Book Review: A New Earth -- Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, published in 2005, is the follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of Now. “Being able to share this material with you is a gift and a part of the fulfillment of my life's purpose. It was an awakening for me that I want for you, too” said Oprah Winfrey, the talk show queen, on her book club selection in January of 2008. After that the book grown immediately popular and it has been printed more than 4.7 million copies in the world. Eckhart Tolle, the author of this book, graduated from the University of London, is a spiritual teacher and writer. Although he was deeply influenced by Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, his book focused on spirituality rather than on any particular religious denomination; besides that, he came up with a whole new living philosophy by blending and refining them. The central idea of this book is try to tell people that don’t be trapped in self-created worlds of thought, the voices of ego, and the key way to escape from human suffering is to focus one’s attention on the present moment. The idea is much the same with The Power of Now, but A New Earth gives more detailed examination of it.

     In the beginning of the book, the author claims that our ego-based state of consciousness not only takes away one’s personal happiness but also produces conflicts and suffering throughout the world. If people cannot shift in consciousness, we will always create the same world which pains us. On the contrary, the whole new world will emerge only when people live in the awakened state.

     Then Tolle explain what is the principal barrier to the awakened state: ego. Ego is the illusion of "I" by mistakenly indentifying with the world of form, such as gender, body, race, nationality, region, occupation, accumulated possession, social role, etc. In other words, ego is what you think who you are, the identification of you, and it always makes you need more possession to strengthen the identification in order to survive. The ego does not know the source of all energy is within you, so it seeks it outside. The dreadful thing is that ego is never satisfied with what you have because it always needs more than whatever you gain. The ego exists in the thought of form and always compulsively creates a plenty of repetitious nonsense voice in the head. Furthermore, the voice pretends to be you, unobserved emotions also react to it, and it could create the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness to make people suffer when ego feels great deficiency. Christianity calls this kind of human dysfunction Original Sin; Hinduism calls it Maya; Buddhism calls it Dukkha.

     Even though the normal state of humankind causes suffering, it is possible for us to radically transform our consciousness and escape from the ongoing prison – living in the present moment. Tolle believes that human intellect does not have any solution of the suffering of humankind, because the thinking is also a tiny aspect of consciousness. He then informs us that the only way to diminish ego or to transcend ego is to be aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible. “Whenever you notice the voice of ego, you will realize that you are not the voice, but the one who is aware of it… In the background there is the awareness. In the foreground, there is the voice, the thinker. In this way you are becoming free of the ego, free of the unobserved mind,” says Tolle in his book. However, the awareness can only emerge by the way of focusing your attention on the present. The presence can help people destroy the time-bound state of consciousness; therefore, they will not feel pain anymore by something that has happened but should not have or by something that has not happened but should have. The world we living always changes constantly and anything happening is unstable. Thus, only when we face facts, experience the present moment, and do not resist the situations we encounter every day, we become empowered because we are alignment with universal purpose. Finally, after you finish shifting the consciousness from the ego-based state to the presence state, happiness will come from inside and a whole new world will appear in front of you.

     This book really touches and inspires me, because I was sort of person who always feel anxiety, stress, self-abased and paranoid. The failure in the past and the wanting in the future were the things I was usually concerned about, and that always made me unhappy. I also always thought that I was not good enough and never satisfied even when actually getting some improvement. After reading this book, I try to practice doing something to help me focus my attention to the present moment, for example, doing meditation and reading the Diamond Sutra. It is really amazing! There is a magical power which totally changes me. I will not feel so frustrated when I encounter failure and will not be arrogant when I do something good, if I try to focus on now. Moreover, I do not suffer from insomnia anymore and enthusiastically meet everyday life in the morning. I experience the whole new world. So I strongly recommend those persons who always think that they mess up their life should really take a look at this book. Also, it is absolutely worth taking time to read this book for anyone who would like to awaken the life’s purpose.






