A NEW EARTH

I highly recommend that you read Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. But, as the Tolle says, only those who are ready for it will read it, and only those who are able will receive the information they need to have powerful transformations in their lives... Some people will read it and nothing will change. They won't get it. Others will become totally new people.

So... I can share with you some of my ideas about it.
It's a blend of self-help guidelines with spiritual and psychological observations and truisms. Nothing new sounding about that, as one person noted in a book club I'm in. And to that I say, yes.. nothing new to that .. BUT...

What's new about it is the way in which Tolle organizes the information he shares... there is something about it that is clear, straight forward and profound. He leads you through thought flows and logical reasoning to sudden realizations about yourself that can and do help to change your habits and patterns and conditioning that cause you to suffer.

No, no one will become enlightened overnight and suddenly never be mad or impatient or insecure or whatever negative energies they have at work in their person (everyone has negative energies at work in them.. it's a matter of seeing them, and recognizing what is sabotaging your happiness and totally actualization and then acting on it).

Most people stay asleep to who they really are.. and thus, suffer and cause suffering. So many people and mystics have said that, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Lao Tsu, Ram Das, John Lennon, and so on...

The key, Eckhart Tolle says, is to learn to be absolutely PRESENT, aware and awake to the NOW, and not to act either from ego or emotional pain, but to act from unconditional love and awareness.

Most people (you and I included) act from unconscious fears and judgments and egoic and emotional pains.

The idea is to learn to disassociate with your thoughts and feelings... to notice that they happen, but that you are NOT THEM. You are the awareness, the presence, the being that is experiencing thoughts and feelings. But you are NOT YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.
He strives to help the reader really get this, really experience it, and I think he does a good job.

In assisting the reader through really really getting that they are the conscious awareness of being behind the thoughts and feelings, he helps them (us, you, me, other readers) to become more aware of that fact.. to become more aware of the BEING that we are that is NOT thoughts of this and thoughts of that and planning and worrying and fretting and judging and internal conversations, and that we are NOT the feelings we are having of anger, envy, fear, etc.... those feelings are reactions that you have as a result of your thoughts.
I've known this for awhile, it's part of cognitive psychology.. not that I can always practice it and totally be free from thoughts that cripple and debihilitate and cause suffering... but that I recognize this to a truth about being human..

Our feelings are caused by thoughts and beliefs we carry around and latch onto and identify with.

Once you can let the thoughts go.. and say... hi leaf on the stream that is me, I see you floating by, then we don't drown trying to catch the leaf...

Observing the thoughts and letting them go allows emotional pain (what Eckart calls the pain body) to subside and dissipate.

And, now and then I find I can do this, and now and then I find I cannot. I mostly can do it with strangers, when I'd be nervous and having an agoraphobic PTSD reaction in public (in lines, at stores, gas stations, outside, checking the mail, etc..) now I don't have those feelings. I observe the initial thought or feeling that is fear and wants to retreat to the house, and then I can go ah, there is that thought and feeling of fear.. I'm not that thought and feeling. AND BAM the THOUGHTS AND FEELING DISSIPATES.

That's the key.

Being able to be AWARE and PRESENT with what you are thinking and feeling so that you are not a prisoner of your thoughts and feelings, so that you do not ACT on and REACT to your thoughts and feelings...

You just observe them, acknowledge them and let them go.

Eckhart is all about being in the NOW. And he is famous for writing a book called The Power of Now. I haven't read it now, but I want to, as I'm really getting it (not that you or I or anyone else hasn't heard these ideas or understood them, it's not about hearing or understanding them, it's about GETTING IT, deep inside you so that you are changed and can act on this understanding).

I'm really getting how important and effective it is to strive to be present in the moment, to be aware of your thoughts and feelings and to not act on them when they can and do cause pain and suffering and more pain and suffering...

It doesn't mean you can't express joy or feel deep love or have a fantastic idea that turns into a cool book or artwork.
It doesn't mean that.
I means don't let NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AND PAINFUL EMOTIONS RULE YOU.

And most of us do, unconsciously.
And that is the point... many people will say but of course I don't let or want to let negative emotions or thoughts rule me...

But most of us are unconscious of how our negative thoughts and emotions rule us.

So his book, A New Earth, Awakening to your Purpose, guides you through ways to learn to wake up and become MORE CONSCIOUS, it's about evolving our consciousness to a new level so that we create less suffering and therefore, create a new Earth.

He says, our purpose in life is to become more conscious (which is really the tenet of all spiritual teachings), and it is through fulfilling our purpose that we can create a new reality with less ego created and emotional pain body created Suffering...

In a nutshell, that is my take on the book. And I'm reading it for the third time, with my husband. I'm trying to apply the ideas to my life and I'm noticing changes. I'm less reactive, more positive, and I have more energy, as I'm sleeping better (no nightmares), and I notice a lot of the symptoms of PTSD are subsiding. I know this work that Eckhart shares requires that we diligently, faithfully, and continually strive to become more conscious. Every moment of our lives is a call to wake up, a call not to react in ego or pain, a call to awakening.

And there is so much more in the book, like nuts and bolts of how the ego and pain body take over and rule us and create suffering and how to recognize it in ourselves and how to stop it and change and wake up and become more peaceful and present and aware.

So, if you feel called to read it, after hearing about this, please DO!

If not, you're just not ready yet... ;)

The thing I love about Oprah Winfrey right now is that she has made A New Earth even more powerful by featuring as her book of the month, and then hosting an online live video chat class with Eckhart, (you can download or watch it here) in which they discuss the chapter we are reading that week and viewers/listeners can call in, write/text in, or video conference in. Millions of people around the world are reading the book and tuning into this online course. It's profound. To think of all these people trying to overcome their egos and pain bodies and wake up and create less suffering is a fact that fills me with hope for a better world.

I really hope you read it.