A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle has been read, re-read and re-read. I sat reading with a highlight pen and actually ran out of ink and had to grab another. There was so much noteworthy comments in this jewel of a book. There are very few pages where I didn't find something worth noting.
Then today I listened to the podcast covering a discussion of and review of Chapter 1. This discussion was lead by Oprah Winfrey & Eckhart Tolle.
I found this book illuminating, enlightening & uplifting, enjoyable, thought provoking and hard to put down.
My childhoold was spent in an extremely rigid, religious home where if you did not believe the way my parents and their church did, well then you were just wrong and doomed to the eternal fires of Hell.
This book really brought to my attention how organized religions are divisive rather than unifying forces.
They are ideologies, belief systems people identify with and so use them to enhance their false sense of self. Through them they can make themselves "right" and others "wrong".
Eckhart Tolle states, "The more you make your thoughts (beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself ..... Unless you believe (think) exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too-distant past, they would have felt justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now."
Learn to live in the "now". There are three ways in which consciousness can flow into what you do and through you into this world. The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain vibrational frequency of consciousness. You need to be vigilant to ensure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all -from the most simple of tasks to the most complex.
Acceptance - Whatever you are endeavouring to do right now, accept that this is what this situation, this moment requires you to do and do it willingly.
Enjoyment - Whatever you are doing, be in the moment and enjoy it. When you make the present moment, instead of past and future, the focal point of your life, your ability to enjoy what you do increases dramatically.
Enthusiasm - This is the third modality of awakened doing. Enthusiasm means there is deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or vision that you are working toward.
Here are a few of my favourite points from this book .....
You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge.
You can value and care for things, but whenever you get attached to them, you will know it is the ego. And you are never really attached to a thing, but to a thought that has "I", "me" or "mine" in it.
When I criticize or condemn another, it makes me feel bigger, superior.
Non reaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not only of going beyond ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective human ego.
Non reaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for non reaction is forgiveness.
The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only a grievance about the past can do that. What is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.
The fact that you temporarily know more or that you are bigger does not mean that a child is not your equal.
See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your skin, the display of magnificent flowers, biting into a succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky.
Laughter is extraordinarily liberating as well as healing.
You are never more essentially, more deeply yourself than when you are still.
Some changes may look negative on the surface, but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.
And lastly, my favourite .....
One With Life. Being one with life is being one with now. You then realize that you don't live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer and you are the dance.
Then today I listened to the podcast covering a discussion of and review of Chapter 1. This discussion was lead by Oprah Winfrey & Eckhart Tolle.I found this book illuminating, enlightening & uplifting, enjoyable, thought provoking and hard to put down.
My childhoold was spent in an extremely rigid, religious home where if you did not believe the way my parents and their church did, well then you were just wrong and doomed to the eternal fires of Hell.
This book really brought to my attention how organized religions are divisive rather than unifying forces.
They are ideologies, belief systems people identify with and so use them to enhance their false sense of self. Through them they can make themselves "right" and others "wrong".
Eckhart Tolle states, "The more you make your thoughts (beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself ..... Unless you believe (think) exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too-distant past, they would have felt justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now."
Learn to live in the "now". There are three ways in which consciousness can flow into what you do and through you into this world. The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain vibrational frequency of consciousness. You need to be vigilant to ensure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all -from the most simple of tasks to the most complex.
Acceptance - Whatever you are endeavouring to do right now, accept that this is what this situation, this moment requires you to do and do it willingly.
Enjoyment - Whatever you are doing, be in the moment and enjoy it. When you make the present moment, instead of past and future, the focal point of your life, your ability to enjoy what you do increases dramatically.
Enthusiasm - This is the third modality of awakened doing. Enthusiasm means there is deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or vision that you are working toward.
Here are a few of my favourite points from this book .....
You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge.
You can value and care for things, but whenever you get attached to them, you will know it is the ego. And you are never really attached to a thing, but to a thought that has "I", "me" or "mine" in it.
When I criticize or condemn another, it makes me feel bigger, superior.
Non reaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not only of going beyond ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective human ego.
Non reaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for non reaction is forgiveness.
The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only a grievance about the past can do that. What is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.
The fact that you temporarily know more or that you are bigger does not mean that a child is not your equal.
See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your skin, the display of magnificent flowers, biting into a succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky.
Laughter is extraordinarily liberating as well as healing.
You are never more essentially, more deeply yourself than when you are still.
Some changes may look negative on the surface, but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.
And lastly, my favourite .....
One With Life. Being one with life is being one with now. You then realize that you don't live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer and you are the dance.
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