http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle http://www.eckharttolle.com/eckharttolle I can personally recommend "The Power Of Now" - http://www.eckharttolle.com/eckharttolle-powerofnow This part in particular grabbed me in the book. To get into the basics of it what he said was along the lines of "there is no issue with our lives now. Issue comes from worrying about the future or concerning ourselves with the past". he explains it much better than i can but i have tried to take this to heart and it has helped on quite a few things, actually.
I'm currently going through "A New Earth" for the second time and plan on reading "The Power of Now" next. In all honesty I had run over a lot of things that Tolle talks about before I had discovered the books. what struck me about "A New Earth" is his incredible ability to make you identify destructive behavior in yourself. His take on the Ego is incredibly enlightening. I spent four months in Itay....in that time I grew an incredible amount and had to learn to "live in the now" to complete my art work. The principles of art and design are bare an uncanny similarity to Tolle's teachings. Great thread idea..i don't have time to partake tonight but I'll try to relate some of my personal experiences in teh near future.
Of course it is. Just because you seem caught up in Tolle's cult of personality doesn't mean I can't draw a parallel between him and Hubbard. Every couple of years another self-help guru comes along and espouses some truisms, gets a book or four published, and makes a big splash; Dr. Phil, Dr. Weil, Sun Myung Moon...and yes, now Tolle. People are so desperate for a "truth" that they'll see it in every mope with a talk show appearance and a book deal. It's sad.
If someone reads the book and finds truth I don't see why it is a bad thing. Have you read his work? Sure you can draw a parallelism between Tolle and Hubbard. Except it makes no sense with the exception that Tolle is another "self help guru". Their subject matter is completely unrelated as is the way it is presented to the general public. People are so desperate for truth that they'll follow like sheep to the slaughter house not questioning a word they're taught.. and that is far worse than reading into something and finding their own opinion on it regardless of subject matter.
Not as sad as coming into a thread and dumping on someones excitement about something that has helped him and wishes to share with others.
Read the book..truly enjoyed it. May I recommend "Your Sacred Self" by Dr. Wayne Dyer? He talks alot about living in the moment and so forth.
I listened to the audio book of "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth". The audio version of Power of Now is really boring. It is a talk from one of his seminars and he is a boring speaker. At least he was at the time when he gave this talk. I would listen to it while I was driving and sometimes it almost put me to sleep. A New Earth was a lot better because it was just him reading his book. He is much better at that. I really do enjoy his books and his take on the truth. I recommend reading Empiness Dancing by Adayshanti. One thing I have found while talking to people who read a lot of Tolle is that for the most part they feel better about their lives, and then they get angry a lot. They seem to want to demonize what Tolle calls the ego and go to war with it. Trying to eliminating their ego by fighting it. Even Tolle says that what you fight you make stronger. Adayshanti does a softer job explaining the ego. Reading that book I believe will help with some of the fighting that comes from reading the Tolle books people get trapped in. The ego does not exist. It is a concept.
Joe, I probably wouldn't have included Andrew Weil in that list. He has a huge following because he gives great advice in the field of integrated medicine and, unlike many cult personalities, his advice has a scientific basis. I probably would have included Werner Earhart of EST fame.
Funny thing. Finished "A New Earth" two days ago but had it in my backpack. Was sitting at my coffee shop starting cradle to cradle when I caught a conversationa bout Free Trade products. I listened in a bit, and we started a 3 table conversation about sustainability, health, and spirituality. This lady was absolutely spouting off major Tolle themes..she's a massage therapist and was talking about some healing seminars that she's attended, and shared her views on religion, life, the ego, etc. Funny thing was...she'd never read Tolle or heard of his books. It was awesome to find such like minded people. We sat there for 5 hours sharing thoughts, experiences, etc. And I sent her home with my copy of the book. Sorry, just thought I'd share that. It's funny how the universe just answers your questions sometimes.
