Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Penguin (2008), Edition: Reprint, 336 pages
Description
Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: he implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity. However, there is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world. This will involve a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely new one. In illuminating the nature of this shift, Tolle describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness. We will come to experience who we truly are--which is something infinitely greater than anything we currently think we are.--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member talltrickster
I liked this book even more than Power of Now. The human mind needs an evolutionary transformation, and Tolle shows how this can occur by shifting out of our ego based consciousness.
LibraryThing member jpsnow
There were whole sections of this book I just couldn’t grasp or get into, especially in the beginning. More importantly, there were multiple passages that conveyed new and deep epiphanies.
LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
I'll admit that I read this book only because a friend of mine knew of my love for books and wanted to share the experience of Oprah's webcasts with me. At first, I was reluctant to do so, but I finally agreed to do so as reading is indeed my passion.
The beginning of this book left a lot to be
My overall feeling is that this book is a good read for people who have never been attracted to this type of spirituality before and want the idea to be clearly explained. The narrative leaves a lot to be desired by those of us who want to know more in depth about the ideas presented. I'd say I think of this book as kind of a Spirituality 101. It has an interesting idea offered to those ready to receive it.
The beginning of this book left a lot to be
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desired. I found the text repetitive, watered down to the lowest common denominator, and a reflection of my own personal beliefs about spirituality. It was actually after I got to the last quarter of the book that I sensed myself becoming more engaged. Perhaps that was because, at that point, the explanations of the idea were thankfully over and suggestions for its application in daily life were suggested. It was also at that place in the narrative that I decided to go back and view the Oprah podcasts. My overall feeling is that this book is a good read for people who have never been attracted to this type of spirituality before and want the idea to be clearly explained. The narrative leaves a lot to be desired by those of us who want to know more in depth about the ideas presented. I'd say I think of this book as kind of a Spirituality 101. It has an interesting idea offered to those ready to receive it.
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LibraryThing member maximnoronha
Can't argue with this at all.
LibraryThing member rmkelly
A New Earth, by Eckhardt Tolle
"A New Earth" is a rather heady little book which purports to "show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to our personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world." I would call this claim
I guess ultimately the question is: has Mr. Tolle correctly gauged the utility of the ego? I think it fair to say that he feels the ego has no utility, except that when we eradicate the ego at every turn, we come closer to our higher purpose, which is less ego, and more spirit, or, in his words, Consciousness, also known as Presence. Presence can be defined as "consciousness without thought." Indeed, Tolle seems to distrust thought almost as much as ego, which is odd for an author churning out 300-page treatises. How can this be accomplished except with a great deal of rigorous thought? Another oddity: his fixation on the banishment of the ego from all utility, except that of affirming its opposite (spirit) resembles a Catholic argument that Error has only one use — that it helps to define and develop Truth. But Tolle is no Catholic, although he does use many of Jesus' quotes to good effect.
The problem that I have with his premise is that his rejection of the collective ego necessarily rejects a great deal more, which we might call personal ego: the unique qualities that each of us brings into this world, and the special path that we follow because we were born in a particular place and time. I feel that all of these attributes should not be discounted as merely grains of sand on an infinite beach. Surely they must be part of a higher purpose, a personal destiny, which is also worthwhile. Or, if not that, then at least they may be celebrated as defining characteristics of who we are, and how we learn, and may lead therefore to the acquisition of habits that further refine who we are. We shape our habits, and then our habits shape us. And this process is not pernicious, but simply how we develop.
To turn at every opportunity and attempt to jettison this individuality (that's what Mr. Tolle seems to be advocating) seems ungrateful at best and wrong-headed at worst. The ego is not only something to react against. It is also something to understand, come to terms with, learn from, and be grateful for. One need not be a disciple of Ayn Rand to feel that a strong ego is a good thing, on balance.
Yet Mr. Tolle finds no place in the world for the ego. Perhaps this explains why the thrust of the book is toward the otherworldly. For example, he observes on pg. 162 that "...when you realize that pain-bodies unconsciously seek more pain, that is to say, that they want something bad to happen, you will understand that many traffic accidents are caused by drivers whose pain-bodies are active at the time." Tolle's conception is that unconsciousness (overt identification with the ego) creates a negative energy field and an accumulation of pain (the so-called pain-body). Okay, someone's off-kilter energy field or pain-body may be at work, but couldn't these accidents be simply caused by jackass drivers? Left unexplained in this discussion of road rage is how Mr. Tolle or the highway patrol or a judge could possibly know when a pain-body is or is not active and therefore responsible for the accident. This may be why the book is found in the "spiritual" and not the "science" section of the bookstore.
