I find non-hatred more achievable than love

I read the first page of The Power of Now yesterday. I still struggle to grasp Tolle's point. He was homeless and suicidal on a park bench when he noticed a contradiction in his thought "I cant live with myself anymore." Are there two of me? The one who thinks and the one who watches me think? So if I identify with only the watcher, I become a spectator to my own life? I am not the one who thinks?
He goes on to say that he spent 2 years in bliss on a park bench, after this extraordinary insight. Now that must be some kind of exaggeration I fear. This kind of fiction might help sell his book or set himself up as a guru. Two years on a park bench would be hell as far as I am concerned. Unless you were on some kind of excellent drug that never wears off.
But Ok I will admit that when I identify with my thoughts too much, I become small "p" paper. Everything I think, every thought I have, must be me. If I wish Russia's Putin to vanish from this earth, does that make me evil? Its just a thought. I mean Putin's existence doesn't affect my life directly at all. When I take my thoughts too seriously, I really do take myself too seriously. When I take your criticism of me seriously, I need to keep an open mind. You might be right. But then you aren't God either. You might be wrong. Opinions and perspectives aren't set in stone, as far as Im concerned. (imo )