Tag Archives: spiritual

Oneness with All Life – Book

Oneness with All Life
by Eckhart Tolle
★☆☆☆☆

After reading The Power of Now and A New Earth, this book was a disappointment.

His other books have been all about your inner true self. This book contradicts his teachings by making it all fancy on the outside, with not much content inside.

It tries to sell by saying that it has the most important selections from A New Earth, trying to attract more customers with a hardcover, gold decorations, a red ribbon bookmark, coloured and illustrated pages. It seems that Tolle’s ego has lost control.

Any graphic designer would get excited about a book that’s specially made, but this book is far from making any designer jump for joy. If it was handcrafted with care and detail, using a traditional press where the text embossed the paper, used textured paper, more time and effort spent on the drawings, then I can appreciate the beauty. However, the paper used in this book is nothing to woo about. The illustrations are not interesting. It just seems like a cheaply made book, manufactured like any other book in mass production.

However, you don’t have to be a graphic designer to notice these things. And by focusing on the package, we’re already at lost of the true teachings of Tolle. As I mentioned, the ‘quotes’ or ‘selections’ are directly from A New Earth and so, it’s not a book to be read in a linear order or sequence. You can just open up to any page, read it, ponder and save the rest for another day. Kind of like a fortune cookie per day. However, I found them to be a bit choppy, and the full explanations that was done in A New Earth was done so much better, especially since it’s a complex idea to grasp at times.

I was originally going to buy it, but decided to just borrow it from the public library to save $, and I’m glad that I did!

Book: Beyond the Secret

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Beyond the Secret
by Alexandra Bruce

It says on the cover that it’s “the definitive unauthorized guide to The Secret“, and that’s exactly what it is.
Written by an author who writes a lot of articles (so it does sound like you’re reading a long article on The Secret) explains more in depth about the teachers who appeared (or got cut) in the video of The Secret. Each section talks a little about the teacher’s background, and what they’re known for.

This was a simple, easy book to get through. Like I mentioned, it was like reading a long editorial excerpts from the teacher’s books/seminars/website/interviews. There’s more of a believable aspect to what the teachers had to say, rather than the ‘bad-infomercial’ feeling you get from them in The Secret. For example, in The Secret, they tell you to ask for anything you want, and truly believe you will get it – then you will get it. It sounds too magical for most of us. There’s one part in Beyond the Secret which further explain that you can’t expect it to happen just by sitting on your sofa with your feet up on the table, waiting for that BMW you’d always wanted to appear. You need to take necessary actions – which is a crucial part.

It also covers a bit more on quantum physics, the conflict between Christianity and The Secret, and what the teachers from the book/movie are really saying about the Law of Attraction. It’s interesting to see Alder J. quote ” About 10% of self-help books are rated by mental-health professionals as damaging. The Secret is probably one of them.”

In the end, the author’s take on The Secret isn’t all against what the book preaches. There are good things to get out of it, and Bruce states that it teaches us “The integrated practice of gratitude, clarity of purpose and maintaining a positive outlook can transform every life and it is free of charge to anyone who will take time to truly take care of themselves and to actually do these things.”

Whatever you believe in, which ever side your on, as long as you are at peace and joy with yourself – that is what’s truly important. But remember, you need to take action for them to happen.

Happy Reading.

The Secret – Book

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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