Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle: The True Meaning of "Logos"

1 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:25

In this concise lecture, Eckhart Tolle argues that the term "Logos" has been mistranslated in Western thought. He asserts that Logos is not merely "the Word" but the divine intelligence that underlies and organizes the entire cosmos. Tolle references the opening of the Gospel of John, clarifying that the original Greek "Logos" denotes this cosmic intelligence, which is co‑eternal with God and the source of all creation. He further connects this concept to the ancient Roman idea of "anima mundi" (the world soul), explaining that the world soul manifests through all forms of life, yet remains a single, unified intelligence. The talk emphasizes the unity of Logos and anima mundi as the foundational principle behind every manifestation in the universe.

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Logos is wrongly translated because Logos is the intelligence that is inherent in the cosmos. It's the organizing principle behind the manifestation of life forms. The term was taken up by the person who wrote the Gospel of John because the Gospel of John starts with the words, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and God was the Word. But That word in the original Greek is the Logos. In its deepest meaning, Logos is the intelligence behind the world of appearances. In the beginning was the Logos, the divine intelligence, not the word. In the beginning was the divine intelligence, and the divine intelligence was with God, and the divine intelligence was God. And then he goes on to say nothing was ever made That was not made by the logos. Everything that is ever made was made by this divine intelligence. The important thing is there is what the ancient Romans in Latin called anima mundi. Anima mundi means the soul of the world, and this world soul. Has many manifestations, but all the manifestations of life are the manifestation of the one world soul.