Use Your Words like Your life Depended on them

Monday, March 17, 2008

Eckhart Tolle


I recently began reading A New Earth Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. It would not have been a book I would have chosen to read, being a book which is recommended by Oprah. Believe me, I know it is a not a good excuse. To my credit, I overcame my reluctance and picked up the book.

Hubby bought it for me as a gift, I started to read it after staring at it for a few weeks. I'm half way through the book now.

I decided to google it, and found a reference to it on a blog which I now can't find. It linked to www.Oprah.com site for more information, and found that she is facilitating a ten week online course with Eckhart. I downloaded the last two podcast and I watched them. I'm finding it interesting thus far. There is certainly some wisdom, and some helpful ideas to begin conversations...

I will watch the remaining eight online lessons, and reserve my comments until I've seen them all. But I will say at this juncture, we are searching for truth, enlightenment and purpose, therefore we should be reading critically. It is always best practice to trust your gut and come to your own conclusions rather than accepting what others say at face value.

However, I do find it is immensely helpful to listen and watch the author speak about his book. Furthermore, some of the questions from participants are also very interesting and thought provoking. The whole web course is like having a study group with the entire world...
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3 comments:

iimagyne said...

I purchased Eckhart Tolle book read the first 50 before realizing I was lost. I'm trying to re-read this time slowly. I'm hoping get excited about it. Now I did read the Secret by Rhonda Byrd and luv it! Keep this blogger updated on what you think about A New Earth, please maybe it will keep me motivated to read it.

ToBlog today said...

Thank you for your comment.
Eckhart writes, "...this book is not "interesting." Interesting means you can keep your distance, play around with ideas and concepts in your mind, agree or disagree. This book is about you." (page 7)

I think what he is saying in that quote is that we expect to be entertained, the beginning of the book it is more about conceptualizing which is more difficult to get our mind around. When he writes about "ego" it is simply the masks we wear in different situations in our life. It is how we identify the role we play in society.

I too found it difficult to get into at first, and read it slowly. Only reading short bits at a time. It gets much more confusing before it gets clear. Keep reading for the fun of it.

ToBlog today said...

I know I said that I would reserve comment about the book until I completed watching the online web class. I have to say, at this point, I'm really getting Eckhart!

It would be great if Oprah would allow him to complete his thoughts, and stop finishing his sentences. I would like to hear more directly from him rather than Oprah's interpretation of what she thinks he means. After all he is sitting right there being present and available.