I think I’ve watched every Echart Tolle video that has ever been published and I’ve read most of his work.  Out of all of his lectures, I personally think this is one of the best and most profound.

Here’s just a tiny fraction of the lecture:

How to rule a country or organization – [or universe?]

When the master [of the way] governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists.

If you don’t trust the people, you make the people untrustworthy.

The master doesn’t talk; he acts.  When his work is  done, the people say, “Amazing!  We did it, all by ourselves.”

…

The kind man does something, yet something remains undone.

The just man does something, and leaves many things to be done.

The moral man does something, and when no one respondshe rolls up his sleeves and uses force.

…

When man interferes with the Tao, the sky becomes filthy, the earth becomes depleted, the equilibrium crumbles, creatures become extinct.

The oldest excavated text dates back to the late 4th century BC.

Profoundly anarchist, and a rather deep description of the divine.

The term “master” does not refer to a literal ruler, it refers to a person who has mastered their own consciousness.

Tolle, by his own actions and teachings, is profoundly anarchist.  Although he never comes out and directly says as much, his teachings and actions are very very clear about the nature of the state.  You can catch glimpses of his love for anarchism when he talks about the state of the world today.  It is interesting to see how he derives his support for anarchism through spiritual understanding, rather than utilitarian or moral philosophizing.

You’ll often hear him joking about what he can and cannot say to his audience. Clearly he holds back from saying things that are too direct because he doesn’t want to confuse people or turn them off before they have had a chance to integrate the deeper philosophy he is trying to teach.  If he came out and said, “The state is an institution of violence that revolves around the material world of form,” you’d see a few people like me show up at his lectures, but he certainly wouldn’t get much more than a few people to listen to him.

After you have watched Tolle’s lecture, read the Tao Te Ching.  I recommend watching the lecture first, and perhaps even reading Tolle’s “The Power of Now” before reading the Tao, otherwise its deeper meanings may be lost to you.