On the positive side, Tolle has a crackerjack team of editors. I never found a typo in this 300-page book. His prose style is effective, if a bit odd. Once he starts, his batteries never run down. He forges constantly ahead with hundreds upon hundreds of small words, scarcely stopping to summarize or collect the argument. This style reminds me of a friend who was equally adept at words and philosophical argument, though his words were longer. After indulging in a helping hand from the pharmaceutical industry he would hold forth on how a certain spinning wheel was within another spinning wheel, which was within yet another other spinning wheel. He never summarized, explained, or stopped talking. Tolle's treatise is somewhat like that, although to be fair he also unearths many fascinating examples of how we trip ourselves up when we pick the wrong objectives. There are also several stories about pithy lessons from enlightened Easterners.
Verdict: as a self-help book, this is not bad, and better than most. Judged as a profound spiritual manifesto, will it really help save the earth and build a better world? I find that unlikely. It was published in 2005, and its predecessor "The Power of Now" was published 15 years ago. The last time I checked, the world seemed to be revolving as it usually does, egos, pain-bodies and all.
His fact-checkers let him down in the sections about religious intolerance (pg. 155-7). He states that "it seems certain that during a three-hundred-year period between three and five million women were tortured and killed by the "Holy Inquisition"…Tolle goes on to equate the gravity of this persecution to the Jewish Holocaust during WWII. Without pause he next compares these twin tragedies to witch-burning, and explains why the phenomenon of burning witches at the stake caught on: “What is it that suddenly made men feel threatened by the female?" he asks. He then answers himself: "The evolving ego in them. It knew it could gain full control of our planet only through the male form, and to do so, it had to render the female powerless. In time, the ego also took over most women, although it could never become as deeply entrenched in them as in men."
Where do I start? Popular history books most often cite from 30,000 to 50,000 for all burned at the stake during the 300 years of the Spanish Inquisition, and specialists come up with even lower numbers. There were other inquisitions, but the sum totals could not have been as high as Tolle claims, and they were not all or even mostly women. See Telchin (2004); and Pasachoff and Littman (2005). The slapdash comparison of the results of the various Inquisitions of the Catholic Church to the horrific extermination of millions of Jews during the Second World War is distasteful, to say the least. As for witch-hunts, certainly they were a real and regrettable phenomenon. Yet, while there were many witches burned at the stake in Europe and America, these numbers, too, have become inflated due to sloppy research, latter-day hysteria, and self-help authors stretching a point. Most professional researchers figure around 50,000 victims, with some few supporting lower figures of around 30,000, and some few who believe there were as many as 100,000 or so.
As for women having less ego than men: Mr. Tolle does not know the women I know.
"A New Earth" is a rather heady little book which purports to "show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to our personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world." I would call this claim
Show More
ambitious (and therefore egotistical) coming from any other man. But, because Mr. Tolle operates from the premise that he has harnessed his ego in the service of a greater good, that characterization would run counter to the spirit of the book, may seem grossly unfair, and might even reveal me as one who has not transcended his ego.I guess ultimately the question is: has Mr. Tolle correctly gauged the utility of the ego? I think it fair to say that he feels the ego has no utility, except that when we eradicate the ego at every turn, we come closer to our higher purpose, which is less ego, and more spirit, or, in his words, Consciousness, also known as Presence. Presence can be defined as "consciousness without thought." Indeed, Tolle seems to distrust thought almost as much as ego, which is odd for an author churning out 300-page treatises. How can this be accomplished except with a great deal of rigorous thought? Another oddity: his fixation on the banishment of the ego from all utility, except that of affirming its opposite (spirit) resembles a Catholic argument that Error has only one use — that it helps to define and develop Truth. But Tolle is no Catholic, although he does use many of Jesus' quotes to good effect.
The problem that I have with his premise is that his rejection of the collective ego necessarily rejects a great deal more, which we might call personal ego: the unique qualities that each of us brings into this world, and the special path that we follow because we were born in a particular place and time. I feel that all of these attributes should not be discounted as merely grains of sand on an infinite beach. Surely they must be part of a higher purpose, a personal destiny, which is also worthwhile. Or, if not that, then at least they may be celebrated as defining characteristics of who we are, and how we learn, and may lead therefore to the acquisition of habits that further refine who we are. We shape our habits, and then our habits shape us. And this process is not pernicious, but simply how we develop.
