Anyone reading Eckhart Tolle?

[serendipityspeaks]

I tried to read the Power of Now years ago but found it difficult to put into practice. Recently I came across 'A New Earth' and thought it would be more of the same, but this book really works for me, although I still have a few questions.

Anyone up for a discussion about their findings?

Hello everyone! I wasn't expecting all of this discussion, wow! I wish I had more time to respond to everyone but tonight is a busy, catch up with work night!

Cote - obviously you stand out from the crowd with your comments! Thanks for adding a bit of fire!

If anyone is up for overlooking the lack of scientific knowledge and wants to talk about how some of what Tolle says is affecting their lives I'd like to continue this thread in that sense.

I find it really interesting when I'm able to separate myself from my feelings and I have to say, I feel a bit more awake and in control. I'm not really a self-help book type of girl but A New Earth is proving to be a fantastic tool for improving my quality of life at the moment.

Back to my reports!

Oh, jeez, I was not seriously meaning that I think we are air, I am not completely stupid. I meant I liked the concept. If I wanted science, I would read a science book.

Well, some of us can't circumvent our brains when reading books that are not "science books".

It is not a fantasy book, either. The author is clearly (and in a patronising Q&A format, no less) claiming it all to be absolute truth.

Do you think?

I didn't read it as either absolute truth or fantasy, but as his thoughts conceptually on the state of being. And that is all it is.

I think there is some useful stuff in there - and the useful stuff is not that far removed from mindfulness, which has a credible scientific underpinning.

As for the stuff on consciousness, I read that really as us all being part of a greater whole, which in a sense puts all the day to day troubles into perspective. He does not say that you should not address your troubles or not change things, but that there is no point living in the past or the future, because you miss out on what is going on now (and now is all we really have in terms of being).

And the stuff about Enlightenment being that fundamental recognition that we are all part of the same whole, and therefore should work together to avoid all the negative emotions and actions which are driven by the ego putting the self first.

If you want to read about the mind, mindfulness, state of being etc from someone who actually knows what she is talking about, I recommend "My Stroke Of Insight - A brain scientist's personal journey" by Jill Bolte Taylor. She describes in fascinating detail what it feels like to have a stroke (starting with religious epiphany & feeling of oneness with the universe!) and explains why. Stroke destroys a large chunk of her left brain (the "thinker & planner" Eckhart Tolle hates and advises we ignore) so she truly lives "in the moment" and talks about what that is like. She manages to get help (fascinating account of trying to phone here while unable to recognize numbers) and is hospitalized but can't talk, read, or write. Her rehabilitation takes years while her brain recovers and she re-learns skills language skills, writing etc. She wants to recover but doesn't want to lose her newfound "zen". All very interesting and, unlike Power Of Now, factually correct.

Tolle does not advise we ignore the 'thinking and planning', rather that we use it appropriately and are not ruled by it.

But the book you suggest sounds interesting, thank you.

I read that book by Jill Bolte Taylor and I was amazed at how utterly un-introspective she was, pre stroke that is. She's got a brother that's diagnosed with schizophrenia but other that worry she seems not to have thought about his mental states much.
It was weird, but I could not get fascinated.

Maybe it's because my sister had the same diagnosis and then suddenly died of a stroke when she was only 29 (my father and grandmother also died from strokes.. it's a family thing).
I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading and JBT did not add anything new to me. But I guess that has more to do with me than her.

I'm sorry about your brother, Madam

She does say that she became a brain scientist because her brother has schizophrenia, though.

Her stroke was also due to a genetic problem. I wonder if you can be tested for it and treated, if necessary. Good luck with it all.

How are you doing with the reading of ET?

I've been trying some video clips on YouTube but find ET unfortunately annoying. I should be above this but I can't. I saw he has a website too. Is his book better? The library hasn't got it and I'd get too much stick from DH if I actually bought it. I don't have a kindle :)

I've been watching a couple of short clips with Jim Carrey - good.

I started reading this today. Only a few pages in, I'll let you know what I make of it.

By 'this' I mean 'A new Earth'.

I'm halfway through, OP. I find some chapters well written - fluid, cursive - others a bit 'dense' :) I noticed the throwaway remark about homeopathy and Chinese medicine being the only ones that work with the body and do not cause ill-health and was annoyed by that. I get what he means but it's a rather one sided view. I know it's only a sentence, but it's the first that came to mind tonight.