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

Nancie Clare
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle. Plume, September 2006; 313 pages. I was delighted when I was asked to review Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. For one, I’m a big fan of his message (more on that in a bit) and I had read the book when it was first released, which I figured would give me a leg up in rereading it for the sake of a review. But rereading A New Earth is when I learned the secret of Tolle’s writings and philosophy: what you take away will greatly depend on where your life is when you read it. I first read A New Earth at a very challenging time in my life: my earnings were down, my husband’s business was struggling -- both of which were, granted, material -- and my brother was diagnosed with cancer. And while not a death-sentence diagnosis, one that he didn’t quite catch in the earliest stages when a cure would have been a slam dunk. My brother and I each read Tolle’s previous book The Power of Now between the surgery and the chemo; we read A New Earth together when I was down in Miami for the four weeks of his grueling chemo. (Or I should say, we read and listened: one of his former partners sent it to him as an audio book.) The core of A New Earth is recognizing the inner Being, or Awareness, as opposed to ego. With stories, anecdotes and examples, Tolle delves very deeply on a both individual and collective level on the difference between thoughts composed of words and the sensation of being. And for those who think, “oh piddle, that’s easy,” I suggest you get the book and not just read the words, but practice the suggestions: not so easy. Tolle explains that we essentially have a choice in what defines us to ourselves and the rest of the world: the words that make up our thoughts about ourselves and others -- our egos -- or our Being, the place we get to when we peel off judgments about ourselves and others. It’s hard to do, so hard that Tolle readily acknowledges that it’s almost impossible to remain at the state of just Being and Awareness all of time. In Tolle’s opinion a continual state of Being and Awareness has happened only a few times in human history, specifically Jesus and Buddha. In the case of my brother and me, Tolle’s spiritual philosophies gave us a working structure to cope with the wildly gyrating emotions to which cancer patients and their families are faced. A New Earth kept us focused on Awareness rather than ego; instead of gnashing out teeth and wailing, “why is this happening to us,” we were able to accept that it was happening and how best to emerge on the other side -- whatever that was going to be -- with our souls intact. But how about now? My brother’s health is great, my career is fulfilling, my husband is on a career path that he finds rewarding and my daughter is not only about to graduate law school, but move back from New York to live close to us in her hometown. It’s one of the happiest times I have known. But I didn’t really realize it until I reread A New Earth; which makes it one of the smartest things I could have done. It helped me recognize and truly appreciate the meaning of these events to my Being; it helped me peel away the words that define my pride in accomplishments to inch closer to understanding my Awareness. Once again it wasn’t easy -- as a matter of fact it was harder because contentment encourages complacency -- but it was instructive. Everyone knows good and bad times come and go, what Tolle’s A New Earth will help with every time your read it is knowing how to recognize your Being regardless of the circumstances . Comments (2) Reader written by jack wheeler, June 29, 2008 You've obviously benefited by Tolle's advise. I'm glad that you found a means to deal with a very difficult time. My read of Tolle would have me believe that I am God, we're all God. Is that how you see it? But Jesus says, in no uncertain terms, that he is God. Both cannot be correct. Tolle would have me believe that Jesus was mistaken. If that is true then Jesus was not just a malicious liar but complete nut case. +0 A comment on the other reader's comment written by Angie Orduno, July 27, 2008 Since the bible is all up for interpretation...(Remember it also says that shellfish is a crime to eat, that women on their periods are sinful, etc etc...) I would also like to interpret something from the bible, that we are all made in God's image, as something very similar to what Tolle says, that we are all God. We could quibble with semantical questions, as we humans always will. Very good review, this book is helping me tremendously too. +0 Write comment Name Title Comment smaller \| bigger
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