I downloaded the first episode of a 10-week session that Oprah Winfrey is doing with spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. Check it out in iTunes if you’re interested.
In part I’m happy that Eckhart’s teachings are getting this kind of exposure. The Power of Now was one of the first spiritual texts I picked up and it had a major impact on me. I had a very real and direct glimpse of “being” while I was reading his work, and had a strong emotional connection with the goal of awakening that he was sharing. I also, at the time, largely agreed with his spin on things.
Later on I came to see that his teachings were a useful introduction to the spiritual path, but didn’t really have the sophistication that other traditions had–including maps, teachers (who are accessible), and developed practices. It’s very easy, and I’ve seen this with family members, to pick up Tolle’s work, read it, be impacted by it, and then just keep going with no impetus to follow up those openings with actual transformation (that sentence had a ton of commas!). The fact that Oprah, and the mainstream world, has picked up on his work is a testament to this fact. It’s probably no mass awakening, but rather many of the same people who read Conversations with God and The Celestine Prophecy a few years before–who in my more cynical moments–I think are just getting a hit of something and then moving on to the next spiritual fad.
And, actually, that’s fine with me. I think the work it takes to wake up to the ultimate nature of things isn’t for everyone–just like getting a PhD in neuroscience isn’t for everyone. And there’s plenty in what Eckhart teaches that is just basically helpful (like trying to learn to be present), and so that the fact that Oprah is getting it out there is probably good. But imagine if Oprah became a hard-core yogi and then started emphasizing things with a tremendous amount of depth. Would anyone listen to her?
