AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL PRIESTESS – Pt 2

One of the newest books that has been given the “thumbs up” from Oprah is a book called A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle.

I happened to go to Eckhart’s web site and here’s what I found:

“Building on the astonishing success of The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: He implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity.

Tolle tells us there is good news, however. There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world. This will involve a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely new one.

In illuminating the nature of this shift in consciousness, Tolle describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness. We will come to experience who we truly are—which is something infinitely greater than anything we currently think we are—and learn to live and breathe freely.” [http://eckharttolle.com/a_new_earth]

Apparently we are all going to go crazy, if not already there! He probably does not realize how true this may be. Watching and listening to the news nowadays, one might very well come to that conclusion, but his insanity concept is not just one of merely losing one’s mind. He’s talking about a change in what we know to be true, a totally new way of thinking, changing our outlook on life as we know it to something more. That somehow this “inner leap” will get us there and thus it will be a “new earth” in a sense. What he does not realize is that this is not something new that he has come upon. This idea has been around for ages! In current times we know it as New Age! But really, we should start changing that to ‘Old Age’ because it’s becoming just that, old! Better yet, ‘Recycled Age’! It’s the same thing packaged and repackaged and then fed to the world as something new. It all leads to the same conclusion: we are on the way to destroying ourselves as a race and the only way we can save ourselves is to come together as one, join our minds in one powerful burst of energy (I guess) and bring about peace and prosperity to all mankind! What a wonderful thing! Oh, and of course, we would need a new leader that would keep that new earth on its rightful path!

Tolle says the following:

In the Gospel story of Mary and Martha, Jesus says to Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful.” (Luke 10:41)

As I was writing A New Earth, people would sometimes ask me, “What is the new book about?” And invariably, my answer would be, “I only ever write or speak about one thing.” What is that one thing? Spiritual awakening. Can a person be awakened spiritually by a book? Yes, if three conditions are met:
[http://eckharttolle.com/a_new_earth]

Is it not interesting how all these people seem to always turn to the Bible in order to explain some of their far fetched ideas? As if the Bible was there to back up their claims! As always, this passage in Luke is taken out of context. A very typical and common mistake among those that try to use the Bible as proof for their idiotic ideas! According to Tolle, the “one thing” that is needed is “spiritual awakening”! But, this spiritual awakening is not the spiritual awakening you find when you come to Jesus or study His Word.

This is what the passage in Luke 10 is really about:

In this particular event that Tolle is quoting, Jesus has come to Bethany and has stopped by the home of some dear friends; Lazarus, Mary, & Martha. As per usual, Jesus began to teach while waiting for the meal to be prepared and served. Mary decides to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His teaching rather than to do the normal womanly task, which was the preparation and serving of the evening meal. Her sister, Martha, by the way, was doing just that. Martha was going about, probably going out of her mind and frantic because she is doing it all herself with no help from her sister! As Martha becomes totally frustrated, she comes to Jesus to complain about her dear sister. It is here that Jesus tells her that although the meal was important and she was right by going about her duties, it was more important for all of them to be ‘fed’ spiritually and then the body. In other words, Jesus is telling Martha, (in our current idiom) “girl, sit down and chill! The grub can wait!” : ) He is certainly NOT telling her that she needs to read Eckhart’s book which will then awaken her to that “one thing” she needs, a spiritual consciousness!

It is true that mankind needs only “one thing”, but that “one thing” is Jesus! If Eckhart and his readers, along with Oprah, wish to attain a new earth, then all that needs to be done is to trust in Christ for salvation and He will eventually create a new earth in His future kingdom!

Stay tuned for Part 3! The 3 conditions for a spiritual awakening (according to Eckhart) will be discussed!

6/30/2008
James