Eckhart Tolle ( German: born Ulrich Leonard Tölle, February 16, 1948) is a German-born spiritual teacher and self-help author of The Power of Now and A New Earth.
After being recommended by Oprah Winfrey, his first book, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, reached The New York Times Best Seller list in 2000 which was followed eight years later by the book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. Ulrich Leonard Tölle was born in Lünen, a small town north of Dortmund in the Ruhr region of Germany in 1948.
At the age of 13, he moved to Spain to live with his father, who did not insist that he attend high school, so Tolle elected to study literature, astronomy, and languages at home. At 15, he was "heavily influenced by a gift of the five spiritual books by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken.