Tolle provides the spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live. Shattering modern ideas of ego and entitlement, self and society, Tolle lifts the veil of fear that has hung over humanity, and shines an illuminating light that leads to happiness and health that every reader can follow. A cornerstone for personal spirituality and self-improvement, leading readers to new levels of consciousness and inner peace.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK
“Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an
inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it
the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a
pale reflection? Can human beings lose the density of their
conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or
precious stones, so to speak, transparent to the light of consciousness?
Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism
and materiality and rise above identification with form
that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment
within their own personality?
The possibility of such a transformation has been the
central message of the great wisdom teachings of humankind.
The messengers—Buddha, Jesus, and others, not
all of them known—were humanity’s early flowers. They
were precursors, rare and precious beings. A widespread
flowering was not yet possible at that time, and their message
became largely misunderstood and often greatly distorted.
It certainly did not transform human behavior,
except in a small minority of people.
Is humanity more ready now than at the time of those
early teachers? Why should this be so? What can you do, if
anything, to bring about or accelerate this inner shift? What
is it that characterizes the old egoic state of consciousness,
and by what signs is the new emerging consciousness recognized?
These and other essential questions will be addressed
in this book. More important, this book itself is a
transformational device that has come out of the arising
new consciousness. The ideas and concepts presented here
may be important, but they are secondary. They are no
more than signposts pointing toward awakening. As you
read, a shift takes place within you.
“This book is about you. It will change your state of consciousness or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken those who are ready.”
This book’s main purpose is not to add new information
or beliefs to your mind or to try to convince you of anything,
but to bring about a shift in consciousness, that is to
say, to awaken. In that sense, this book is not “interesting.”
Interesting means you can keep your distance, play around
with ideas and concepts in your mind, agree or disagree.
This book is about you. It will change your state of consciousness
or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken
those who are ready. Not everyone is ready yet, but many
are, and with each person who awakens, the momentum in
the collective consciousness grows, and it becomes easier
for others. If you don’t know what awakening means, read
on. Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of
that word. A glimpse is enough to initiate the awakening
process, which is irreversible. For some, that glimpse will
come while reading this book. For many others who may
not even have realized it, the process has already begun.
This book will help them recognize it. For some, it may
have begun through loss or suffering; for others, through
coming into contact with a spiritual teacher or teaching,
through reading The Power of Now or some other spiritually
alive and therefore transformational book—or any combination
of the above. If the awakening process has begun
in you, the reading of this book will accelerate and intensify
it.
An essential part of the awakening is the recognition of
the unawakened you, the ego as it thinks, speaks, and acts,
as well as the recognition of the collectively conditioned
mental processes that perpetuate the unawakened state.
That is why this book shows the main aspects of the ego
and how they operate in the individual as well as in the collective.
This is important for two related reasons: The first
is that unless you know the basic mechanics behind the
workings of the ego, you won’t recognize it, and it will
trick you into identifying with it again and again. This
means it takes you over, an imposter pretending to be you.
The second reason is that the act of recognition itself is one
of the ways in which awakening happens. When you recognize
the unconsciousness in you, that which makes the
recognition possible is the arising consciousness, is awakening.
You cannot fight against the ego and win, just as you
cannot fight against darkness. The light of consciousness is
all that is necessary. You are that light.”
Extract from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, out now.
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