Eckhart Tolle

In the process of visiting England and Scotland in October 2011, part of my family (the 5 of us) went to Findhorn, Scotland on our way from Inverness towards Aberdeen where we were to stay with long time friends of my wife and I. My son just handed me a book that he said had changed his life and helped him to realize that there is no future or past really and only now. Though I have been trying to get him to see this point for most of his life you know how it is with kids. They just have to get it on their own and make it their own to fully be there. The name of the book he handed me is:

Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn Retreat Stillness Amidst the World which is a book and 2 DVD set which includes a 4 hour section of the retreat on DVD published by New World Library, Novato, California.

He was speaking to me of the problems of society, government and the world (my son) and mentioned that, for example, one of the reasons that Germans have been doing better than the U.S. is that they never totally bought into the idea of everyone having to own their own home with a mortgage. I said to my son, "Well. People all my life thought I was rich when I wasn't because I never bought into that idea either." He looked at me and said, "You were always rich with ideas, Dad. Many people have ideas but they don't act on them like you always did." I felt complimented by my son in this way.  I suppose I am still acting on my ideas still, whether it is blogging my latest ideas or reactions to the things I read so others can benefit from my ideas and reactions to things and blogging about my travels all around the U.S. and world now that I am basically retired. Because, after all, I have now had about 63 years to actually think about everything. 

Anyway, it seems that my son, my older daughter and my wife are all very impressed with the philosophy of Eckhart Tolle. I think I always have been impressed with the idea of living in the now rather than the past or future. If you REALLY live now both the past and the future seem to take care of themselves. I think this was Stephen Jobs very Zen point of view too and why he was so very successful in designing user friendly technology.