PNTV: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (#77)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. Unless you've been in a cave for the last several years, you probably know that Oprah Winfrey featured A New Earth and Tolle in his work. And you very well may have read the book. In any case, we've got about a dozen of my favorite big ideas from the book in this six page PDF philosopher's Note. We just did the Power of Now by Tolle. Today we're going to do A New Earth. Subtitle to the book is Awakening to your life's purpose. And the whole idea here is, as Tolle says, more and more of the world's population is realizing that we're at a choice point. We're either going to evolve or die, as he says. And the fact is that so much of us are driven by fear and greed and a quest for power, as he says, says that we're living in a state of hell, essentially of suffering. And he goes on to describe all the different ways that the major religions describe this state. In Hinduism, it's called Maya, which means a veil of delusion. In Christianity, of course, it's sin, which literally means, from the Greek, to miss the mark. You're not on the mark, you're not in integrity, you're not hitting the target with your actions. And then in Buddhism, it's called dukkha, which is suffering or unsatisfactory ness. And it comes from a word which means to be stuck. The word dukkha actually comes from the word that describes a potter's wheel. If you're making pottery, a wheel that's spinning nicely is called sukkah. Right. If it's stuck and it's kind of creaking and not going around smoothly, it's a little stuck. That's dukkha, that's suffering. That's when our consciousness is not smooth, smoothly operating and we suffer. So the idea is we need to create a new consciousness, a new heaven, which is our state of consciousness, which will create a new earth on heaven as we move through and find the opposite of this state of suffering. Right, so we've got sin. Well, that's the opposite of that would be salvation. The opposite of suffering or dukkha is enlightenment. We can say the same thing for Hinduism, Maya with enlightenment as well. So that's the idea. We want to change our consciousness, create a new heaven which will lead to a new earth. Some of the ways we can do it are in this note and we will talk about them now. One of the things that gets in the way of our higher level of consciousness, that can create a new Earth which is only going to be created, obviously, to the extent that each of us is the change we want to see. Because all of our culture is a simple accumulation, or what do you call it, aggregate of all of our individual consciousnesses. So if we want to change that aggregate, as Gandhi says, we each need to be the change, obviously. So one way we can do that, we need to observe our shadow. As Eckhart says, what we tend to do is we project our issues that we haven't integrated in our own lives. So as we talk about throughout these notes, when we have something within our own character, within our own personality structure that isn't integrated, we tend to see that in other people. And we're unconsciously annoyed by that and then consciously annoyed by it. But really what's happening is we're projecting our own disintegrated part of ourselves and seeing it in another. But the more that we're conscious of all the tendencies we have, the less we're going to be triggered by other people. So Debbie Ford, in her great book Dark side of the Light Chasers, talks about this. We have a note on that, and the episode on that was a while ago. But she says it's kind of like, imagine all the different aspects of yourself. If you've recognized that you can be greedy at times, you can be impatient at times, you can be rude at times, you can be talking a little loud at times or whatever. If you recognize that it's kind of like having an electrical socket on your chest and that you've covered over with one of those protective things that kids don't stick forks and do electrical sockets with, Right? So if you haven't addressed the fact you can be greedy or selfish or angry or petulant or moody or whatever, then that's an open socket. And when you run into somebody who has that quality that you haven't integrated, they can plug into that. And then you get really irritated. And what you're doing is you're just projecting your shadow. You're actually seeing a part of yourself you don't like in the other person. So then you get really triggered and you get really pissy about it. Well, one practice we can do on that, we talk about in the Power of Full Engagement. Those authors say, anytime you find yourself annoyed or triggered, it's your shadow at work. One way to dissolve it is to say, how am I that? Identify what it is. That's annoying you about the other individual. And then say, how am I that? How do I do that thing that's annoying me right now? It's an amazingly cool practice. Try it the next time you get triggered. Next time you're triggered, pause and say, how am I? That I must do that too. And as you do that, you'll see yourself be less triggered by individuals, and you'll certainly won't get carried away by it as much. Really cool practice, shadow work. Good, good stuff. So here's another great idea. Eckard says that essentially, whatever we're getting in life is exactly what we need. It's evolutionary support, right? He says, how do we know that what's happening to us should be happening? He says, you know, it should be happening because it is happening. That great. So just imagine whatever challenges you're facing in your life right now, those are essentially a gift to you. They're evolutionary support tools to help you move through whatever challenges you're facing and whatever growth needs to occur in your consciousness. See if you can reanalyze whatever challenges you have to see as an opportunity to move through it and grow. Another thought that we talk about in nearly every single one of these notes. Your thoughts determine your reality. If you think that anything is determining your reality, you're a bit insane. Everything is neutral. We always have a choice of how we're going to respond to it. I'm a broken record on that one. But the fact is, every great teacher talks about it. It's the first words of the Dhammapada. Those are the first words of the Dhammapada. Your life will be shaped by your mind. Essentially, our thoughts are creating who we are. It's principle number one, optimism. We've got to master our consciousness, how we're responding to situations if we want to move from the hell to the heaven consciousness and create the new earth we're all talking about. He says that how spiritual you are has nothing to do with what you believe. You might believe half of what I say or all of what I say, or all of what Eckhart says, or all of what Michael Beckwith says, or Deepak or whoever. But it's not about what you believe that doesn't determine how spiritual you are. Ultimately, it comes down to your consciousness. How much of this stuff have you integrated? Have you made a day to day to day to day practice and a moment to moment to moment practice so that your consciousness is shaped again? Kind of like going to the gym or going to the track and working out. You do not evolve an incredible consciousness without putting in that same amount of diligent effort. And it's our consciousness that dictates just how spiritual we are. And our consciousness is going to dictate what we do. Because ultimately our spirituality is determined not by what we believe or even what our supposed consciousness is, but what we're doing moment to moment to moment to moment. So check in and see how much of this stuff is more conceptual for you than practical. And do that one thing that would most powerfully take you forward into your ideal. Another big idea here we talk about once in a while. We actually just talked about it recently. Where was it? In the As a Man Thinketh episode, he says the root of suffering is in the word my right. We have this attachment to things and people and I share a story in the note about SN Gwenka he tells a great story. He says imagine if someone else's watch broke. Imagine if someone else's wife cheated on them or husband cheated on them. Imagine if someone else got in a car accident. All of those things don't create a lot of suffering for you, they create suffering. When the word my is introduced, my watch broke, my spouse cheated on me, I or my car got wrecked. All of a sudden suffering comes in. If we can step back and see that that all these things are just naturally a part of the life experience, we're going to be less attached and less suffering will come in. Pretty interesting. So notice your mise and how that might be creating some suffering. And again, suffering. Suffering is simply a tool to help us grow. Anytime we're suffering, it's just showing us where we have some growth to do. See if instead of getting mired in that, we can pull back and see the opportunity to grow. That is a very quick look at a new earth. Hope you enjoyed the few big ideas I pulled out and I'm looking forward to sharing more with you soon. Alright, go out, live your truths and hope you have an awesome day. I'll see you soon. Bye.