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Has anyone read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle?

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  • 15-07-2008 1:36am
    #1
    HoneyButterfly
    Closed Accounts Posts: 170 ✭✭


    Hi,
    I've just started reading A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle. Now I have to say, the only reason I went out of my way to look for this is Oprah seems to ranting and raving about this book. I'm on;y on chapter 3, and can see a lot of it makes sense to me already. Has anyone read this? What are your opinions?


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    #2
    siochain
    Registered Users Posts: 2,548 ✭✭✭siochain


    yeah currently on chapter 4, taking my time reading it usually reading chapter twice over and only reading with a clear head.
    Very interesting read.


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    #3
    micks
    Registered Users Posts: 840 ✭✭✭micks


    Anyone know where i'd find a shop selling this? Bricks and mortar cheers


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    #4
    crotalus667
    Registered Users Posts: 1,900 ✭✭✭crotalus667


    micks wrote: »
    Anyone know where i'd find a shop selling this? Bricks and mortar cheers
    Eason's stock it


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    #5
    micks
    Registered Users Posts: 840 ✭✭✭micks


    crotalus667 wrote: »
    Eason's stock it

    Cheers

    emailed them but no response! Was going to go over to square and try them
    thanks

    EDIT:Got it in Eason's in the square
    cheers
    again!


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    #6
    mind_the_gap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17 ✭mind_the_gap


    Picked up a copy of Tolle's 'The power of now' in Easons the other day. I can just about make sense of it but as regards applying the one thing that he recommends the most, how exactly do you do this.
    Tolle suggests that we are always thinking - a constant flow of thoughts and that thoughts can turn destructive. This seems logical to me - so have no problem with that. However, he suggests that we become the 'watcher' of our thoughts - how exactly does this come about? Has anyone tried to apply this and how do you do it!


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    #7
    Transform
    Registered Users Posts: 6,394 ✭✭✭Transform


    what it means is you become more aware of your thoughts and its a bit like standing outside of yourself and observing the truth to your current thinking. Helps if your thoughts are full of negativity, why me, i can't do etc

    Its one of the reasons people will meditate - to help you keep your thoughts on track and allow all the 'chatter' to pass you by.

    I really enjoyed the power of now and quite often dip back into it when in need of a good kick up the arse so my life stays on track. Just my two cents


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    #8
    IpreDictDeatH
    Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭IpreDictDeatH


    I started reading these spiritual books a couple of years ago. "The power of now" was a life changing book for me. In saying that, i have grown more since then and I think I have actually "clicked" what these books are about.

    The whole thing about "watching your thoughts" and becoming more aware of "the now" is basically a meditation technique. It should be and can be applied at particular moments in time, but it can’t be done 24/7. I struggled with the philosophy of these spiritual books because I couldn’t find a way of applying it 24/7, even though I could "become the watcher" for a dedicated moment in time.

    What I found with allot of these books, not so much with "the power of now" but deffo with the rest of them, is that in the end they are religious books, not spiritual ones. I was let down by that because I don’t think the two are fundamentally connected.

    The books seemed to advise a philosophy where by you ignore the wider world. One of these books even said you should not listen to the news because it will put you in a bad place. That’s a fair enough point, but to me that’s just down right irresponsible. It’s our duty to know about the bad things in the world so that we can change them. Nothing changes by ignoring it. It’s also a human instinct to crave knowledge and to be aware of our surroundings. Early man would have stood on a cliff top and had a look at what was going down in his/her territory. Today we watch the news.

    The philosophy that these books proclaim to be the path to enlightenment seems to me to be more of a regress into yourself than a progressive step forward.

    Don’t get me wrong, I still take these books out every few months and scan through them for something to give me a little bit more strength, and they are great for that. The thing to remember is that they have their own agenda to push and the more you read the book the more you realise that.

    I suppose it’s a case of taking what is important and useful to you from the book and ignoring the rest.

    So, to deal with the question. "A new earth" is useless if you have already read "the power of now".[/FONT]


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    #9
    mind_the_gap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17 ✭mind_the_gap


    IpreDictDeatH wrote: »
    The whole thing about "watching your thoughts" and becoming more aware of "the now" is basically a meditation technique.[/FONT]
    It seems like an nice concept but I'm also struggling with implementation. Did you find anything else that helped you to use this meditation technique? Have never even considered meditation until reading this book so know nothing about it really. Makes me wonder if meditation is worth checking out??
    IpreDictDeatH wrote: »
    "A new earth" is useless if you have already read "the power of now".[/FONT]
    Ok, so he doesn't introduce anything new in 'A New Earth' so theres little point in me reading it right?

    I find some of what he's saying hard to grasp, some of it i'm not sure I agree with but I definitely do think there is stuff that he is right on the mark with. Particularly with regard to peoples succoming to compulsive thought & having thought happen to them and the general unease that people feel.


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    #10
    IpreDictDeatH
    Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭IpreDictDeatH


    mind_the_gap wrote: »
    It seems like an nice concept but I'm also struggling with implementation. Did you find anything else that helped you to use this meditation technique? Have never even considered meditation until reading this book so know nothing about it really. Makes me wonder if meditation is worth checking out??

    The power of now was my first "spiritual" book and i knew nothing about meditation. I gave his techniques a try but i couldnt prolong the effect so instead of being a life philosophy it turned out to be my own meditaion technique instead. It definitely is an amazing experience when you do find the space in between your thoughts.However it rarely lasts longer than a few seconds for me. But even then i find that it has calmed me down an awfull lot and im able to deal with stuff easier after even five mins of meditation.

    In the beginning i was struggling against the idea of stopping my mind because i felt like i was going into some sort of dumb trance. Im a big believer in the evolution of the human brain and what it can achieve so i was dodgy about stopping that thinking process in my mind. But then i found out that after 5 mins of stopping the random thoughts and concentrating on the space in between my thoughts that my brain functioned much better afterwards. It just needs a break i suppose.


    Ok, so he doesn't introduce anything new in 'A New Earth' so theres little point in me reading it right?

    Ok in fairness i didnt read alot of the book. I was put off because i didnt find anythign new in the first few paragraphs. Obviously your a different person and your experience with the book will be different. id never advise anyone to NOT read something. Give it a bash. I knwo loads of people who just couldnt grasp "the power of now" but they got the same inspiration i did from that book from other ones they had read.
    I find some of what he's saying hard to grasp, some of it i'm not sure I agree with but I definitely do think there is stuff that he is right on the mark with. Particularly with regard to peoples succoming to compulsive thought & having thought happen to them and the general unease that people feel.

    Well i'm an atheist so i dont agree with tons of what he says, but yea you just have to take the positives from the book i suppose. The technique he raves about might be easily explained in two paragraphs of the book but that small amount of info has stayed with me for years. Im deffo glad i read the book,thats for sure.


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    #11
    starchild
    Closed Accounts Posts: 211 ✭✭starchild


    i have read a new earth and its great but the power of now is amazing

    as regards watching your thoughts: as one previous post pointed out the break can only last a few seconds before its back to daydreaming

    this is true but i have found that the more you set aside times during the day to practice this the more frequent and longer the breaks are


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