth is suggesting that the reader open their perception to something new, to trans-sensory stimuli the reader spent their entire lives oblivious to. So while Tolle is pointing to the false, as false, I don't think we can same the same of Seth, but like I said, I'll have to re-read it, and more of it. And frankly, I don't think I can really understand it unless I follow the practice suggestions that are woven into the material, to find out for myself what Jane was "channeling". An intellectual model of it might be interesting, and even helpful if not over-thought, but the "inner senses" are never going to be within the grasp of intellect.