2009/6/18　下面是我在e-mail中，向朋友推薦這本書，
這本書簡而言之，幾個重點大概就是..
1.把握當下(因為過去與未來都是小我產生的虛相)
2.感受小我產生的無意識 (其實就是東方人說的"念頭")
3.一旦得以感受到小我不斷湧現的念頭, 就有機會不被其掌控
4.當能夠不被小我掌控, 本質就會再現
5.本質再現, 眼前的事物便不再受小我所詮譯, 於是不再有抗拒,
而是接受與順應眼前的一切, 與之融合一體..
6.新世界就出現了..


其它旁支大多是用來佐證或舉例,
但最有趣的是作者用了佛家或老莊的思想重新詮譯了一些聖經上的文字..


這本書有點難讀,
可能要接觸過一點心理學與佛學比較能夠掌握那些作者定義的名詞.
而且那些名詞再經過翻譯後, 就更難懂了...


所以我猜看這本書時, 先不要太執著於名詞的定義, 讀起來會比較流暢...


下面是兩本推薦書..



美麗人生練習本 - 通往成功的100堂課
這本書以非常簡單明瞭的方式, 告訴人們什麼是"小我"


金剛經說什麼
我第一次聽到這本書是專科五年級的時候,
那時候補習班的國文老師說年輕人應該看一下這本書,
可以開智慧, 當時我只是抄在筆記本上..


上大學後, 有一次去看中醫,
那個中醫跟我閒聊, 也推薦我一定要看一下這本書..
我就到網路上下載, 但是沒有看..直到去年才開始慢慢一點點的看...


雖然還有三分之一沒看完..但是它跟 "一個新世界 "一樣,
都是抓著一個中心不斷的從各角度闡釋與舉例..


只是金剛經的哲學層次再多一些...
但目的都是一樣的, 都是找到本質, 找到佛.


佛這個字對東方人來說太過嚴肅了,
常常被其外在的形象所誤解,
它其實並沒有那麼遙遠且神奇, 它就是本質,


它不是名詞, 而是一個形容詞, 形容一個難以用言語形容的XXX...
很多人喜歡把XXX代換成境界, 但是一旦有了境界,
小我就出現了, 它不是佛...
"一個新世界"的作者用 "內在空間"來代換XXX,
蠻貼切的一個詞; 金剛經則是用"空"來闡釋..


但是他們都只是一個法門,  一個方向..
所以佛教的哲學從不排斥任何其它的宗教,


因為找到XXX並不只有一條路,
每個人都有自己找到它的方式..


而每個宗教都是不同的先知留下的不同法門,
他們提供人們一個可能追尋的方向...


他們就像指向月亮的手指,
是告訴人們可以走什麼方向,
但不是要人們看著那隻手指...


如此那些法門及宗教就不再那麼嚴肅了,
而可以用哲學的角度來欣賞它們.




還有千萬別過於執著佛,空, 內在空間.....等定義,
因為它們都是形容詞, 是要靠體驗的,


一旦過於執著文字上的定義, 就找不著它了..
這也是為什麼佛教徒說佛是不可思議的...


最後, 若有機會接觸靜坐的話, 建議可以嘗試看看,
它是一個看見內在小我的好方法..






2009/10/27
下面的講者是一個哈佛的腦神經科學家，自己親身經歷了一次中風，然後得到了一個全新的體驗。


她的演講充分揮灑了左右腦的能力，一下可以拿出真實的大腦，很理性邏輯的描述它，
一下又可以像"迷霧驚魂"裡那個瘋婆子，不斷的講一些虛無飄渺的境界，簡直判若兩人。
當她開始談到內在的聲音、身體眾多細胞散出來的能量、身體分子與外界分子界線消失等，


真的很難不讓我想到"A New Earth"和"金鋼經說什麼"這兩本書，
而這兩本書的思維是多麼的接近佛道思想，


我很好奇人神分離的基督徒國家，如何開始能接受人就是神，神就是人這種想法。