Awhile back my cousin Keila DePoorter–she is one of the Family of Ten who, along with me, retraced the Triangle Trade with Katrina Browne to make the documentary film Traces of the Trade–told me about a writer her son had recommended to her: Eckhart Tolle. She suggested I read his book The Power of Now.
I read a lot and my “still to read” list is extensive. Consequently I haven’t yet followed up on Keila’s suggestion. But since she raised my awareness of Tolle, I paid close attention when Oprah Winfrey named Tolle’s latest book, A New Earth, as her latest book club selection.
Additionally, Oprah is offering a ten-week, online seminar each Monday evening dedicated to A New Earth. The book is ten chapters long. Oprah and Eckhart Tolle spend 90 minutes each week discussing one chapter from the book and taking Skype calls and e-mails from people participating online. I didn’t watch the first seminar last Monday night. I downloaded it and watched it on Tuesday. You can do that each week.
From the book description at Amazon, Tolle shows “how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.”
I’ve ordered the book and anticipate that it will be a good companion to the many books by Pema Chodron that I’ve read. Pema has been a good companion for me over the past few years and I look forward to following up on Keila’s recommendation with Eckhart Tolle.
I also look forward to this week’s seminar with Oprah and Eckhart…
I am so greatful to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah for turning me onto Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and her beautiful book ""My Stroke of Insight"". Her story is amazing and her gift to all of us is a book purchase away I'm happy to say.
Dr Taylor was a Harvard brain scientist when she had a stroke at age 37. What was amazing was that her left brain was shut down by the stroke – where language and thinking occur – but her right brain was fully functioning. She experienced bliss and nirvana and the way she writes about it (or talks about it in her now famous TED talk) is incredible.
What I took away from Dr. Taylor's book above all, and why I recommend it so highly, is that you don't have to have a stroke or take drugs to find the deep inner peace that she talks about. Her book explains how. ""I want what she's having"", and thanks to this wonderful book, I can! Thank you Dr. Taylor, and thank you Eckhart and Oprah.