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A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61) | 
 enlarge | Author: Eckhart Tolle
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  1292 reviews
Sales Rank: 29
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0452289963
Dewey Decimal Number: 204.4
EAN: 9780452289963
ASIN: 0452289963
Publication Date: January 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Click on the image below to download an exclusive essay by Eckhart Tolle, in .pdf format.  More From Eckhart Tolle 
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Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Amidst the World
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Product Description
The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of Now
With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.
The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of lifeand for building a better world.
About the Author
ECKHART TOLLE is a contemporary spiritual teacher who is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his writing and seminars, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: There is a way out of suffering and into peace. Eckhart travels extensively, taking his teachings throughout the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1287 more reviews...
 Simple but Not Easy April 2, 2008
406 out of 456 found this review helpful
This book really speaks to me. My mind is so busy that sometimes I absentmindedly arrive at a place and then ask myself what I wanted to do here. Within a few moments my mind goes through a number of different thoughts forgetting about the reason that directed me to a certain place. And this is why this book is so helpful. Eckhart Tolle provides simple solution to people like me. The solution is simple but in no way it is easy! The solution is getting rid of the noise in the head and focusing on the present moment and the one single activity that you are undertaking in this moment.
In a way this book is -- to a certain degree -- a rehash of the author's previous work titled "The Power of Now." However, if you have already read The Power of Now I still suggest getting "A New Earth" as there is still a great amount of new material. In a way in both books Tolle deals with the same subject matter, but in my opinion he is doing a much better job explaining the subject in this book. The author's soft-spoken manner permeates the whole work and makes it an easy and relaxed reading.
A big part of the book is devoted to identifying the many faces of (and dealing with) the "EGO" ("the voice in the head that pretends to be you") which is the culprit of our mental suffering that author calls "The Pain-Body" ("the emotions that are the body's reaction to what the voice in the head is saying"). Tolle suggests ways for breaking free of the Pain-Body and finding who you really are.
Unhappiness and negativity are everywhere around us. Surprisingly they are felt more deeply in the affluent western world, as we are more deeply identified with forms and trapped in our egos. The joy of being, the only true happiness, cannot come to us from anywhere, we can only experience it from the formless dimension within us after we allow the diminishment of the ego.
This book is not to be read like a novel. I suggest reading it slowly - just a few pages at a time, and practicing the author's suggestions. In the realm of spirituality no-one of us will probably have the same experience, but I dare say that the deeper you get into it the more powerful the experience will be. The secret is getting to the awareness outside of thinking, to the awareness of true being. Get the book and try it out. It might also speak to you.
Other recommended readings:
Power of Now
The Secret
Can We Live 150 Year?
Some Inaccuracies but a Good Underlying Message June 22, 2008
29 out of 38 found this review helpful
First, I really recommend you start by reading Eckhart's previous book, The Power of Now, first. A lot of ideas glossed over in A New Earth were fully explained back in The Power of Now. This makes sense to me. You don't want Eckhart to write two books with the exact same content. It's like reading Harry Potter #2. You assume you know the relationships of people, their fears and goals and go from there.
You have to start out by separating the message from the messenger. Yes, Eckhart can be a bit pompous at times. Yes, he can blatantly state things like "this book is for spiritually awakened people - like those who read my previous book!" :) He talks about the pain-body as if it's an alien living in your stomach, ready to poke its head out. He talks about all corporations everywhere being evil, being all about profit. I know many corporations which do have very great aims. A corporation is just a legal structure. It depends on who runs it, as to what they are about. Heck, some of my friends have incorporated their small businesses to protect their homes. They're not about profit at all, they are very charity minded.
Eckhart has many factual errors. He perpetuates the extreme notion of 5 million women slain in a period of 300 years. Yes, I'm female and I abhor some things the church has done to women, but this 5 million slain number is just not reality. It makes people doubt the actual problems which did happen. He claims that the average 60 year old has watched 15 years of TV. This means the average person watches 6 hours of TV a day - EVERY single day - for their entire life from birth. It's scary enough that kids under age 18 average 3 1/2 hrs a day, and adults a bit more, but NOBODY (male or female adults included) averages 6 hours a day. When you know the first 18 years are 3.5 hrs, Eckhart's number is simply not true. Related to this, he seems convinced that men are responsible for all negative history events and that if women ran things we would be a land of peace and joy and plenty. I find both views to be a bit extreme.
Eckhart talks about few animals being killed in the Tsunami, but again, he's perpetuating a rumor. As the deputy managing editor of Science scoffs, "I have heard rumors that none of the animals were killed, but how do they know that? Did they take a census?" It's just that we KNOW when people are missing - but we rarely know (or worry about) wild animals missing after something like this. Yes, animals might hear the subsonic noises and be nervous - but to say animals weren't killed makes no sense. I'm sure even if a lot of animals "sensed something wrong" that they would be incapable of moving far enough inland to escape the torrential flooding. Or maybe Eckhart only worries about large, identifiable animals like elephants ...
My biggest issue with both of these books is that Eckhart is trumpeting a message of despair. He talks about how our whole world is mad, how we are surrounded by crazies, and that we better rise up against them and claim our minds or we're all going to go insane. It gets a bit much. He talks about the madness accelerating, when really if you look at history things are MUCH calmer now than pretty much any time. People actually try to talk out issues now. Yes we have a few wars - but look back to when EVERYTHING was settled by war. We are making huge progress. But that wouldn't sell books.
