A New Earth

Hi Everyone,
Today I would like to share some of the Eckhart Tolles book with you. Some of the basic principles are based on his true life awakening he had on the verge of suicide. He remembers that when he said " I cannot live with myself anymore." The words I and Myself really hit him. Why am I thinking of myself in two forms? He had already become a professor and thought he knew all the answers to life. He came to realize what he calls the two forms and as most of us know, is that we are both physical and spiritual human beings. From the time we are born we never really get the chance to connect to our being, or spiritual self. We are taught to label everything, for example an oak tree. We never learn to just take in the beauty of the tree, feel the connection to nature, we just look at it and label it. The labels develop our thoughts. We learn them from family first and then every other aspect of our lives. We develop a sense of self from these thoughts through our religion, our schools, society, and our possessions. These thoughts become who we think we are. Thus we develop our egos. Losing our true spirit along the way. We have learned to feel our emotions through the ego, and not from within. For example, he was a spiritual teacher and counselor to a women dying of cancer. One day he visited and he could see she was very upset. She told him she thought a certain women who was helping care for her stole her grandmothers diamond ring. He decided to ask her a couple of questions, one was, has who you are been diminished by this loss?. Don't think of the answer, but get the answers from within when you are ready. When the women started to speak again, she smiled peacefully. I went to my head for the answer and it said yes you have been diminished by this loss. Then I asked myself the question again, this time I tried to feel the answer than think it. I could suddenly feel my being, I have never felt that before. She felt her being so strong, then who I am has not been diminished at all. I felt peaceful, but very alive. Eckhart responded. That is the Joy of Being, you cannot feel it when you are in your head. She said now I know what Jesus meant when he said if someones takes your shirt, give them your coat as well. All that means is that sometimes letting things go is a an act far greater than defending or hanging on. In the last few weeks of her life she grew weaker, but more radiant, as if a light was shining through her. She began to give away all her possessions, even to the one she thought stole her ring. With everything she gave away her joy deepened. After she passed they found the ring in medicine cabinet in the bathroom. They will never know if it was there all along or the women who may have stolen it put it back. Getting out of heads which is always thinking, making noise and staying in the now can help change the way we react to situations in our every day life. I am working hard on that, but I slip up every now and again. Can't change old tapes in a matter of short time. It's called progress not perfection! Hope that wasn't to deep for ya, that is only the first chapter, we are up to chapter 6 in the online class. Feel free to leave me a comment, did you get anything from reading that or not? Would you like me to continue sharing this book? I just heard on world news tonight they now have doga, Yoga for dogs!!! What will they think of next.
thanks
Janet