Happiness in life results from understanding one’s purpose. In Eckhart Tolle’s (ET’s) book “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” he stresses the importance of transcending the ego and be with the true-self. This will end the human dysfunction and suffering and result in personal happiness. In order to have a fulfilling existence, there must be a shift in consciousness or awakening. This book will awaken only those who are ready and resonate with them and for those who are not, it will not make sense or resonate. This book is a must-read for readers wanting to increase their personal happiness and decrease their propensity toward self-destruction.
Here ET addresses, the essential question of this book: Will human beings be able to distance themselves from their identification with materiality and their personal ego and experience a transformation of consciousness? As ET points out this process has been at the foundation of all great spiritual teachings including Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. ET suggests that the content of the book will either be transformative or nothing at all. It is up to the reader to decide which one it’s going to be for them.
Chapter 1: The Flowering of Human Consciousness
Our Inherited Dysfunction: ET points out that all major religions have suggested that what we call the “normal” state of mind has serious elements of dysfunction or even madness. While the human mind is highly intelligent this dysfunction has unleashed incredible destruction on the world.
The Arising New Consciousness: While all religions have identified this “fault” in human consciousness they also have another insight to offer. This is that there is the possibility of a radical transformation of human consciousness. In Christianity this is termed “salvation”, Hinduism “enlightenment” and in Buddhism “the end of suffering”. ET believes that the greatest achievement of humanity is the recognition of its own dysfunction. ET states the basic beliefs of religion have become distorted so that they have become divisive rather than uniting.
Chapter 2: Ego, the Current State of Humanity, The Illusionary Self
When you don’t cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought.
Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, and the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it and let it be without imposing a word or mental label.
Content and The Structure Of The Ego: ET then explains how we start to identify with the things that we own. This process is one where our own sense of self becomes indelibly associated with this other thing. It starts with something simple like a toy and overtime extends to our television, our car or our house and so on. The structure of the ego remains the same, but its content varies.
The Peace that Passes All Understanding: It is sometimes in the face of the greatest tragedy that we find true peace. When all of the things that our ego identifies with: our family, our possessions, our position in society are completely gone that the ego collapses. Your sense of being becomes free from the entanglements with form. This can be called the peace that passes all understanding.
Chapter 3: The Core of Ego
Beyond ego: your true identity: All that is required for someone to become free of the ego is to be aware of it. This is because ego and awareness are mutually exclusive with one another. Awareness is the power that is found in the present moment. This is why it is called presence. It is only by being present in the moment that we can become free of our ego.
All structures are unstable: Ego always wants something from other people and situations. It always has a hidden agenda. It uses people and situations to get what it wants. But when it gets what it wants it doesn’t stay satisfied with it very long. This means that people are either in a state of desire or anguish. They are constantly in a state of dissatisfaction.
Chapter 4: Role Playing – The Many Faces Of Ego
Mastery of life is not a question of control, but of finding a balance between human and Being. Mother, father, husband, wife, young, old, the roles you play, the functions you fulfill, whatever you do—all that belongs to the human dimension. It has its place and needs to be honored, but in itself it is not enough for a fulfilled, truly meaningful relationship or life. Human alone is never enough, no matter how hard you try or what you achieve. Then there is Being. It is found in the still, alert presence of Consciousness itself. The Consciousness that you are. Human is form. Being is formless. Human and Being are not separate, but interwoven.”
Chapter 5: The Pain-Body
ET introduces the pain-body. The body has a mind of its own. The degree that people are trapped by their mind varies from person to person. Some people are able to enjoy periods when they are free from the egoic state and able to enjoy peace and joy. Others are constantly trapped in this state and are alienated from both themselves and other people.
How the pain-body renews itself: ET considers the pain body to be semiautonomous and require replenishing in order to strengthen and survive. The pain body thrives on negative thinking and emotional drama. Essentially the pain-body has an addiction to unhappiness.
