The New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

I cannot begin to say how absolutely impressed with Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

Normally I don't read any self-help, spiritual-type, new-age books. It's like church. Kinda preachy. George Carlin, in one of his shows once asked why people read self-help books? In that skit, he was actually making fun of the term self-help. Because, if you're reading a book by someone else, it isn't actually self-help. Someone else, the writer, is helping you. Self-help comes from within. He also questioned why people need motivation. And for the longest time, I also asked that question.

Most self-help seems to be common sense. I believe that most people have a sense of what is right and what should be done. Nobody needs to tell you that hard work is superior to laziness. That getting up early in the morning and working on your goals makes them far more attainable than just sitting down and dreaming about them. No one needs to be reminded that exercise is good for the mind. That eating right is healthy for you. That excesses in life are dangerous. That words are hurtful and that murder is bad. Nobody needs these instructions. They're hard wired.

But even as we sit and think these things, it seems difficult for the majority to follow. It's not the what that's difficult to comprehend, it's the how!

And it was Eckhart's book that turned me on to a new way of thinking about life's purpose. We've all heard it before. To shed past wrongs and not to live in the past. That the future is unknown and cannot be controlled. But for me, the realisation, the real truth about what it meant to live in the present moment came home with this book. I won't try to write a summary of the book here, you have to read it yourself, but here are some of the things I personally got from it.

The present moment is really about being here now. The Brama Kumaris, which I also heard about recently, teach a spirituality that focusses on self. That things outside your control aren't worth worrying about. And that the only control you have is your attitude to a particular situation. It's a parallel, and powerful, concept when added to the notion of the present moment. In thinking about the present moment, Eckhart Tolle writes about consciously paying attention to the things that are happening right now. The conflict that exists, mentally and spiritually, is that we don't want to be here right now. There seems to be some other place, better than here, that we'd rather be.

This conflict, Tolle ascribes to the Ego.

The ego is that part of self that enjoys conflict, that feeds on external stimuli, that has an insatiable appetite to consume in order to feel self worth. The ego doesn't live in the present moment but lives in the past and the future. While living in the past, the ego continually focusses on the mistakes that have happened and the problems that have occurred because of them. The ego reinforces the image that the problems we are facing today are caused by the errors and poor judgements we made in the past. According to the ego, the reason why the present moment isn't good is because we have done all these wrong things. The ego then tries to justify that the future will be better if we act a certain way. The ego promises that we should focus on moving into the future, forget about the present moment and ensure a pleasant future by consuming.

But the simple fact, known universally, is that the past is unchangeable and that the future, while planned, is uncertain. You cannot go back to your youth and undo those errors and you don't have a crystal ball to predict your future condition. Even if you did have a crystal ball, that future isn't here now and so the choice to sit and wait for it doesn't seem to make sense.

Eckhart writes a lot about the ego. To quote him, "the ego equates having with being." There's the idea that I am what I have. I'm successful because I have a certain lifestyle and own certain things. Or, I'm successful because I look a certain way and have an education. And so the ego drives the need to constantly be in that mode of consumption. Always looking for the next thing to acquire. The development of the ego starts at an early age when you identify yourself with your name. I am Andrew. You then move on to learning the word mine. As a child you're given toys and the collection of these toys, your toys, become the source of your happiness. As you acquire more and more in life, your sense of enjoyment comes from the things that you have. The more you have, the happier you are. So it seems.

The Brahma Kumaris also talk about this. External stimuli taking control of our emotions. If your friend isn't happy, that also makes you sad so you try to make your friend happy in order for you to be happy. If the weather is bad, your mood sinks. If you're stuck in traffic, you also don't feel right. And the only control you have is your reaction to the external stimuli. You have absolutely no control over the weather or traffic. But you can control your attitude towards them.

Getting back to Tolle, there is an answer to dealing with the ego and it's in his book. It's a good read, well structured that presents a simple lesson in a little over three-hundred pages. however, a summary of the content won't be enough. Each page builds with examples to try and define what this present moment really is. How to stay focussed in what is happening right now and not engage with the constant turmoil that's caused by waiting for events to happen.

It's a journey. Wayne Dyer who wrote the book "Change your Thoughts, Change your Life" also alludes to this. Although Wayne studied the Dao de Jing, there are numerous lessons there about focussing on the do-able, the things that can be achieved right now.

Lastly, the book, A New Earth Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, addresses the how part of achieving this. I believe that this is the single most important feature, or message, of this book. Eckhart, himself, admits to sinking to the lowest point of depression where he contemplated taking his own life and what he did to get out of that. Focussing your mind on the achievable now, the attainable now, your immediate environment now, your feelings now, your abilities now, your task at hand now and obtaining a sense of fulfilment from the things that are happening now, whether it be grocery shopping, cleaning the house, taking the kids out, talking on the phone, reading a book, ironing your clothes, having a shower, working at your job is the key. This separates you from the ego which wants to keep you from the present moment.