So that all being said, I do want to say this book has MANY good points, if you take it all with a critical, open eye. He talks about how Buddhism seeks to make us aware of the troubles in daily life and how we must learn to accept the way life is. He says that sin in the original language of the Bible was not "evil", it was about "missing the mark". People were being advised to learn from their mistakes and correct their path as they went.
He warns that all possessions fade over time, just as beauty and strength does. Taking pride in these things is setting yourself up to feel sadness when they are no longer there. It is better to be content inwardly, rather than based on external objects. He includes branded name objects in this category, and groups.
He points out that your internal frame of mind shapes how you view the world. "Complaining is one of the ego's favorite strategies for strengthening itself," he warns. It's about making you feel better by putting down someone else. He elaborates later - "Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from complaining doesn't necessarily mean putting up with bad quality or behavior." So it is about standing up for yourself, certainly, but not by abusing others.
He talks about how some people feel they can't be happy until something in their current life changes (I get a new house, I get a new job). He says other people feel they can never be happy because of something in their past (maybe the DISTANT past). He says both sets of people are mistaken. You can choose to be happy NOW. Not that you resign yourself to your situation necessarily - you can strive to better your life. But you can accept that you are where you are, that you will find serenity where you are while you work to improve things.
He says that every moment we're in we should either be thinking of acceptance, enjoyment or enthusiasm. If we really don't want to be changing a flat tire in the rain, simply accept it, do it as best you can, and move on. Being stressed and angry isn't going to make the tire change more quickly, and will add stress hormones and bad health to your list of problems.
I definitely think the key messages of this book are important. If Eckhart is phrasing them in a way which most people "get" - even though there are numerous other books on this same topic with this same message - then more power to him. It goes to show that people react differently to phrasing and that a writing style that makes sense to one person does not to another. Sure, a lot of this book is Buddhism - but I'm sure many of these readers have never been in a Buddhist temple and would not have gone to talk with a Buddhist monk. A lot of these concepts are basic psychology, but a person who doesn't read psychology tomes would never know that. Eckhart has made the information palatable to a large group of people. That's a well done task. My complaints are just that he didn't need some of this "incorrect junk" in here - and that his book would have been that much better if it left those things out.
Tolle eludicates Buddhism October 3, 2006
52 out of 75 found this review helpful
I've read most of the reviews and all of the negative ones. I've also left comments to them if any reader is interested. Quite frankly, all of the negative reviews are from people who don't understand the main premise of this book. Some interestingly enough were from Buddhists, who seemed uncharacteristically and extraordinarily negative. Buddhism of course is where the concept of Spiritual materialism, using one's religious identity to further support and prop up the ego, first was formalized. To this day that concept has not found much traction in Christianity where Spiritual Materialism is taken as par for the course, but I am digressing.
This book is about the forces that are present in aiding us, and how we, individually can transcend mythology and ideology. Something that either will happen for us as a species or will become extinct in the very near-- in geological time-- future. And until it happens things will only get worse. For example right now China is building up its military to invade Taiwan. An event that quite possibly and most probably will lead to a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and China. China has already publicly stated that this will be the result of the U.S. coming to Taiwan's defense. And consequently China is developing missile technology to defeat the U.S's missile defense system. This could happen in as little as a couple of years from this review date. This is only to demonstrate one way things may continue to get worse until a different sort of consciousness emerges on this planet. There is no middle ground or "political" solution, our old ways of thinking will lead to our own destruction.
Some reviewers have stated that this book has nothing to do with awakening to your life's purpose, but I disagree. What is your life's purpose other then to evolve, which means, of course, also surviving. Your purpose is to become fully conscious. We are the part of the universe evolving into full consciousness of itself. One stage on that journey was emergence of the human mind. But this mind has grown into a monstrous reality, as the twentieth century so eloquently testifies. The mind has highjacked us and we live in the world where our own inventions can and may destroy us. Part of why this is so is that the mind itself is an unconscious tool. Tolle's opinion, is that the purpose of life is to become fully conscious, to become more than the limits of your own mind. That, first this is possible, and then how one achieves it is the point of this book.
Tolle, who is a gifted communicator, articulates this message in refreshingly modern terms. It is the same message of the historical Buddha, and arguably of an historical Jesus. How you awaken to your life's purpose is simply by clearly seeing the nature of your own mind.
Lama Yeshe in his book, Make your Mind and Ocean, says as much:
Lord Buddha says that all you have to know is what your are, how you exist. You don't have to believe in anything. Just understand how your mind works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, and where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; that alone can bring you happiness and peace.
What Eckhart does in A New Earth is articulate this same old spiritual message, that few seem to truly have realized, in a way exceeding accessible for our times.
Eloquent and Vibrant October 11, 2005
42 out of 71 found this review helpful
This is another humble and clearly written contribution to the literature of self understanding. It has been long anticipated and its timely arrival brings with it a sense of optimism and peace. In his typically non-judgemental fashion, Tolle delineates the current state of human development, explaining his insights into the limitations and dysfunctionality of thought. Woven into the fabric of this symptomatic and descriptive analysis of the human condition are his insights into what steps can be taken to lessen the limitations and neutralize the dysfunction. The state of our world today and the insanity that is abundantly present in all directions begs for an accurate diagnosis and workable cure. This work is a step forward in the direction of accomplishing that goal.
Always a clear, succinct message October 31, 2005
21 out of 36 found this review helpful
Eckhart has done it again. A clear , succinct message that we are already that which we seek, namely pure consciousness. Alot of resatement of Power of Now material, but worthwhile none the less. I am so glad to have found Eckhart as one of my teachers, probably my favorite one. A classic.
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