Chapter 6: Breaking Free
ET discusses the idea of how we can break free from the pain body. ET suggests that the first step to breaking free is to become aware that we actually have a pain body. When we become alert we will start to notice the influx of negative emotion that occurs when the pain body becomes active. When you no longer identify with the pain body it cannot control your thinking or renew itself by feeding on these thoughts. This does not mean that your pain body will disappear straight away. But because you are no longer providing it energy it will eventually wither and dissolve.
Presence: ET tells the story of a woman in her thirties who came to visit him. While she was smiling he could tell that she was undergoing great pain. As she told her story it was revealed that she had physically violent father. ET instructed her that rather than trying reject the emotions that she was feeling she needed to accept that this was the way that she felt right now and be present. She found the shift in consciousness.
Chapter 7: Finding Who You Truly Are
Knowing Yourself: The problem with the way most people go about getting to know themselves, though, is that these unconscious people tend to merely add spiritual sounding concepts to the ideas they have about themselves floating around in their minds. None of these concepts or ideas have anything to do with living in a true state of Being. We all have a sense of who we are, ET states, which we use to determine our needs and what matters to us. Within those boundaries, how one responds to life situation ascertains the degree of consciousness the person possesses. The essence of who we are requires no belief, because every belief is an obstacle. This realization, according to the author, allows us to shine forth in the world.
Not Minding What Happens: To illustrate how this works, ET uses the example of J. Krishnamuri, the Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, who revealed his secret with the phrase “I don’t mind what happens.” This in turn aligned him with what is, allowing him to form a relationship with non-resistance.
Chapter 8: The Discovery Of Inner Space
Ancient Sufi story: In this story there was a king who was either in a state of extreme happiness or incredible depression. If something good happened to the king he would be overwhelmed with joy. But if even the slightest thing went wrong he would become furiously upset. Eventually even the king become tired of living in this way and looked for an alternative. To overcome his problem he sought out advice from a wiseman and asked him what the secret to his serenity was.
This Too Will Pass: The wiseman told the king that he would give him a gift that was so priceless that even his kingdom would not be enough to pay for it. He said before he would give this great gift to the king he must promise that he would honor the gift. The king agreed and several weeks later he was presented with a gold ring housed in an ornate jade box. Inscribed on the ring were the words “This too will pass.” The King demanded to know what the meaning of the gift was.
As ET points out this story is a perfect illustration of the key ideas of impermanence and non-judgement. Any event that occurs in our life is transient. The idea that “this too shall pass” isn’t just a way of making us feel comforted when things are bad. It also shows that everything, good and bad will eventually pass away. By becoming detached it does not mean that we can no longer enjoy things. By being aware of their transient nature we can often enjoy them more because we don’t have to fear losing them.
The Bliss Of Being: The first step to seeking inner space is accepting that it exists. When you can simply enjoy being in the moment, whether that is admiring the beauty of the clouds in the sky or being kind to a stranger without expecting anything in return, then you have opened yourself up briefly to inner space. When this occurs you will experience a feeling of well being and peace. The wisemen of India would called this state ananda which is simply the bliss of being. By becoming an observer of the sense perceptions, the inner space is created between the observer and the observed.
Chapter 9: Your Inner Purpose
ET discusses the idea of discovering your inner purpose. As ET points out once we have overcome the problem of survival, the issue of meaning and purpose becomes the most important questions we can ask.
Life purpose: Many people feel that their life lacks purpose. They feel overwhelmed by their finances or living situation. They long for freedom and prosperity. But even in cases where the prosperity arise it is not enough to imbue their life with meaning. The problem is caused by looking for meaning on the outside. But it is not what you do but rather your state of conscious that gives your life meaning. In ET’s conception inner purpose is to do with being, outer purpose is to do with doing. It is inner purpose which is the most important of the two.
ET suggests that our inner purpose is simply to awaken. This is the same purpose that every person on the planet has. It is also the same purpose of humanity. When you live in alignment with your inner purpose then you have built a foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. If you do not have this alignment you can be successful on the outside by doing but still not feel fulfilled.
