A New Earth , by Eckhart Tolle

Silver Chalice E-zine ~ Book Review

"A New Earth" — how could this not be an excellent book for Wiccans?

Aren't we all dreaming of and working for the day when the Earth is reborn? When humanity sees the Earth — and each other — with new eyes, with love and respect?

While Eckhart Tolle doesn't elaborate on what this "New Earth" will be like, he effectively illustrates how to get there.

Other Books by Eckhart Tolle

The Pain — Body

The most influential aspect of A New Earth is Eckhart Tolle's insight into the "pain —body." He describes exactly what I mean when I've written about the energy fields that we can get caught in (such as in the Silver Chalice's bimonthly Energy Field Barometer column).

A New Earth takes the idea even further, to the personal pain—body within each of us. He demonstrates how this pain—body seeks its own survival, and feeds on our drama and suffering.

This is what I call the Inner Chihuahua. And it creates unhappy situations specifically so that it can feed on the negative energy they generate.

This single understanding can have a profound impact on your life!

The gift of this fact is that once we realise it, the pain—body ceases to have the power to make us unhappy — and indeed becomes a vehicle for awakening consciousness!

Eckhart Tolle knows whereof he speaks. It's clear in every paragraph of A New Earth that the man is fully conscious of his inner processes and the way to freedom.

Eastern and Western Philosophies

At a superficial level, it may seem that A New Earth is inconsistent with Wicca spirituality. Eckhart Tolle does advocate radical acceptance, for instance, whereas Wicca encourages creating conscious change.

This incompatibility is strictly on the surface, however. Acceptance is a crucial part of the magickal process, for one thing. For another, all spiritual practices eventually lead to full acceptance of what is.

That's where true miracles become ordinary occurrences.

Making magick is like baby miracles — miracles we plan for and manifest through our will.

But the true miracles come when we live in such acceptance that we are in perfect harmony with the flow of the Universe — and then we find the Universe effortlessly fulfilling our every desire . . . without our conscious action.

A New Sacred Text

A New Earth is one of those rare books that is so powerful, it is a spiritual practice just to read it.

By reading a few pages or paragraphs — even a single sentence — just before sleeping and immediately upon awakening, you will find your life transforming, effortlessly! It has happened to me, and to many others.

Reading A New Earth is a transformative experience. It WILL change you. It can free you from the addiction to suffering.

The energy in this book is so high that merely keeping it near you, especially at night, begins to break down the illusions that hold you prisoner to your pain. (Of course, how much more powerful, then, to actually read it, and take action on its wisdom!)

A New Earth is one of the 5 books that I believe are not to be missed in anyone's lifetime. I'd give it more than 5 stars. It deserves a sky—full.

Check out the excerpts below, and you'll maybe start to see why.

Excerpts from A New Earth

A new species is arising on the planet. It is arising now, and you are it! — 309

A still relatively small but rapidly growing percentage of humanity is already experiencing within themselves the breakup of the old egoic mind patterns and the emergence of a new dimension of consciousness. P 21

What is arising now is not a new belief system, a new religion, spiritual ideology, or mythology. We are coming to the end not only of mythologies but also of ideologies and belief systems. P 21

What a liberation to realize that the "voice in my head" is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that. The awareness that is prior to thought, the space in which the thought—or the emotion or sense perception—happens. P 22

Strictly speaking, you don't think: Thinking happens to you. ... The voice in the head has a life of its own. Most people are at the mercy of that voice; they are possessed by thought, by the mind.

Because of the human tendency to perpetuate old emotion, almost everyone carries in his or her energy field an accumulation of old emotional pain, which I call "the pain—body." P 140

Any negative emotion that is not fully faced and seen for what it is in the moment it arises does not completely dissolve. It leaves behind a remnant of pain. P 141

The pain—body, however, is not just individual in nature. It also partakes of the pain suffered by countless humans throughout the history of humanity.... p 142

The pain—body awakens from its dormancy when it gets hungry, when it is time to replenish itself. Alternatively, it may get triggered by an event at any time.

If you live alone or there is nobody around at the time, the pain—body will feed on your thoughts. ... But it cannot feed on any thought. ... A happy, positive thought is indigestible to the pain—body. It can only feed on negative thoughts because only those thoughts are compatible with its own energy field. P 145-6

The beginning of freedom from the pain—body lies first of all in the realization that you have a pain—body. ... When it is recognized, it can no longer pretend to be you and live and renew itself through you. P 161

Can the [universe] use the human mind to create things or bring about situations that are in alignment with its purpose? Yes, whenever there is inspiration, which translates as "in spirit," and enthusiasm, which means "in God," there is a creative empowerment that goes far beyond what a mere person is capable of. P 278

— A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle. 2005, Plume, ISBN 0-525-94802-3 (hardcover), 0-452-28758-8 (paperback). (All bold text, my emphasis.)

Rating for A New Earth: 5 Stars

With Brightest Blessings,

erin Dragonsong

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