(19) Eckhart Tolle at Roy Thomson Hall (www.eckharttolle.com and www.soundstrue.com)

Eckhart Tolle hosted a full house at Roy Thomson Hall on January 30 with The Power of Presence: Going Beyond Ego, and January 31 with Enlightened Relationships: The Arising of the New Consciousness.

Both evenings, there wasn't a single seat empty in the hall. Middle-aged parents came with their early-20s children, or as Tolle put it in the second evening, "Grown-up children, if there is such a thing."

Singles, groups of friends, couples, people in wheelchairs, were all there to hear Tolle's message which you can find on his website (www.eckharttolle.com): The World Can Only Change From Within.

It was almost too coincidental that, when I walked into the hall the second evening, I met Larissa, with whom I had done a five-week meditation course (masks and Jung), just before Christmas, led by Dr. Mana Waite, a very experienced meditation teacher (http://www.openmindmeditation.com.au/about_mana.php).

Both evenings, Tami Simon, publisher of Sounds True (www.soundstrue.com), reminded the audience not to applaud when Mr. Tolle walked onto the stage. She also pointed out that Tolle is a "frequency holder" of calmness and being and transmits it to others.

However, Tolle has a humble presence. He's slightly stooped, wears simple clothing (a light brown vest over a yellow shirt, brown pants and shoes), and has a soft voice. He sat in a plain chair in front of a microphone and spoke slowly, non-stop, for a full two hours.

Mr. Tolle's presentations are sprinkled with frequent humour to set his audience at ease. He greeted us the second evening with, "I was in the green room and was lucky enough to pick up a brochure that told me I was to speak about enlightened relationships tonight. Oh..."

"Yes, I'm here to talk about the arising consciousness... It's arising, otherwise you wouldn't be here, that is, if you came here voluntarily."

Tolle reminded us, though, that this new consciousness isn't here permanently: "Your mind will be fully here tonight, but might also take you away to tomororw's plans or your problems; then it will come back to the present moment."

When we let go of the past and stop worrying about the future, we can then dwell in the present moment, without interference from "I am this, I am that." The most we can say, then, is "I am," no more, no less.

Then thinking becomes a beautiful tool. We can use our mind to express something beyond definitions or labels. We find that space inside ourselves, so the personal history is no longer important. We no longer carry around with us the story of the unhappy me. The past is gone, the future doesn't exist. Relationships and communication can then change.

And the signs of change are all around, according to Tolle. The election of Obama couldn't have happened twenty years ago. No one thought communism would fall, either. We thought it would be here for hundreds of years. Not so.

More prophetic were Tolle's final words, which he borrowed from the New Testament:

"The kingdom of heaven does not come with signs to be observed. It is therefore not outside, but within, the innermost reality."