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A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
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Like a lot of people, I have often pondered the meaning of humanity’s existence so when I saw the title, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose 
Achieving internal awareness eludes many due to the ever-present ego which crowds most people’s ability to know their true selves. The ego, a collection of thought forms and emotions, “could almost be looked upon as an entity that has taken possession of them.” The constant stream of thoughts in each of our minds commands our frequent attention, defining who we think we are. The challenge is to remain aware that while we have thoughts and emotions, we are not our thoughts and emotions.
Tolle defines the pain-body, an integral aspect of the ego, as unprocessed negative thoughts that leave behind fragments of pain in the emotional body. We carry our past experiences throughout our lives and due to this baggage, we often react to situations inappropriately. Generally speaking, these emotions become “unhappiness.”
When reading about this, I recalled a previous conversation with a college-age friend. She expressed that she had always felt unhappy and had been offered a prescription from a psychiatrist to help with this condition. Since she is otherwise quite able to function well in life, my advice to her was to consider that perhaps nothing is wrong with being unhappy and it may be just who she is and not a state that needs fixing.
Validation of that suggestion came in the passage where Tolle counsels a woman carrying great sadness and pain. He asks her to look within and accept how she feels in that exact moment and to ask herself the question, “if you don’t mind being unhappy, what happens to the unhappiness?” Tolle explains that acceptance of however you feel in a given moment is the quality of presence.
When you are able to break free from habitual negative emotion and pain, and separate from the typical mind chatter, you begin the process of knowing the essence within yourself. While this may be difficult to attain consistently, Tolle assures that even a short moment of presence and internal stillness is a huge victory. This awareness leads to the capacity to truly know your inner self and to find meaning in life.
Tolle relates through anecdotes the wisdom of three specific states of mind – nonresistance, nonjudgment and nonattachment. Achievement of these states brings room for inner space. “It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep within you, even in the face of something seemingly bad.” As each of us becomes more aligned, we begin to fulfill our inner purpose and are thus ready to live our unique external purposes.
One’s purpose is less related to what you do and intrinsically defined by how you do it. There are three modalities of “awakened doing” – acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. From the mundane to the exhilarating, all actions are equally due the attention of the present moment. As we awaken to this more aware phase of being, all of humanity will transform to a “new earth.”
Book Author: Eckhart Tolle
Plume, 2006
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/adult/plume.html
Eckhart Tolle is a contemporary spiritual teacher who travels extensively, taking his message throughout the world.
Other books:
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Practicing the Power of Now
Stillness Speaks
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