To turn at every opportunity and attempt to jettison this individuality (that's what Mr. Tolle seems to be advocating) seems ungrateful at best and wrong-headed at worst. The ego is not only something to react against. It is also something to understand, come to terms with, learn from, and be grateful for. One need not be a disciple of Ayn Rand to feel that a strong ego is a good thing, on balance.
Yet Mr. Tolle finds no place in the world for the ego. Perhaps this explains why the thrust of the book is toward the otherworldly. For example, he observes on pg. 162 that "...when you realize that pain-bodies unconsciously seek more pain, that is to say, that they want something bad to happen, you will understand that many traffic accidents are caused by drivers whose pain-bodies are active at the time." Tolle's conception is that unconsciousness (overt identification with the ego) creates a negative energy field and an accumulation of pain (the so-called pain-body). Okay, someone's off-kilter energy field or pain-body may be at work, but couldn't these accidents be simply caused by jackass drivers? Left unexplained in this discussion of road rage is how Mr. Tolle or the highway patrol or a judge could possibly know when a pain-body is or is not active and therefore responsible for the accident. This may be why the book is found in the "spiritual" and not the "science" section of the bookstore.
On the positive side, Tolle has a crackerjack team of editors. I never found a typo in this 300-page book. His prose style is effective, if a bit odd. Once he starts, his batteries never run down. He forges constantly ahead with hundreds upon hundreds of small words, scarcely stopping to summarize or collect the argument. This style reminds me of a friend who was equally adept at words and philosophical argument, though his words were longer. After indulging in a helping hand from the pharmaceutical industry he would hold forth on how a certain spinning wheel was within another spinning wheel, which was within yet another other spinning wheel. He never summarized, explained, or stopped talking. Tolle's treatise is somewhat like that, although to be fair he also unearths many fascinating examples of how we trip ourselves up when we pick the wrong objectives. There are also several stories about pithy lessons from enlightened Easterners.
Verdict: as a self-help book, this is not bad, and better than most. Judged as a profound spiritual manifesto, will it really help save the earth and build a better world? I find that unlikely. It was published in 2005, and its predecessor "The Power of Now" was published 15 years ago. The last time I checked, the world seemed to be revolving as it usually does, egos, pain-bodies and all.
His fact-checkers let him down in the sections about religious intolerance (pg. 155-7). He states that "it seems certain that during a three-hundred-year period between three and five million women were tortured and killed by the "Holy Inquisition"…Tolle goes on to equate the gravity of this persecution to the Jewish Holocaust during WWII. Without pause he next compares these twin tragedies to witch-burning, and explains why the phenomenon of burning witches at the stake caught on: “What is it that suddenly made men feel threatened by the female?" he asks. He then answers himself: "The evolving ego in them. It knew it could gain full control of our planet only through the male form, and to do so, it had to render the female powerless. In time, the ego also took over most women, although it could never become as deeply entrenched in them as in men."
Where do I start? Popular history books most often cite from 30,000 to 50,000 for all burned at the stake during the 300 years of the Spanish Inquisition, and specialists come up with even lower numbers. There were other inquisitions, but the sum totals could not have been as high as Tolle claims, and they were not all or even mostly women. See Telchin (2004); and Pasachoff and Littman (2005). The slapdash comparison of the results of the various Inquisitions of the Catholic Church to the horrific extermination of millions of Jews during the Second World War is distasteful, to say the least. As for witch-hunts, certainly they were a real and regrettable phenomenon. Yet, while there were many witches burned at the stake in Europe and America, these numbers, too, have become inflated due to sloppy research, latter-day hysteria, and self-help authors stretching a point. Most professional researchers figure around 50,000 victims, with some few supporting lower figures of around 30,000, and some few who believe there were as many as 100,000 or so.
As for women having less ego than men: Mr. Tolle does not know the women I know.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cemar
A two star rating may not really be doing this justice! I attended the weekly on-line session’s w/Oprah and ET along with a local club that met weekly. It was just an overload for me. There were some good self observations revealed but it was like I was in a psyche course trying to understand all
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the concepts introduced. If I did not listen to the on line course with Oprah and ET I am not sure I would have gotten through this book. I will keep it in my library for now and maybe re-read a different stage in my life. Show Less
LibraryThing member Airycat
I'm not particularly fond of reading books that "everyone" is reading. Even as a child I'd look for something I'd never heard of before, rather than what was suggested. It was with some reluctance that I picked up A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. I'm not sure why I
I don't think Tolle is a great writer. The content was not hard for me to grasp, but I found the first couple of chapters annoyingly difficult to read. I persevered at this point only because I had promised my sister I'd keep up, for her, with Oprah's class on it. Ultimately, I'm glad I did keep reading. Tolle doesn't present anything through a religious belief, but I read with my Christian beliefs. There are things I don't agree with, perhaps don't quite understand, but I found that his basic premise of how we must be is in agreement with my faith. And I agree that it is powerful. Although I'm not sure of the terminology, because of my own connotations, I see the problem of ego as he presents it. By the time I got to the middle I had started to write notes and questions in the margins and the petty annoyances of his writing didn't bother me. (I think it's the amount of repetition, but I'm not really sure and I really don't think it matters. He's not a great writer, but he's decent enough. This book isn't about the writing. It's about the content.)
