"A New Earth is one of the 5 books that I believe are not to be missed in anyone's lifetime. I'd give it more than 5 stars. It deserves a sky-full."
I am very suspicious about this book. It feels to me like one of the New Age Bibles, that is, badly disguised Indo-European spirituality. I know I have had enough of that, thank you.
I am going to share my reading notes with you.
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So, if flowers are the enlightenment of plants, crystals/jewels the enlightenment of rocks and birds enlightenment of reptilians... what does he suggest the enlightened form of humans is?
None what so ever... because the human enlightenment doesn't change your outer essence, just the inner one. >:->
"Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism and materiality and rise above identification with form that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment within their own personality?"Why isn't Eckhard Tolle's book published in copyleft? Why isn't it published anonymously?
I'm sorry, Eckhard, you're full of it. Your first step to enlightenment would be to practice the two steps program:
Step 1) I realize I'm full of crap and know nothing
Step 2) whenever I feel like I'm not full of crap, whenever I feel like I know something, I need to take step 1 again.
Then just repeat these steps until you realize that writing books is futile and useless.
Jesus was one of the great wises and messengers... You know, the guy who said: "*I* am He", "*I* am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through *Me*...", "*I* am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved", "*I* am the resurrection and the life."
You should really let go of your ego and be like Jesus... >:->
"their message became largely misunderstood and often greatly distorted."Oh? And you know this... how? I assume you "know" it because you "know" Jesus was something exceptional and amazing and true and wise, because "everyone" says so, so if his message doesn't sound exceptional, amazing, true and wise to you, it must be because someone misunderstood and distorted it.
Bull.
"As you read, a shift takes place within you."I see... You know what, Eckhard. I hate people who tell me I'm not awake, because I don't think the way they do.
"This book’s main purpose is... ...to awaken."
"It can only awaken those who are ready"ROTFLMAO
So, I'm not "ready" to be "awaken" yet... >:->
If I have objections, critique, if I disagree, it's only because I'm a lower spiritual lifeform. Are you even aware that that is a logical fallacy called Argumentum ad hominem? You are insulting your opponent as a substitute to meet and refute their arguments... in a book that is supposed to help the human kind to be more "enlightened", make your spirit glow more beautiful than all the flowers, jewels and birds in the world, make your spirit glow so that it can be seen from outside as your face and whole being shines... Good one, Eckhard :-D
"For some, [initiation of the awakening process] will come... ...through reading "The Power of Now"[, a] spiritually alive and therefore transformational book"You wrote "The Power of Now". You really think you're all that... you write "spiritually alive" books. People who write books expressing different opinion write books that are "spiritually dead".
Illusion and delusion are not exact synonyms.
An illusion is a false conception of something real. Delusion is the belief of the false conception one refuses to accept as a false conception.
Maya is a dream so vivid, so real, you experience it as real. It's not a delusion, it's an illusion.
It is either not a "dysfunction", "madness" or "collective mental illness". Using words like that of a normal human function is not only derogative, it's insulting and inconsiderate to all the people who fight every day with a real dysfunction or mental illness. Islamophobia that spread over USA like a wild fire after 9/11 is a wordborne "collective mental illness". The dream called life is not.
The life as we know it is an illusion, a dream. When you, Eckhard, finally understand this, really understand, really wake up, there will be no Eckhard. Enlightenment, waking up from the dream that is maya, means that you stop existing as you.
"Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written, to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence."The word used in the Greek Scriptures that has been translated in English as "sin", is hamartia. Hamartia is a Greek concept that comes from the word hamartánein, to err, to miss the mark. In the Greek dramaturgy, hamartia is the character flaw which leads to the downfall of the protagonist. This is the meaning the people who wrote the Greek Scriptures used the word in, not "missing the point of human existence".
But - there are 33 words for 'sin' in general in the Greek Scriptures, and three in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let's talk about "chata'" - to miss. Yes, miss the mark, miss the point, but also miss the meeting, miss the chance, miss someone... The word "miss" means to fail, to err, to lose, to lack. To draw the conclusions that it must mean "missing the point of human existence" is presumptuous and illogical. (I think the logical fallacy is called begging the question... when conclusions are drawn from arbitrary interpretation of facts, or when inadequate facts are interpreted to support one's conclusions. The facts are assumed to mean something, that supports the argument.)
Eckhard, you are not to strip the words their "cultural baggage". Language is what carries the culture, and if you remove them from the culture, you will misinterpret the words.
You claim "...underneath the many surface differences [of the humanity’s ancient religions and spiritual traditions] there are two core insights that most of them agree on", and then you give examples of three: Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Which all are practically the same; Indoeuropean imperialist religions, based on the idea of that the world, life, human existence, is intrinsically bad, suffering due to our ignorance, something to get rid of. The idea of that there must be something more than this, that life in itself is not amazing, wonderful, glorious and worthwhile experience, that there were no other reasons for humans and life and the world to exist, but that... what? Our souls in their great egotism chose to start believing the illusion rather than the bright and light existence of enlightened Unity?
