On March 3rd, Oprah Winfrey launched a world wide web event, a live 10 week online class discussing Eckhard Tolle's new book, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. Millions of people, from every country around the globe have tuned in to watch, learn and transform their lives. This book is a follow up to his best selling spiritual guide, The Power of Now. Tolle shows how we can transcend our ego-based state of consciousness, end conflict and suffering in world while achieving personal growth and happiness. He claims that by fully accepting and being in the present moment (which he calls Prescence) we can be truly be free. If you haven't experienced a taste of it, it's not too late. You can register for the free classes or watch streaming video at Oprah.com.
This week we are discussing Chapter 5. Whether you've read it not, believe it or disagree with it, lets talk! Do you feel burdened by the past? Do you want to let go of the past or does your ego keep you stuck? Does misery really like company? In chapter five, Tolle talks about the pain-body. It's his word for the concept of the body's energy field that is stuck/trapped and no longer flowing. It's the dark shadow cast by the ego from all the painful experiences of our past. It feeds on negativity and negative emotions. I like to think of the pain-body as dark storm clouds that hide the sun.
My favorite quote from this chapter is, "As long as you blame others, you feed the pain-body..."with forgiveness your victim indentity dissolves, and true power emerges - the power of Prescence. Instead of blaming darkness you bring the light."
How about you? What impact did chapter 5 have on you? Have you had any aha moments yet?
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 82
Can someone repost the website for the online study of the book?
"Don't try to hold on to this
You'll lose it.
Don't pull the curtain
It will end.
This moment with all of us here
is paradise
but don't try to leave this way
You'll ruin it.
Hi Bridget, what did you most resonate with this week?
For me, this chapter and this class have provided great comfort in verifying that my present pain impulses are products of the past and that by continuing to create space and shine light on them, they can be diminished.
Linda, I don't practice anymore. I've switched my focus from the hands on work to writing spiritual book. Yes, it's challenging for therapists to stay grounded ,neutral and not caught up in others pbs!
I have to admit, being a lawyer, I have raised my daugter to be thought and reason focused. Luckily, she is very expressive, and at 8, is a writer. We have great communication and I am eager to start using the methods Tolle has suggested for children. I'm hopeful that I can help her find her way through some of the vines of ego that have already begun to grow.
I spent two years in weekly individual therapy before moving to France, which work, tagging on to other searches or journeys at other times of my life, had already provided me with some distance from that voice in my head before starting the seminar. I have to say that Tolle's writings have given me a much better understanding of what I am working on.
What I find fascinating now is that, due to my heightened awareness of the falseness of what Tolle refers to as the ego, often the voice is no longer triggered, but what I get instead, is a physical impulse, a rush of adrenalin or a sudden contraction in my stomach, both of which I equate with a fear (fight or flight) sensation.
I want to know when/how they are going to be quieted.....