Category Archives: Spirtual

The Secret – Book

The Secret
by Rhonda Byrne
Rating out of 5:

After reading ‘The Power of Now‘, which allows you to focus on your inner being, finding true joy and peace with yourself, without relying on external things to bring happiness, this book seems to sit on the other side of the fence.

This book had gained huge popularity after Oprah recommended on her show. There is a DVD of The Secret as well, which I have also watched – which might be a little more interesting than the book.

Anyhow, I agree that thinking positively is important, and you find that once one thing goes well, it kind of snowballs, into something bigger. This is also the same for negative attraction as well.

However, after being shown ‘enlightenment’ from The Power of Now, the question of whether all that money, wealth, success in job, etc will bring you true happiness comes to mind. This is totally contradicting the idea that one must love yourself truly first- that it all starts with YOU, or you will never be satisfied with anything you acquire because there will always be a sense that something is missing from your life.

In The Power of Now and some other books, it talks about how we have become controlled by our minds – which is hurting us in negative ways since many of us has become blind to the situation. The Secret however is talking about how the mind is powerful (which it indeed is) and will get you anything you want by projecting images of things you want (in the future – again contradicting to The Power of Now which says to focus only on the now).

I don’t agree with everything they say. Like for those wanting to lose weight, the fact that it states “food is not responsible for putting on weight.” but the thought of food making us gain weight sounds alittle absurd. Although I’d seen a study where they had participants believe and convince themselves that they were losing weight, where at the end of the study, the participants did lose some pounds. However, they were eating a healthy, balanced diet. This statement that the author writes several times that you can eat whatever you want is a little ridiculous. Sure, some people have body types that may not gain weight even if they ate junk food, but they’d start seeing problems elsewhere in their body.

The book mostly tells you that the Universe is created by you, and you have the control. Just ask, believe, and receive whatever you want from the ‘catalog of the universe’ and you will get it. This is going beyond ‘positive-thinking’ and getting into wishful and magical thinking. It feels like a really enthusiastic sales person trying to sell you something, but the way he says it, makes you feel like you can’t fully trust him. Still, with all the negative things that have been happening in my life, I was ready to give it a try. I completely agree on the positive-thinking, and being thankful for everything you have now. There are some good points. I think it’s just written poorly. Like I said, it sounds like a really bad infomercial.

I have seen other reviews on this book, and they either love it with 5 stars, or hate it with 1 star. Whichever side you may be on the review, be happy

Book: A New Earth

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A New Earth
by Eckhart Tolle
★★★★★

Well, after reading The Secret (after reading The Power of Now), it’s nice to come back to something more spiritually based once again.

The things that Tolle talks about are hard to explain, which is why I recommend you read this book because he just explains it so well. It’s best to get the most out of it, directly from his very own words!

He focuses on your ‘ego’ and how it affects you and your life (mostly in negative ways in our modern society). He teaches us not to identify yourself with your physical appearance/form (as most media-driven society has become way too focused upon, creating disastrous results, especially with younger people), not to identify yourself with your possessions and status. To take control of all that ‘wanting’ that is never satisfied.

Interestingly enough, The Secret and this book do share similar ideas. One in particular was the ‘war against’ statements. The war against drugs, crime, terrorism, cancer and such has actually increased the number of these ‘problems’. The Secret states that by thinking about negative things, you attract negative or ‘like’ energy, making the situation worse. In A New Earth, the author mentions that by making something an ‘enemy’ to fight against, strengthens that ‘enemy’.

Throughout this book, you finish a chapter or section and end up saying “ah~” or “I see, I see.” with a nod, as if you have become enlightened in some way by a new way of thinking. I am not sure if reading his first book, The Power of Now would be a necessary prerequisite to this book. For me, I found The Power of Now as if a monk had slapped me several times, and have shown me this and that about the world, pulling my hand as I was dazed with the new perspective. A New Earth was as if I had become the monk’s disciple, and I was studying the spiritual teachings along beside him. Many other reviews had mentioned that reading the first one is a good idea. However, I’m sure you’d still be able to enjoy this book without having to read The Power of Now.

I did find that Tolle tends to repeat the same things over and over, but perhaps that is to help get the message across. So that if you are reading the book over several weeks, you’d be reviewing some of the parts over so that you remember the ideas well, even after you are done reading the book.

This book has allowed me to find peace through the difficult times, and has given me the strength, to find joy, love, and hope. I hope it will do the same for you.

Happy Reading

The Power of the Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

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The Power of the Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhard Tolle

It’s a great read. It’s an easy read, but the concept is hard to grasp at times. I recommend for everyone to read this book, in hopes that people will be a lot happier, friendlier and at peace with themselves and each other. This doesn’t mean that Tolle talks of meditating about happy places and fuzzy-furry animals. No, he writes with force and straight forwardness, to the point that some people may find it a bit offensive or a turn-off. He realizes this, but I think he wants to persuade his audience of his teaching.

When I first read on the back that the author of this book, Eckhard Tolle is a spiritual teacher, I thought it would be a book talking about ‘God’ and religion. I’m not a religious person, so wondered if I would be able to get through the book. However, Tolle is not aligned with any particular religion. He does reference different religions to give examples, but that’s about it. I found myself being sucked into the book.

How many of us are constantly ‘thinking’ about something? The voice saying oh I got to do that, do this, go there, should buy that, and on and on. I remember when I was swamped with so many things, under a lot of pressure and stress that I felt like my mind was going to physically explode. It was hard to meditate with a ‘quiet’ mind since I’d find my mind wandering off to ‘think’ of something.

After reading only a couple of chapters, I started to focus on the Now (you will have to actually read the book on how and how much difference it’ll make your lives).

As brought up in another book Venus on Fire, Mars on Ice , don’t rely on external things to bring you happiness. This means, materials, your status (career, position, recognition, etc), relying soley on your partner/family/friends. It all starts with you. The Being as he refers to it.

It’s a great book for anyone with anxiety (helps dealing with anticipatory anxiety – thinking of catastrophic outcomes) because it allows you to focus on the present, or for anyone wanting to free their minds. Will help with meditation which can be hard to do at the beginning since we’re so accustomed to always be thinking. It has had a great impact on how I see the world and live my life. I read it at a time when my health was poor and the future seemed uncertain. It has enlightened me, and I thank Tolle for it.

On another note, I know it doesn’t matter where the author lives, but guess what. He lives right here in Vancouver, BC.

Happy reading