Anybody who is at one with what he or she does is building the new earth.
from Chapter 4 of "A New Earth" by Eckhart TolleIf enough of us can create a powerful transformation in our individual lives, then through our collective consciousness, we will start to transform the future of planet Earth.
Oprah Winfrey's did a ten class web event on this theme, with Eckhart Tolle, one per week, starting Sunday 2nd March 2008. It was based on Tolle's latest book A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE.
In the episodes of this article, I set out the key points I have taken from these classes.
05 Mar 08:
A New Earth 1
There is only the present moment. We enter the present moment when we take our attention away from thinking, and direct our attention to being. We are not losing consciousness: we are very conscious, but thinking much less, or perhaps not at all.
stop thinking start being
When wondering, "what is my life purpose", we should ask "What does life or God want from me?" rather than, "what do I want from life?". The answer may not come immediately: we have to be ready to receive it. We have to invite moments of stilllness into our lives, so that we are not continually absorbed in the mental noise of thinking.
For example, be still with a flower, or a crystal, or a bird - nature is a beautiful access point into inner stillness. Eckhart recommends a flower as "A flower is very much more fragile than a plant. It is more fleeting - ethereal, I think is the word - more ethereal. So it has less density to it than most other things. And because of the lack of density, it's almost as if s
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17 Mar 08:
A New Earth 2
The ego
The ego is the false sense of self, based on mental concepts.
The ego is completely conditioned by the past. We identify with content and take that to be the self. Our content depends on the culture we live in, our up-bringing, our personal circumstances. It differs for everybody. One person may identify with very strongly held religious beliefs, and believe that everybody who does not hold these beliefs is evil or lost. Another person may identify very strongly with the company they work for
The ego seeks something or things to identify with. What it is doesn't really matter. One person may identify him or herself with a very positive looking ego: "I'm the greatest thing that ever lived". Another person might identify with a very negative ego image: "I am wretched and useless". Negative ego images are just as strong as positive ego images. The ego can be predominantly negative, or predominantly positive, but in either case, it's ego.
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21 Mar 08:
A New Earth 3
Buddhism describes the normal human condition as one of suffering. Ego produces this suffering, so we alleviate this suffering by going beyond ego, by transcending the ego, by realizing our true identity
going into silence
To go into silence is not simply a case of not speaking. Usually, even though we are not speaking, the mind is still active and producing noise. So, take your attention away from the mind, away from thinking, and simply become aware that you are breathing. The air flows in and out, and you feel yourself breathing. Just direct your attention and feel your own breath.
the origin of ego
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09 Apr 08:
A New Earth 4
Lets start with a moment of silence. Put our attention into the feeling of aliveness within. Start with our hands: feel the inner body, feel that it's alive inside our hands. The cells are alive. That's the beginning of feeling, being able to feel the entire inner body, the energy field, as a global sense of aliveness. Put our attention there, and so take it away from the head, so the mind can become still.
The shift can only happen inside you. So don't expect other people to also change, and don't wait for someone else to change. Take responsibility for your own state of consciousness, and allow others, especially those you are close to, to be where they are. Don't demand that others should change because you are changing. We cannot make other people change, and it is futile to try to do so. To bring about change in others, we must accept them completely as they are: we must stop judging them. If they are still going for their old behavior patterns, then we must accept that tha
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05 Jun 08:
the pain-body
life is sacred
When we enter the present moment, and bring our attention to it fully, every place we are is holy. Life becomes sacred. We can find the sacred in the most ordinary of things. Get quiet enough to feel it, and there is a calmness and a stillness to almost everything. Life becomes magical.
In this way we can free ourselves from the need for artificial stimulus, the need to switch on some kind of entertainment whenever we get home. We can still enjoy entertainment, but we are not dependent anymore.
lost in thought
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19 Jul 08:
breaking free
Stillness is our essential nature. Stillness is the inner space or awareness, without which there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world. We are that awareness, disguised as people.
We are not our thoughts, we are the awareness of our thoughts. We are not our sense perceptions, we are the awareness that makes all sense perception possible. We are not our emotions, we are the awareness that makes all these emotions possible. We are timeless. Everything else is time. When we lose touch with our inner stillness, we lose touch with ourselves. When we lose touch with ourselves, we lose ourselves in the world. Our innermost sense of self, of who we are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form. We are the awareness, disguised as a person.
