This review is one that combines "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth", two books by Eckhart Tolle that, while fantastic, were both fairly similar. Thus, my first recommendation is to read "The Power of Now" and only read "A New Earth" if you want some more emphasis on Tolle's concepts.
Tolle is a spiritual teacher that only came to prominence with these two books. Now, he is quite successful, teaching seminars as well as selling DVD's on meditation programs.
So I suppose an explanation is due. How does a self-proclaimed agnostic-bordering-on-atheist get into books about spirituality? Well, I got the recommendations from a site I stumbled upon with "StumbleUpon", and was drawn into them because the books actually appeal to atheists and agnostics, possibly even more than confirmed believers. You really have to read to understand...
The books are guides to attaining spiritual enlightenment. The books start out with Tolle's basic ideas: humans, from birth, engage in self-destructive behaviors, and are at their root, "insane" or "unconscious", to use Tolle's words. They are like this because they identify so heavily with the world of form and with their mind. So long as one is able to access "the power of the Now", they will be able to rid themselves of these basic delusions and attain inner peace.
There's a LOT more to it than that. Despite that, the books are both pretty short (less than 200 pages each) and really make each concept as simple as possible.
I would HIGHLY recommend the books. They were amazing. I, myself, am hopefully started on the journey to spiritual enlightenment... though that could take a while. For the moment, I've become more peaceful in my daily activities and have a greater appreciation for life.
Will, to relate this to a previous review of yours, is Tolle a guy like Carnegie, who gives specific pieces of advice you can follow and thereby improve incrementally? Or is he a guy like Krishnamurthi (a sometime hero of mine when I was your age), who makes global statements that could possibly pry you out of ordinary reality into a state of enlightenment - meaning, you either get it (you're enlightened) or you don't (you're still living in your day-to-day groove, for better or worse)?
ReplyDeleteI will check Tolle out - he seems to be very interesting - thanks.
He is most likely closer to Krishnamurthi, because he makes very global statements that all tie together into one big philosophy that he teaches.
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