Book recommendation: A New Earth - by Eckhart Tolle

This is a book i finished reading about a month ago. It really got through to me and for a few weeks afterwards, i couldn't get its' concepts out of mind. Everything rang so true. There were plenty of moments during reading the book where a light-bulb would flash and i would go "A-ha!".

It is a book that is hard to describe to people. And it is the kind of book that can only be read when ready. I imagine if one was to read it too soon, then it wouldn't get through to the reader (I.e. If i read this when i was in high school i probably would have laughed at it). But i suppose the best way to describe the book is as an "awakening" book. It advocates present moment awareness and the dismantling of the ego as the path towards awakened living. Some of the things in the book i don't agree with, but for the most part it hits the nail on the head. But it's really something that one must judge for him/herself.

Yes, it was promoted on Oprah, but don't let that deter you.

People that are already familiar with eastern spiritual philosophies such as buddhism may not get much out of this book, as it is mostly a rehash of those concepts. But it is just communicated in a more "western" way.



Check it out on Amazon.

Check it out on Wiki.

The Icky Ego

And The breath of Life

The 'ego' is to the mind, what 'snot' is to the body.

And 'breathing' is to the body, what 'state of being' is to living happily.

Nobody likes a snotty nose, but sometimes snot is a necessary byproduct of the process of protecting yourself.

The less snot up your nose, the easier it is to breath, and the more enjoyable your breathing experience.

Sometimes you don't realise how snotty your nose is until it's really hard to breath. So sometimes it's necessary to wake up during the middle of the night and blow your nose.

Snot builds up slowly over time, so sometimes it's easy to forget it's there, and get comfortable with breathing with a snotty nose. Some people are fine with breathing through a snotty nose. But upon finally clearing that snot, you realise how much better breathing can really be (aswell as how much more others enjoy breathing in sync with your own breathing).

But you can't blow your nose until you go and get a tissue. Sometimes you have to create the tissue yourself, sometimes others can build it for you. But essentially it comes down to the intention of your own choice, to seek the tissue and take action.

Sometimes it's easy to get annoyed at somebody else for trying to breath through their own snotty nose, and point fingers at them, complain, gossip, and downright blame them for disturbing your own experience. However, doing that only creates more snot as you become involved with snotty-nosed interaction. And remember: we can only despise in other people what we don't like about ourselves.

If we want to breath peacefully and joyfully, then we have to clear our snot. If we don't clear out our snot, then making our breath filter through the snot all the time can disturb our own experience, and sometimes others' experience too! To clear it out we simply have to become aware of it.

As soon as you identify yourself as a snotty-nosed person, and with the thoughts, emotions, perceptions and actions that stem from your snotty nose experience, with the power of your belief, are you more or less likely to remain snotty? Well, the answer is definitely not less.

Don't identify with anything within our snot-based world. Just become aware of it, and see it for what it is - just snot - and it will fade away.

Today marks the day when i start the construction of building a tissue, so i can blow my own nose. This will be a journey that may take a while. But once I've achieved that, i can start work towards the construction of building a big collective tissue for society to use, because right now we live in a big snotty world. I may not be able to cure the sickness, but the less snot that the world has, the better the state of living in it will be for myself AND others.

Snot does have its use though. Without snot, then it would mean that we would not be protecting ourselves. However, we wouldn't need to protect ourselves if we weren't sick.

But what's making us sick? Why is everyone all snotty? What is the cause of this dysfunction? That's the million dollar question.

We have to treat the sickness in order to fix the root of the problem and transform, and never have a snotty nose again. But first we have to understand the truth, and then accept it, in order to know how to treat it.

So don't worry if your nose is currently snotty. Don't identify with it. Just become aware of it. We have to get sick before we can evolve from it.