We should have moments of silence. We can use the anchor of the inner body: put our attention into the inner body and fully inhabit the body; be in the body and feel the aliveness that pervades the e
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22 Jul 08:
who we are
Lets start with a meditation. Enter the present moment fully. Begin by using our senses fully. Be where we are. Look around - just look, don't interpret. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be. Listen to the sounds. Don't judge them. Listen to the silence underneath the sounds. Touch something, anything - feel and acknowledge its' being. Observe the rhythm of our breathing - feel the air flowing in and out - feel the life energy inside our body. Allow everything to be within and without. Allow the is-ness of all things. Move deeply into the now.
know thyself
"Who am I?" is a fundamental question. We know now that we are not the ego: through knowing this - who we are not - we remove the greatest obstacle to truly knowing ourselves. What is left, when we let go of identification with things and realize who we are not, cannot easily be put into words.
Often we awaken when we suffer a major loss, such as a death in the fam
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23 Jul 08:
inner space
The opposite of death is not life. The opposite of death is birth. Life has no opposite. Feel yourself to be life rather than a person. A person is here only for a few years. But we are life experiencing itself temporarily as this person, this personality, this ego. We are eternal life. When we go into stillness, it is easy to sense that underneath the personality there is an aliveness, there is a presence, there's a consciousness that is timeless. That is the life beyond form - and it has no opposite - it is forever. Opposites only exist in the world of form.
Most people's minds are full of stuff, full of one thought after another, full of continuously arising thoughts and emotions. And external life is full of things that need doing, one thing after another, one thing after another. So, in many people's lives, there seems to be no space. There is only one thing after another, one thought after another, one thing to do after another, one thing to be worried about after anothe
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24 Jul 08:
inner purpose
"Be still and know that I am God": this is a short and very powerful line from the Old Testament, meaning that what we call God is found through the realm of inner stillness. Nobody can understand God through the mind: God is a mystery which we cannot really explain or name, but we can find and touch God when we go into stillness. So this beautiful line points to that inner experience: "be still and know that I am God".
We are all put here on this planet in order to find our inner purposes. As soon as we arise above mere survival, the question of meaning and purpose becomes of paramount importance in our lives. Many of us feel caught up in the routines of daily living, that seem to deprive our lives of significance. Some believe that life is passing them by, or has passed them by already. Others feel severely restricted by the demands of their job and supporting a family. Some are consumed by stress - lost in frantic doing. Many people long for the freedom and expansion that pr
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08 Aug 08:
The New Earth
This work is about how to bring consciousness to every moment and to every action of our lives, and in the process learning that we are far greater than anything that we could have imagined ourselves to be.
universal cycle
The universe comes into manifestation, and returns to the unmanifested. The universe expands and contracts. Those two movements are reflected throughout the universe in many ways such as in the incessant expansion and contraction of your heart, as well as in inhalation and exhalation of your breath. They are also reflected in the cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Each night, without knowing it you return to the unmanifested source of all life, when you enter the stage of deep, dreamless sleep, and then re-emerge again in the morning, replenished. Those two movements, the outgoing and return, are also reflected in each person's life cycles. Out of nowhere, "you" suddenly appear in this world. Birth is followed by expansion. There is not only physical growth
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re:A New Earth
by Al on 18 Mar 08 at 14:37
Interesting that the title "new earth" should refer to the material world. Then the subject matter moves to the more local subject of self issues such as the ego.
'new self' would be far more appropriate I feel.
All too often, the issue is taken out of our hands, as if to say, don't worry, leave it to us in authority, we will make the changes.
I am not saying that Oprah is doing this, but it is a pitfall we must look out for.
We need to take responsibility into our own hands and bring about our own self transformation. If Oprah and others can help in this, all the better. We should never let anyone hi jack our personal self transformation. Our own self transformation will lead to world transformation, We will change before the world does.
re:A New Earth
by howiemac on 18 Mar 08 at 21:56
I agree that the subject matter, so far at any rate, is primarily the self: lower self (ego, human) and higher self (soul, being). It has little to do directly with a New Earth. As you say, we have to change ourselves first, and in doing so we will change the world. Yes, it starts with us
re:A New Earth
by Al on 19 Mar 08 at 18:03
Of course, we need to watch what we ask for or we may get it. Perhaps we should not have too many expectations in these changing if not revolutionary times. A new world, literally, is not out of the question.
It may all be about how we perceive the earth of course. From the new awareness, it may appear like a new earth, our head in the new world and our feet on the ground sort of thing.
re:A New Earth
by howiemac on 27 Mar 08 at 04:21
I have added a theme-setting opening paragraph to the article introduction above, in the light of the above discussion