In the end Tolle says the book will either be gibberish or make profound sense to the reader. For me it was simple and profound, although not entirely new -- just presented differently. It's worth reading just to find out if it's gibberish or profound. If it turns out to be gibberish to you, take what you can from it and don't worry about the rest.
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did, especially since I'm not into new age stuff and that's what this seemed like.I don't think Tolle is a great writer. The content was not hard for me to grasp, but I found the first couple of chapters annoyingly difficult to read. I persevered at this point only because I had promised my sister I'd keep up, for her, with Oprah's class on it. Ultimately, I'm glad I did keep reading. Tolle doesn't present anything through a religious belief, but I read with my Christian beliefs. There are things I don't agree with, perhaps don't quite understand, but I found that his basic premise of how we must be is in agreement with my faith. And I agree that it is powerful. Although I'm not sure of the terminology, because of my own connotations, I see the problem of ego as he presents it. By the time I got to the middle I had started to write notes and questions in the margins and the petty annoyances of his writing didn't bother me. (I think it's the amount of repetition, but I'm not really sure and I really don't think it matters. He's not a great writer, but he's decent enough. This book isn't about the writing. It's about the content.)
In the end Tolle says the book will either be gibberish or make profound sense to the reader. For me it was simple and profound, although not entirely new -- just presented differently. It's worth reading just to find out if it's gibberish or profound. If it turns out to be gibberish to you, take what you can from it and don't worry about the rest.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kellyoliva
Undescribable here. This book is unlike anyting I have ever read, and if you are privileged enough to understand its message, it will truly impact your life in unimaginable ways. I wish everyone could read and comprehend this book. On a sidenote, I found the first two chapters difficult to follow.
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Don't give up on the book because of the initial pages! Show Less
LibraryThing member maiadeb
SLOW read. His choice of words can get tangled up and hard to understand but sticking to it leads to clarity. It is another way to describe many of the spiritual teachings appearing these days showing there are many roads to reach a destination. I took many quotes from the book as triggers to
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remind me or bring me back into focus...worth the time. Show Less
LibraryThing member fidchivers
Basically, some decent observations on how to live your life dressed up in all sorts of overblown and self-important language, then over-generalized into Truths that are supposed to cure every ill. Think of it as spiritual snake oil. it won't hurt you, but it pretends to be so much mroe than it
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really is. Show Less
LibraryThing member bolero
I am finding this to be one of the best books ever on spirituality because it makes "living in the moment" accessible in a user friendly way. Podcasts of an Eckhart/Oprah series are available at Oprah.com which are a great addition to the book
LibraryThing member jsserap
Eckhart Tolle provides an intelligent discussion of the common state-of-being for most humans. This state, he points out, is largely unconscious. He identifies an "egoic mind" which can never be satisfied, is often angered and causes us to turn pain into pro-longed suffering. "A New Earth" goes
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beyond "The Power of Now" to suggest that by becoming the awareness behind the thoughts and feelings we experience, we can discover our essential being; that place where peace, personal power and love reside. Mr. Eckhart's insights go beyond individual awakening to explore the infinite , formless state from which we came. Show Less
LibraryThing member mojomomma
Lots of interesting ideas about how to live a more meaningful life. Tolle encourages us to get out of minds and egos and into the moment, "just be." Pretty new-agey stuff for me and I'm not sure I agree with or understand all of his points, yet I'm already incorporating some of his ideas into my
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life. This is a book I need to buy and highlight and underline and re-read. I don't often feel the need to do that. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonesb5
Another Life changing book - giving freedom to all who read and abide by it.
LibraryThing member bhappy
I haven't finished reading this one yet. Some of it is a little difficult to get through. Gives us something to think about (other than ourselves!). Who are we? and why are we here? Very philosophical.
