A New Earth
Encyclopedia
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose is a book by Eckhart Tolle
, a follow-up to his first book and bestseller
, The Power of Now
. Tolle says "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". First published in 2005, it was selected in 2008 by Oprah Winfrey
for her book club
, and was followed by a 10-week live online seminar
with both Tolle and Winfrey. By 2009, 5 million copies had been sold in North America. How the book was written is notable in that Tolle explained to Oprah that the writing "was inspired, but not channeled" and as with his first book, he needed to be on the West Coast of North America to facilitate this flow of writing.
. Although both revolve around the same theme, there are significant differences. The Power Of Now is in a question/answer format, and focuses on the self-help aspects of Tolle's work; his second book Stillness Speaks is in the style of Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius, a series of short passages designed for meditative reflection; whereas A New Earth is in a more traditional long essay format, and Tolle spends more time on the societal ramifications of his ideas, culminating in tentative descriptions of a future in which enjoyment and compassion
have replaced desire and conflict as the core motivating principle for human
ity.
Tolle sees humanity as trapped in thinking. Individuals derive a sense of identity from these thoughts, and it becomes impossible to achieve lasting happiness. As this sense of identity is fictional and static, it is subject to destruction and decay, a process Tolle sees as the main causal factor in human suffering. Tolle also sees this sense of identity as the cause of unnecessary human conflict. The escape from this ongoing prison is a direct experience of the sublime, the infinite - that which stands outside, before and beyond the categorisations and divisions of conceptual thought. A key way which Tolle suggests this can be done is to bring one's attention to the present moment.
evocation
: "Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun ... this momentous event heralds an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants". This is used by Tolle as an analogy for a transformation in human consciousness that he sees is about to occur and has already begun.
Tolle believes that the earliest such "flowers" or spiritual messengers were in the forms of Buddha
, Jesus
, Laozi
and other such great teachers, and that at those particular time periods in history, these great teachers’ messages were not fully understood. Tolle explains
Tolle describes our identification with things: things that we use every day for self enhancement or things we have become attached to and become obsessed with. He describes how inferiority changes the way we act with other people and creates an ego that we didn’t normally have.
for "Paperback Advice" several times by December 2008. Its huge success in 2008 coincided with Oprah Winfrey
's selection of the book for her book club
in January that year, which was followed by a 10-week live online seminar
with Tolle, which started on March 3, 2008, for which over 700,000 people from more than 100 countries, registered on Oprah.com. According to Barnes & Noble
, it became the fastest-selling title in the history of Oprah's Book Club
, which has selected 61 books since 1996. Within four weeks of the announcement 3.5 million copies had been shipped. By 2009, an estimated 5 million copies had been sold.
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle is a German-born Canadian resident, best known as the author of the The Power of Now and A New Earth, which were written in English. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world...
, a follow-up to his first book and bestseller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
, The Power of Now
The Power of Now
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment is a book by Eckhart Tolle. He says the book "represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be conveyed in words", and that it "can be seen as a restatement for our time of that one timeless spiritual teaching, the essence of all...
. Tolle says "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". First published in 2005, it was selected in 2008 by Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
for her book club
Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new novel for viewers to read and discuss each month. The Club ended its 15-year run, along with...
, and was followed by a 10-week live online seminar
Web conferencing
Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared simultaneously, across geographically...
with both Tolle and Winfrey. By 2009, 5 million copies had been sold in North America. How the book was written is notable in that Tolle explained to Oprah that the writing "was inspired, but not channeled" and as with his first book, he needed to be on the West Coast of North America to facilitate this flow of writing.
Format and theme
A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose is a more detailed examination of the ideas introduced in The Power of NowThe Power of Now
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment is a book by Eckhart Tolle. He says the book "represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be conveyed in words", and that it "can be seen as a restatement for our time of that one timeless spiritual teaching, the essence of all...
. Although both revolve around the same theme, there are significant differences. The Power Of Now is in a question/answer format, and focuses on the self-help aspects of Tolle's work; his second book Stillness Speaks is in the style of Meditations
Meditations
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161–180 CE, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy....
by Marcus Aurelius, a series of short passages designed for meditative reflection; whereas A New Earth is in a more traditional long essay format, and Tolle spends more time on the societal ramifications of his ideas, culminating in tentative descriptions of a future in which enjoyment and compassion
Compassion
Compassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism — foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood.There is an aspect of...
have replaced desire and conflict as the core motivating principle for human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
ity.
