[Buddha-l] In Praise of Eckhart Tolle

[curt]

Its important to respect other people's paths, and also to show some 
respect for people who have dedicated themselves to helping others on 
their path. That being said, critically assessing different teachers and 
teachings has always been part of the game. The Buddha didn't pull any 
punches when he was assessing the other schools of thought and teachers 
that were around during his day.

I think that critical assessment is even more important today than it 
was in the Buddha's day. Alternative spirituality has become a business 
- and many successful teachers are essentially (or even literally) CEO's 
of a successful money making enterprise. This is especially true of 
people like Echkart Tolle and Byron Katie and Ken Wilber who seem to 
have had the same experience when reading Trungpa's "Cutting Through 
Spiritual Materialism" that Dan Quayle reportedly had when he saw the 
film "The Candidate". How's that for an obtuse allusion? (See 
http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa031900a.htm and scroll down 
until you find Dan Quayle's name).

- Curt