Eckhart Tolle encouraged millions of people to experience the joy and freedom of living “in the now” with his best-selling spiritual manual, The Power of present. Tolle builds on these potent concepts in A New Earth, demonstrating how overcoming our ego-based state of awareness is crucial for both achieving personal pleasure and putting a stop to suffering and conflict globally.
Tolle tells readers how to awaken to a new level of consciousness and pursue the road to a really meaningful existence by describing how our connection to the ego generates the dysfunction that results in rage, envy, and misery. A New Earth is a deeply spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for creating a better planet. It is illuminating, educational, and inspiring.
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About the Author
Eckhart Tolle is regarded by many as one of the most influential and forward-thinking spiritual instructors alive today. Through his 52-language translations of his international blockbusters, A New Earth and The Power of Now, he has shown millions of people the joy and liberation that come from living in the present.
Presence, the awakened condition of awareness that surpasses ego and discursive thought, is central to his teachings and is powerful and symbolic. This awakening, according to Eckhart, is the crucial next stage of human development.
In 2011, the Watkins Review dubbed him “the most spiritually influential person in the world,” and the New York Times has called him “the most popular spiritual author in the United States.
Review
First, I highly recommend that you read Eckhart’s previous work, The Power of Now. The Power of Now went into great length about many of the ideas that were addressed in passing in A New Earth. This makes sense to me.
Eckhart shouldn’t write two books on the same subject. A similar experience would be reading Harry Potter #2. You move forward on the assumption that you know people’s relationships, fears, and goals.
The first step is to separate the message from the messenger. Yes, Eckhart does come across as a bit arrogant at times. “This book is for spiritually awakened people – like those who read my previous book!” is one of the things he can state with confidence. According to his description, the pain-body is like an alien yearning to come out of your stomach.
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According to him, all corporations are evil and only interested in making money. Many of the businesses I know have noble objectives. Only one kind of legal entity is a company. It relies on the objectives and the people in charge. Heck, several of my friends have incorporated their tiny businesses to keep their homes. They don’t care about making money and have a strong altruistic inclination.
Eckhart frequently makes factual errors. He maintains the absurd claim that over a three-hundred-year period, five million women were murdered. The five million fatalities simply aren’t accurate, even if I’m a woman and I hate some of the things the church has done to women.
It makes people wonder what the true problems were. The average 60-year-old has been watching television for 15 years, he said. This means that, from birth, the average person watches six hours of television every day of their lives.
It is alarming enough that children under the age of 18 typically get 3 1/2 hours per day, and adults get slightly more, but NOBODY (male or female adults alike) averages 6 hours. Given that the first 18 years are 3.5 hours, Eckhart’s number is just incorrect.
In relation to this, he seems to be adamant that men are to fault for all of the negative events in history and that if women were in charge, we would live in a world of peace, joy, and plenty. I think both viewpoints are a bit extreme.
When Eckhart asserts that only a few animals died in the tsunami, he is once more propagating a falsehood. The deputy managing editor of Science scoffs, “I have heard rumors that none of the animals were killed, but how do they know that?”
Has a census been carried out? In other words, after an incident like this, we hardly ever notice (or care about) missing wild creatures, but we do notice when people disappear. It is true that animals may become terrified by the subsonic noises, but it is nonsensical to argue that the creatures were not killed.
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Even if a lot of animals “sensed something wrong,” I don’t think they could move far enough inland to escape the flood. Or maybe Eckhart just cares about large, recognizable animals like elephants.
My primary critique of both of these volumes is that Eckhart is preaching a message of despair. He asserts that we must confront the insane individuals in our lives and take charge of our thinking, or else we will all go insane. It gets out of hand.
If you look at history, you’ll notice that things are far calmer now than they were at any other period, despite his claims that the madness is becoming worse. More and more people try to talk about issues.
There have been some disagreements throughout our history, to be sure, but think of the periods when everything was settled by violence. We’re making amazing progress. But that’s not how books would be sold.
Having said that, I do want to emphasize that this book has many good qualities if you read it critically and with an open mind. He talks on how Buddhism seeks to make us aware of the challenges of daily life and the necessity of learning to accept things as they are.
He believed that sin was more about “missing the mark” than it was about being “evil” in the Bible’s original language. People were receiving counseling on how to learn from their mistakes and adapt as they went.
He warns that all material possessions decay over time, much as strength and attractiveness. You are setting yourself up to be sad when these things are gone by taking pride in them. It is better to be content with oneself than to rely on external factors. In this category, he covers companies and products having branded names.
He argues that the way you think about the world is influenced by your mental state. “Complaining is one of the ego’s favourite strategies for strengthening itself,” tells him. In order to feel better, you have to put someone else down. Later, he clarifies:
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It’s important to distinguish between complaining and pointing out a mistake or weakness so that it can be corrected. Additionally, avoiding complaints does not always mean putting up with subpar work or behavior. Thus, the issue is one of self-defense, of course, but not at the expense of others.
He talks about how some people think they won’t be happy until something changes in their lives, like moving to a new place or getting a new job. He asserts that some people think they will never be happy because of something from their past, perhaps from a long time ago.
He asserts that both sets of people are mistaken. Right now, you can choose to be happy. You can try to make your life better; you don’t have to accept your situation. You may, however, accept that you are where you are and that you will find serenity there even as you work to improve things.
He said we should always be thinking about happiness, excitement, or acceptance. Accept it, do your best, and move on if you honestly don’t want to be changing a flat tire in the rain. Anger will have a detrimental effect on your health and raise stress hormones, not hasten the tire replacement process.
I am convinced that the major points of this book are important. If Eckhart is explaining things in a way that most people “get” even when there are numerous other books on the same topic that express the same notion, then more power to him.
It illustrates how various people react to different types of language and how a writing style that makes sense to one person could not make sense to another. Even though this book goes into great detail about Buddhism, I doubt that many of the readers have been to a Buddhist temple and would not have struck up a conversation with a Buddhist monk.
Many of these concepts are basic to psychology and would be unknown to someone who did not read psychology books. Because of Eckhart, a large audience has deemed the content acceptable. Congratulations on completing that challenge. I simply feel that his book would have been lot better if it had omitted some of this “incorrect junk” that he included.
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Summary
One of the books that has changed my life the most is A New Earth. It’s difficult to read, though. I never got through it all, in fact, having begun and quit at least three times. Perhaps during the past few years, I just wasn’t prepared. Then, how did I eventually reach the end?
I believe the moment was finally appropriate, above everything else. However, this time, I also viewed the text differently from a tactical standpoint. I simultaneously followed along in the ebook and listened to the audiobook.
I think I was able to comprehend and take in the text more deeply because of this “see/say” experience. If you too choose to read it (and I hope you do!), I would strongly suggest that method.
Overall, this book has more notes than any other book I’ve ever read—more than 16,000 words total. Editing my notes is similar to reading the book over and over again, and I always feel like I’m learning something new. I think the process of irreversible awakening has begun.
Before we begin, a little housekeeping first: Except where indicated, all quotations are taken directly from Eckhart Tolle, the author. I’ve grouped my notes into distinct categories and highlighted certain lines for emphasis. Just the bolded material should be read if you wish to quickly scan this post. You should only read the content in boxes if you want a one-minute overview!