_A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose_ by Eckhart Tolle
Some friends of ours had been talking about this book and how it helped them to change their perspectives on dealing with people and most especially within themselves. Apparently, Tolle is more famous for his _The Power of Now_ book, but our friends seemed more moved by this one. Since I always love a good recommended read, I decided to give it a try. Besides, it’s another Oprah’s Book Club recommendation, so how can you go wrong? 😉
This book reminded me a great deal of Marcus Aurelius’ _Meditations_, which I read whilst being miserable in Japan a number of years back. Aurelius’ work changed my view of living in Japan and made me more peaceful. Tolle’s work has not quite had the same effect as I felt it was rather ‘commercialized’ if that makes any sense. Rather than it being a strong philosophy, it’s more like a guide book.
Despite this, I definitely am glad that I read it as it has helped put some perspective on how I have been feeling lately towards people. One really poignant point Tolle makes is the idea of the things that make us the most angry in others is probably what we struggle with the most in ourselves. So if I get impatient with people not being totally polite or their attitude towards me, perhaps I should look at my own politeness and attitude towards others.
Another aspect I did enjoy was that he incorporated a variety of religions and beliefs into a common area of what I prefer to call ‘humanity’ or ‘spirituality’. I have always believed that the variation of religions are stem from one spiritual source and like most things with humans we simply are so stubborn in thinking our way of believing is the only way, thus causing religions to form and those whom we can convince to think like us become the followers. Yet, most core beliefs of most religions stem from the same place and share a common desire of spiritual peace. One wonders why we can’t just focus on that….
Anyway, I did enjoy the read and it gave me more than a few bits to chew on, so that’s a successful book to me. Now that it’s about to be spring break, I’m looking forward to some less brain-taxing books and then, of course, I must focus on the academic works… 😛
That catches me up for now on the books!
More to come,
-T 😀