Chapter 10: A New Earth
ET begins by discussing the occurrence of the big bang over fifteen billion years ago in a gigantic explosion and has been expanding ever since. Eckhart explains that the universe is always growing and becoming more complex and differentiated. He goes into how scientists think this drive towards multiplicity may reverse at some point and move back towards unity. The universe will eventually stop expanding and begin to contract again, reversing and going back to the nothingness, the un-manifested, and maybe even begin the whole process again of being born, expanding, and dying.
Inner And Outer Purpose: We all have an inner and outer purpose, and we are all reflections as microcosms of the macrocosm. The universe as well has an inner and outer purpose. The outer purpose is create forms and watch the interaction of those forms together, the human drama, the play. The inner purpose is to awaken to its inner formlessness, its essence. The purpose is to bring that inner essence of consciousness into the world of forms and thereby transform the world. That is the reconciliation between the world and “God” or whatever you want to call it, the physical plane and the spiritual plane, that of energy and formlessness.
Summary as I see it
The default human position is one of dysfunction (dukha in Buddhism), or the unhappiness as we all as know it. This is largely due to identification with conditioned mind. The ego exercises control over us by dwelling in the past or worrying about the future and never staying the present. The present is always used as a means to an end by ego which cherishes or resents the past and worries about the future. As one awakens and stays in the present, the ego begins to lose its grip on us. Ego has a structure and a content. While the structure remains the same, the content varies for everyone. The present is the only gateway to enter the true-self or the “being”. ET explains this by using the horizontal and vertical dimensions. While the horizontal dimension represents the past and the future, the vertical dimension represents the depth, the intra-personal and the eternal true-self. Thus the ego is associated with time in the horizontal dimension, while the true-self is eternal and has no time association in the depth direction. In order to know who you really are, you need to know who you really aren’t. Possessions and positions are not who you are, and who you are can only be found by going deep within yourself. You can get a glimpse of yourself, by staying conscious, still and alert with no thought.
All the sense perceptions, and the emotions we feel happen on the substratum, namely the “being” or the “true-self” or the “consciousness”, the subject. Thought needs consciousness but the consciousness does not need thought. So we have the observer, the act of observing and the observed. Every human has inside what is called a “pain-body” which is an accumulation of negative energy. The density of the pain-body varies from person to person. The pain-body is energized and fed by negative thinking. If you identify with the pain-body it becomes part of the ego. It is therefore, important to recognize the pain-body in oneself and in others. You deal with your own pain-body by observing as an observer, the substratum, the subject without judgment. You deal with other pain-bodies by not reacting and feeding negative energy which is what feeds them in the first place. Everyone has functions to perform such as a mother, teacher or a son. When one identifies with the function beyond the duration when it is necessary, it becomes a role that ego plays to fulfill its own desire to maintain power over us. It is therefore, important to recognize this at an early stage and dis-identify with this role playing, as it leads to unconsciousness and suffering, as the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. Whenever we observe the emotion, role-playing in us or others pain-body, the objects we create an inner space as ET calls it. The concept of “inner space” does not arise if one is unaware of the true-self, the observer, and lost in the mind, meaning identified with the mind. Social media is the perfect example of total unconsciousness when the humanity is completely hijacked by the collective mind and prevents the humanity from realizing self or the inner space. Humanity has an inner purpose which is to bring consciousness into this world, “being”, and the outer purpose is “doing”. The inner purpose is more important than the outer purpose and they have to be aligned which ET call it, the “awakened-doing’. If you do this, your doing will be successful because the Universe supports it as it is in line with the evolutionary impulse of the Universe. The three things required for you to awaken to true-self are, non-attachment, non-judgment and non-resistance.
Example of Real-World Application:
Myth: Rich people are not Spiritual (mental block) and therefore I don’t want to be rich
Truth: As long as you are an “awakened-doing”, meaning rooted in the “being” and bring consciousness into the world, and not lost in the mind, your abundance seeking is in line with the evolutionary impulse of the Universe and it will conspire in every which way to make you Rich in whatever mode you choose.