I believe we live for a reason.
I believe we live to experience.
I believe we are here to enjoy the sensory input, and I cannot imagine an existence better for that purpose.
I think it is you, Eckhard, who misses the point of human existence. Your sin is to be unsatisfied with what you have, to live in now ;-> and to enjoy what is enjoyable in this world or dream, if you'd rather use that word. I think you are too focused in suffering, so you will experience suffering. If you let go of your fixation with suffering and this world being a bad place, you would be much happier, and stop sinning and stop suffering.
"Humans suffered more at the hands of each other than through natural disasters."Er... Have you ever heard of a thing called "Great Famine"? It was caused by a volcanic eruption on the other side of the world, and killed millions at the time the world population - WORLD population was about the same as the USA population today.
What about "Year Without a Summer"?
"...the unprecedented violence that humans are inflicting on other lifeforms and the planet itself"Yes, let's not talk about the Romans who exported thousands of animals from all over the empire, just to die in circus to entertain people; who burned people as living torches, who enslaved as much of the existing world they could. Let's not talk about the deforestation of British isles. Let's not talk about the thousands of species destroyed before the 20th century. Who gives a dime for some dodos.
And for heaven's sake, let's not discuss about the dinosaurs or other life forms that existed before the human race. Dinosaurs are not even ancient history.
"Humans are born bad" blah blah blah. No, Eckhard. We are not. We are born animals with a normal self-preservation instinct. We were created rather weak and dysfunctional, in survival sense, but we were given something that has made us into one of the strongest species on earth. We had no fur, so we took it from those who had it. We tamed the fire, even though all animals are born with fear of fire. We built us caves when there were none. we are not strong, so we started by using wooden sticks to add to the force, to be able to move stones and to kill for our survival. Our claws and teeth are weak, so we took sticks and stones to be able to dig and mash and carve. We are slow, so we tamed the horses to run for us. But the most magnificent of all our "inventions" was the invention of social conscience and kindness - not only serving ourselves to survive, but helping our neighbors... The survival of the village was not a question of survival of the strongest, but the survival of the fittest - the able-bodied hunted and gathered, protected and worked, and the old and handicapped taught the young and weak, so that they in turn would be able to take care of the able-bodied, when they no longer could do that for themselves, of which they paid by teaching the next generation... This is the miracle of human existence. It is this that gives people like you possibility to waste your time writing "spiritually alive and transformational books".
"A number of spiritual teachings tell us to let go of fear and desire."Like for example...?
"enlightenment... ...salvation... ...the end of suffering. Liberation and awakening"
Yeah... Indo-European beliefs. Found in one form or another practically ONLY in the Indian and Middle-Eastern spiritual traditions, and spirituality heavily influenced by these.
Not said by Eckhard:
"For Taoism, salvation is not an escape from this world; rather, it is to become perfectly aligned with the natural world and with the cosmic forces that sustain it."
"Early Taoism emphasized Confucian virtues, which encouraged harmonious community living rather than salvation from sin."
It was the Buddhist influence that has caused all the "similarities" you believe to recognize in the "teachings" of "most ancient religions and spiritual traditions".
"It is unlikely, however, that you will be able to perceive it there unless you have at least already had glimpse of that Truth within yourself."With other words, you will see what you believe to see. You will see the "truth" you believe to be the truth, what ever it is, and thus everything you say and prove with ancient texts, holy scriptures, and what not, becomes just circular argument.
Do I consider myself enlightened? No. I don't give a dime about enlightenment. I am here to live and to experience, to sense and to enjoy, not to get rid of life and senses and experiencing the world.
Do I think Eckhard is more enlightened than I am? No. I think he's so delusional it's painful to read his book. I think he's full of himself and believes to be more enlightened than I and the other "not awakened", "not ready" people >:->
"Through some of those men and women, “schools” or movements developed within all major religions that represented not only a rediscovery, but in some cases an intensification of the light of the original teaching."
Oh! So, Monoteism is "intensified" Polyteism, and Abrahamic religions are "intensified" Paganims... Kabbalah, I suppose Berg's Kabbalah, is "intensified truth" of Judaism. Christianity is "intensified" Judaism, Buddhism is "intensified" Hinduism, Taoism and Confucianism...
Yeah. Just throw out everything you cannot understand and that doesn't support your stupid thesis as "archaic" and "obsolete" - something lesser and lower, uneducated, unenlightened, uninformed and un-awakened.
"Well, people were worshiping trees, that's how little they understood God and spirituality!"
You claim to seek to "unity"... but do you know what that is? That's animism and pantheism.
Animism is the belief of God's Breathe in everything, all things, all parts of the world being alive, living, breathing parts of the one singular organism called The Universe.
Pantheism is the belief of everything being part of God, created by God of God, God being in everything...