Tolle sees humanity as trapped in thinking. Individuals derive a sense of identity from these thoughts, and it becomes impossible to achieve lasting happiness. As this sense of identity is fictional and static, it is subject to destruction and decay, a process Tolle sees as the main causal factor in human suffering. Tolle also sees this sense of identity as the cause of unnecessary human conflict. The escape from this ongoing prison is a direct experience of the sublime, the infinite - that which stands outside, before and beyond the categorisations and divisions of conceptual thought. A key way which Tolle suggests this can be done is to bring one's attention to the present moment.
Chapter One: The Flowering of Human Consciousness
Tolle begins with an allegoricalAllegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
evocation
Evocation
Evocation is the act of calling or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent, in the Western mystery tradition. Comparable practices exist in many religions and magical traditions.-Evocation in the Western mystery tradition:...
: "Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun ... this momentous event heralds an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants". This is used by Tolle as an analogy for a transformation in human consciousness that he sees is about to occur and has already begun.
Tolle believes that the earliest such "flowers" or spiritual messengers were in the forms of Buddha
Buddha
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
, Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, Laozi
Laozi
Laozi was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching . His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism...
and other such great teachers, and that at those particular time periods in history, these great teachers’ messages were not fully understood. Tolle explains
Chapters Two, Three and Four: Ego
In his book A New Earth, Tolle defines the term ego as an "illusory sense of self" based on one's memories and thoughts. Tolle says that when studying history "it becomes obvious that the human ego in its collective aspect as “us” against “them” is even more insane than the “me,” the individual ego, although the mechanism is the same. By far the greater part of violence that humans have inflicted on each other is not the work of criminals or the mentally deranged, but of normal, respectable citizens in the service of the collective ego. One can go so far as to say that on this planet “normal” equals insane. What is it that lies at the root of this insanity? Complete identification with thought and emotion, that is to say, ego."Tolle describes our identification with things: things that we use every day for self enhancement or things we have become attached to and become obsessed with. He describes how inferiority changes the way we act with other people and creates an ego that we didn’t normally have.
Chapters Five and Six: The Pain Body
Tolle uses his term pain body to describe the human tendency to carry around "an accumulation of old emotional pain". The identification is what causes all the reoccurring pain in the individual. Being able to know where the pain is coming from will prevent the pain body to renew itself through you. Our inner consciousness can change the world by not just being satisfied with what you do. Our destinies can be determined by how we carry out our actions and how we can fulfill them with the best possible consciousness.Chapters Seven, Eight and Nine: Inner Space, Inner Purpose and Who You Truly Are
In these chapters, Tolle makes many distinctions: between "knowing yourself and knowing about yourself"; between the "Dreamer" and the "dream"; between the objects of consciousness and the space of consciousness; between outer space and inner space; and between outer purpose and inner purposeChapter Ten: A New Earth
In the final chapter, Tolle discusses what he calls "the three modalities of awakened doing": acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Acceptance is when you may not enjoy what you are doing but you have to be able to accept it. This is essentially being able to take responsibility in your life and to take action with certain things that are not enjoyable at all and to find peace within these activities. Enjoyment is the next modality and it is being able to make the present moment a pivotal part of your life. This doesn’t mean that if you want to do something that you will find enjoyment in it. It means that with everything you do that you need to enjoy it in the present; you can’t let the moments pass you by or tell yourself you will enjoy something in the near future. The final modality of the inner consciousness is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm entails that there is a deeper enjoyment in the actions you do and being able to work towards a final goal, with a sense of urgency, but without stress.Publication and reception
First published in 2005, it had reached first place on the New York Times Best Seller listNew York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
for "Paperback Advice" several times by December 2008. Its huge success in 2008 coincided with Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
's selection of the book for her book club
Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new novel for viewers to read and discuss each month. The Club ended its 15-year run, along with...
in January that year, which was followed by a 10-week live online seminar
Web conferencing
Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared simultaneously, across geographically...
with Tolle, which started on March 3, 2008, for which over 700,000 people from more than 100 countries, registered on Oprah.com. According to Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
, it became the fastest-selling title in the history of Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new novel for viewers to read and discuss each month. The Club ended its 15-year run, along with...
, which has selected 61 books since 1996. Within four weeks of the announcement 3.5 million copies had been shipped. By 2009, an estimated 5 million copies had been sold.
Publication history
- 2005. New York, New York: Dutton/Penguin Group. ISBN 0-525-94802-3
- 2006. New York, New York: Plume. ISBN 0-452-28758-8
- 2008. New York, New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-452-28996-3
External links
- A New Earth at Official Website of Eckhart Tolle
- A New Earth webcast Archive at Oprah Winfrey Show
- A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose - at Penguin Group