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 
). It’s a nice magazine to read through on your sofa with your favorite tea, and maybe even a pair of scissors since I tend to cut out specific information to keep in my health ‘sketchbook’.