Troubling Quotes from Eckhart Tolle’s Book: A New Earth
(Heavily Promoted by Oprah Winfrey)
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“…to such an extent that you can no longer feel your common humanity, nor the rootedness in the one Life that you share with each human being, your common divinity” (p. 74, underline mine)
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“The only thing that ultimately matters is this: Can I sense my essential Beingness, the I Am, in the background of my life at all times? TO be more accurate, can I sense the I Am that I Am at this moment?” (p. 79, underline mine).
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“The inspiration for the title of this book [A NEW EARTH] came from a Bible prophecy that seems more applicable now than at any other time in human history. It occurs in both the Old and the New Testament and speaks of the collapse of the existing world order and the arising of “a new heaven and a new earth.” We need to understand here that heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. This is the esoteric meaning of the word, and this is also its meaning in the teaching of Jesus” (p. 23)
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After referring to Scripture as “A story you had to believe in” Tolle goes on to say on the same page, “you won’t find absolute truth if you look for it where it cannot be found: in doctrines, ideologies, sets of rules, or stories. What do all of these have in common? They are made up of thought. Thought can at best point to tht truth, but it never is the truth” (p. 70).
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“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge” (p. 13, compare with Romans 7:18 and Mark 10:18).
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“However, out of this insight into the nature of the human condition–we may call it the bad news–arises a second insight: the good news of the possibility of a radical transformation of human consciousness. In Hindu teachings (and sometimes in Buddhism also), this transformation is called enlightenment. In the teachings of Jesus, it is salvation, and in Buddhism, it is the end of suffering” (p. 13, italics in original).
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“Man made “God” in his own image. The eternal, the infinite, and unnameable was reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as “my god” or “our god” (p. 15).
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“Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself” (p. 26).
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“I didn’t realize yet that thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence” (p. 32, italics in original).
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“In most ancient cultures, people believed that everything, even so-called inanimate objects [e.g., “housing, clothes, furniture, tools, transportation”], had an indwelling spirit, and in this respect they were closer to the truth than we are today” (p. 37).
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“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness” (p. 41).
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“And what is the “kingdom of heaven”? The simple but profound joy of Being that is there when you let go of identifications and so become “poor in spirit” (p. 43).
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“Beyond the realm of simple and verifiable facts, the certainty that “I am right and you are wrong” is a dangerous thing in personal relationships as well as in interactions between nations, tribes, religions, and so on” (p. 69).
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“Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free” (p. 80).
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“And when Jesus said, “Deny thyself,” what he meant was: Negate (and thus undo) the illusion of self. If the self–ego–were truly who I am, it would be absurd to “deny” it” (p. 79, notice that Tolle leaves off the rest of Jesus’ words in Mark 8:34: “and take up his cross and follow Me.”)