Animism and pantheism were the original, oldest forms of religion. You are only now, slowly, getting there, after thousands of years of adventures with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, and still you have no humility of admitting we knew it all, all of it, long before your "enlightened" religions "intensified the light".
"most of them were viewed with suspicion and often hostility by the established religious hierarchies"Yeah - because they were emphasizing the individual on the cost of the society. They still are... your precious Buddhist monks live on the kindness of people who they despise and consider being lower spiritual lifeforms. These sanctimonious egocentric hypocrites, Buddhist monks, haven't stopped eating. Hunger is just an illusion, Eckhard. It's your body trying to tell you your mind, your ego, your body, your flesh and blood and soul, are one. That you don't exist without the body. It's absolutely correct, of course, because "you" are an illusion. There is no "you", there is no body either, there is no hunger, and there is no need to eat.
As far as I know, also Gnostics eat, Sufis eat, Dalai Lama eats... Jesus is recorded eating. I am 100% sure of that you, Eckhard, eat too. Don't you think that makes you sanctimonious, egocentric hypocrit as well? I do.
Why? Because you don't live what you teach, Eckhard.
"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."Yeah... you just despise and pity the people who doesn't believe exactly as you do.
Blah blah blah "Some religious institutions will be open to the new consciousness; others will harden their doctrinal positions and become part of all those other man-made structures through which the collective ego will defend itself and “fight back.” blah blah..
This is so damn offensive! Your whole book is probably nothing but a testimony to your beliefs - BELIEFS, ECKHARD. NOT TRUTHS - and you have the guts of shaming others for believing differently from you. You are trying to manipulate people to join your church by shaming them, by making them feel bad for having own thoughts and beliefs, for thinking for themselves and being the unique individuals God made us.
You make me sick! Your sanctimonious, sugarcoated crap makes me sick!
Of course you will just smile sweetly and tell your followers that it's my ego "fighting back". So enlightened. So kind. So amazingly not egocentric, judgmental, ignorant and dysfunctional... NOT!
"The dysfunction of the egoic human mind is for the first time threatening the survival of the planet."And you think this is a problem, because...? This planet is an illusion, Eckhard. It doesn't really exist. Neither does pollution, global warming, genocides and wars, exploitation, extinction... I don't exist, you don't exist, your readers don't really exist. None of us is really doing anything to this planet. It's all just an illusion, just a nightmare. It's not really happening. So why are you acting as if you were worried?
"Ego is no more than this: identification with form, which primarily means thought forms. If evil has any reality – and it has a relative, not an absolute, reality – this is also its definition: complete identification with form – physical forms, thought forms, emotional forms."
Ego is Evil. *sigh*
Part of my understanding of spiritual evolution is the understanding of that there is no "original sin". I really cannot see in what way hanging on the medieval ideas invented to force people to accept Christianity as "the only solution" can be seen as "spiritual evolution", improvement or enlightenment, but if a person understand enlightenment and salvation to be the same thing, why not.
"...observe how humans relate to each other, read a history book, or watch the news on television tonight" to realize "what kind of world do I create, when this delusion of utter separateness underlies and governs whatever I think, say, and do."
Yes - observe that you are able to observe how humans relate to each other, observe that you know how to read, that there are books about history available to anyone who can read, that you can trust in the facts printed in that book and what they tell you in the news, observe that you have a television, and a home you can sit in and watch television, and what ever you choose to watch in the television, and that there are several broadcasting companies providing you several options. If you don't wish to watch television, you can also read a newspaper, even if you cannot afford to buy or subscribe to one, because there are public libraries that give you the opportunity to read the newspaper... Observe this very carefully, because this is what I create when "this delusion of utter separateness underlies and governs whatever I think, say and do".
I recognize, acknowledge and respect that you are not me, that you don't think like me, that you don't like the same things I do, and I give you an opportunity to seek out what your heart desires and fulfill your own, individual, specific needs.
It is the social consciousness, that makes us work and grow food, hunt and collect, build shelters, make clothes, that also makes us interested of the rest of the world, and sees a fellow human being, a friend, a sister, a brother in the foreigners being killed in catastrophes, wars, crimes, sees a member of the same human race and care about him/her and his/her faith, and therefore broadcast the misfortune and suffering of our fellow human beings all over the world, several times a day, in all the languages, from many different points of view, in all medias - I don't only care about my spiritual evolution, MY spiritual evolution, MY enlightenment... In my mind telling a stranger, for example the victims of Haiti earthquake, that he/she would not suffer if he/she only could let go of his/her ego, is extremely inconsiderate, egocentric, stupid and, frankly, disgraceful.
"Since human life and human consciousness are intrinsically one with the life of the planet, as the old consciousness dissolves, there are bound to be synchronistic geographic and climatic natural upheavals in many parts of the planet, some of which we are already witnessing now."
So... are they part of the "new earth" or consequences of the inborn wickedness of the humanity? Could you make up your mind?
Besides, who cares, when it's all just an illusion anyway?
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