LibraryThing member seph
This book could've easily been called, "Everything You Need To Know To Be Happy", or "Your Mind, An Owner's Manual". It's not an easy read whatsoever, but the information is golden and absolutely worth the effort. I loathe psychology and what I refer to as "psycho-babble" and "guru-speak", so it
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took me a while to warm up to this book. The first couple of chapters were excruciatingly pretentious, but I was determined to get something out of this read, and the rest of the book far exceeded my expectations. I'm going to need to reread it several more times before I feel like I have a good grasp on it all; it was just too much to take in all at once. Show Less
LibraryThing member bugeyzz23
This book was very hard to get into. I followed the advice of readers who I spoke to that were ahead of me, and didn't give up on reading it. After a few chapters, it started to make more sense. A good book to really get you thinking. I also enjoy the online weekly book review "live" with Eckhart
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Tolle and Oprah. He really could explain each chapter much easier in words than in print!!! Show Less
LibraryThing member grandpal
The fact that many people have signed up to Oprah's on-line course on this book speaks volumes about our need. But the fact that people are latching on to precisely this book is a big surprise to me. I found the book often quite dull and obtuse. In addition, it is a mixed bag of a old philosophies.
One of the philosophies reflected in this book is neo-platonism. The author constantly speaks about the dualism between form and matter. Also he quotes Jesus quite a few times, but mostly not in any sense of the words that have traditionally been understood to be Jesus' intention. I think the author propably has greater love of Buddhism than of Christianity. Between the awkward language, there are occasionally insights which seems to be true enough, but one would be better off reading more main-line psychology to get a clearer take on many of them.
The basic ideas have been around for a long time. Interestingly, on the same day that I finished reading this book, I saw an episode of the 90' British comedy in which the daughter in law of the elderly senior's home residence spends some time at a retreat, and comes out of it spewing pretty much the entire book of Tolle in a few lines.
The popularity of the book seems to me ultimately very sad.
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One of the philosophies reflected in this book is neo-platonism. The author constantly speaks about the dualism between form and matter. Also he quotes Jesus quite a few times, but mostly not in any sense of the words that have traditionally been understood to be Jesus' intention. I think the author propably has greater love of Buddhism than of Christianity. Between the awkward language, there are occasionally insights which seems to be true enough, but one would be better off reading more main-line psychology to get a clearer take on many of them.
The basic ideas have been around for a long time. Interestingly, on the same day that I finished reading this book, I saw an episode of the 90' British comedy in which the daughter in law of the elderly senior's home residence spends some time at a retreat, and comes out of it spewing pretty much the entire book of Tolle in a few lines.
The popularity of the book seems to me ultimately very sad.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Jmsiano
The book conveyed some ideas very well to me and those ideas have been very helpful for me in preventing some stress, accepting unfortunate or difficult things in life, and enjoying the rest the of it in the moment.
LibraryThing member kayautic57
I had high hopes for this book, based on accolades from reviews I'd read. Unfortunately, I found it disappointing. The writing is only fair, not what I would expect in a best-seller. The stories were not engaging enough to encourage me to WANT to read more. I recommend Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Full
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Catastrophe Living" instead. Show Less
LibraryThing member normaleistiko
Wonderful thoughts and ideas about a view point of living your life more meaningful. Works too. Not a great writer, but ideas are wonderful
LibraryThing member Carmenere
I found Eckhart Tolle's self help book to be very engaging. Have your handy dandy highlighter available as you note key ideas as well as a pencil to jot down your thoughts. Although I did not feel awakened to my life's purpose I learned how to be more aware, more conscience of my own perceptions
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and that of others. If that's to be my life's purpose than so be it, I'm well on my way. I'll keep this book near at hand to review key ideas occasionally less I lose my way. A definite keeper. Show Less
LibraryThing member mcelhra
Although Tolle says he's not affiliated with any religion, this book is really "Buddhism lite". The concepts in this book weren't new to me but I thought that Tolle had an engaging style of explaining them that kept me interested. It was repetitive at times but I think someone who was learning
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about enlightenment and the principles of consciousness for the first time might need that repetition to reinforce them. Most of the book was theoretical - I would have like more concrete examples of how to implement the concepts in my own life. I did not do Oprah's online classes, perhaps those would have some. Show Less
LibraryThing member Clara53
An extraordinary book by a great visionary of our time.
LibraryThing member EbonyHaywood
Excellent book that sheds light on we become so caught up in our thinking that we don't pay attention to what's going on right here and now.
Subjects
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 2010)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2006)
Delete Key Award (2008)
Oprah's Book Club selection (2008)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
8 inches
ISBN
9780452289963