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According wespendentirely
toTolle,
toomuchtimelistening to theinces-
santchatterof the mind.Herearetwo
of histipson howto turnthatchatter
off-fora minuteortwo,at least
o Feelyourselfbreathing
Feeltheair moving in andoutof your
body.Noteitstemperature (really).
\ "lt won'tlastlongj'saysTolle, "butit's

-#$,
a spacewhenyou?e notthinkingl'
@,1 r look at trees,flowersandthe sky
ta* Tryto perceive themwithoutalways
having t0 repeattheirnamesor with-
outcategorizing them.'Anything nat-

,tuff
.*"..: uralcanmuchmoreeasily takeyou
% E:r ',' outof thinking thanman-made
1 thingsi'he says.

a deep depression that dogged him


foryears. After dropping out ofschool
at 14, he moved to Spain to join his
father, Leonard, a struggling writer.
Tolle managed to get his academic
career back on track and was working
on a doctorate in literature at Cam-
bridge University when he experi-
That's a bit ironic, given that Tolle's night of watching Seinfeldreruns,has enceda profound transformation. In
teachings,which have brought com- afix for all of this: Live your life right the middle of a summer's night in
fort and calm to millions. are about here, right now. "Instead of making 1977,he awoke in such despair that
how to more fully be in this world. the present moment into an enemy, he considered taking his life. But by
The way he seesit, much of the fear, turn it into a friend," he suggests(see morning, he says,he was filled with
anxiety and guilt that all humans box for tips on putting the words into inexplicable bliss-and he spent the
extrleriencecan be traced to our inabil- action). As simple and gentle asTolle's next decade asking spiritual teach-
ity to live in the present. Instead, he principles may sound, they've struck ers to explain the cause."It was a deep
says,we spend our days dwelling on a deep chord in his followers. "He's peace that was with me wherever I
past mistakes-why did I have to eat brilliantly expressed awareness of went, even in the middle of London,
that double cheeseburger?-or fret- the present moment as a window to the middle of traffic," he says.Even-
ting about the future-the high school the spirit," saysNewAge guru Deep- tually, Tolle identified the principles
reunion is coming up, and I just ate ak Chopra. Adds Mitchell Cantor, 69, thathe would laterwrite about inhis
that double cheeseburger.Lost in all a Zen teacher from Boca Raton, Fla., book.
thatworrying, he says,is the present, who has playedtapes of Tolle's teach- So what's it like being a guru? "I'm
the only period we can actually expe- ings duringvisits to maximum secu- not," insists Tolle, who travels the
rience and enjoy at any given rity prisons: "I've seen guys in soli- world to give lectures but drives an
moment. "The now is the onlything tary confinement truly softened by SlfV and lives in an apartment deco-
there ever is, you can't get awayfrom his words." rated mostlywith books, not far from
it," says Tolle. "But the voice in our Growing up, Tolle's life was any- his girlfriend and businessassociate
head keepsus either in the past or in thing but soft. Born in Liinen, Ger- KimEng 44. "I always saythe truthis
the future, treating the present many, he was 1l when his parents' not to be found within anvbodvelse.
moment as if it were the enemy." unhappy marriage ended in divorce, It's in you."
Tolle, whose strongest indulgences a source of shame and embarrass-
are the occasional glassofwine and a ment to the young Tolle. He sank into ByJohnnyDoddinVancouver

21,2005PEoPLE
116 warcn

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