But obviously I was alone in that -- because that woman has power. I do watch her show, though I don't actually like her. But she is really the only game in town if you are interested in getting your message out to the masses -- I don't think there is anyone else out there who can reach as many people as she does. So she attracts great people, interesting people, people who have a lot to say. And therefore, she draws me. (haha!)
I am a willing fly to her spidery web! And for the first time in a very long time, I am reading her latest book selection -- A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. I have also joined, along with 300,000 others, the "classroom" that she and Eckhart Tolle will be running online starting in March. I have been sucked in ... big time.
But I was thinking about it ... how for years now she has been building up this base of readers who probably wouldn't read at all if she wasn't telling them what to read. And that is not a bad thing.
In the few chapters that I have read, I have come across countless thoughts and ideas that I have underlined. (And through another Oprah moment, or from watching the show that featured all of her favorite things, I purchased one of the Post-It highlighter pens that has the post-its right in the pen. It truly is a clever little invention and also makes you go highlighting/post-it crazy!)
From the book:
We are running out of time. From the perspective of the ego, that’s bad news and will give rise to fear. From a higher perspective, the running out of time is exactly what is needed for the new consciousness to come into this world.
President Bush used fear to create his new world, so what is the difference for this man, who calls himself a contemporary spiritual teacher, to spout such doom and gloom?
Well first off, unlike American taxpayers who must fund a war they might not be interested in being in at all, we are not forced to purchase a book we have no desire to read. To read about this particular doom and gloom is a choice, and chances are if you are choosing such a book it is because you have an open mind.
From the book:
The physical needs for food, water, shelter, clothing and basic comforts could be easily met for all humans on the planet, were it not for the imbalance of resources created by the insane and rapacious need for more, the greed of the ego.
It makes me squirm in my seat, just reading that. Talk about Catholic guilt, I have "could feed
the whole world but I bought a Kirby guilt ..." and heaven only knows the Kirby is only the tip of the iceberg. But it's SO HARD TO STOP.
According to the book, the thought forms of "me," "mine," of "more than," of "I want," "I need," "I must have," and of "not enough" pertain not to content but to the structure of the ego. And as long as you don't recognize those thought forms within yourself you will believe in what they say -- you will be condemned to acting out those unconscious thoughts, condemned to seeking and not finding.
(Honestly, I just wanted to keep my house clean.) But there you go "I wanted ..." It says that no matter what you have or get, you won't be happy. You will always be looking for something else that promises greater fulfillment, that promises to make your incomplete sense of self complete and fill that sense of lack you feel within.
So what do I want? Ahhh, there it comes again, the "I want."
According to the book, how do you let go of attachment of things? It says to not even try, that it's impossible! But ... this attachment will drop away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.
I suppose I will have to seek therapy to figure out what I am seeing of myself in a vacuum cleaner. But I truly did not spend much of my life wanting the thing either. I don't spend a lot of time trying to decide whether or not to buy something. If it seems practical, useful and I guess will bring me pleasure, then I buy it.
This apparently needs to stop as it is a roadblock to my enlightenment. But then get this, from the book:
Anti-consumerism would be another thought form, another mental position, that can replace identification with possessions. Through it you could make yourself right and others wrong. And as we shall see later, making yourself right and others wrong is one of the principal egoic mind patterns, one of the main forms of unconsciousness.
Oy, I don't have a prayer. I am here, on earth, and enlightenment is that tiny speck of a moon, beautiful in the sky but you can't get there from here.
I suppose it is not completely ridiculous to feel overwhelmed on Chapter two. In case you are wondering if I am enjoying the book, let's just say I am on page 52 and I have 18 post it stickies marking pages where I have underlined text.
Thought-provoking ... and exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment