5.19.2008

New Earth...Same Old Crap, Pt. 4

From A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle:
  • ...a sacred sense of Presence, a deep peace and serenity and complete freedom from fear. This phenomenon must have been familiar to St. Paul, who used the expression "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." -pg. 56
  • When forms around you die or death approaches, your sense of Beingness, of I Am, is freed from its entanglement with form: Spirit is released from its imprisonment in matter. You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications. You realize your true identity as consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness had identified with. That's the peace of God. The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am. -pg. 57

This is just another example of Tolle asserting that, in fact, we ourselves are God. He continues to use Biblical language to convey this. First, by quoting Paul - which I found interesting because Paul, above any other Biblical personality, writes more to warn Christians against this very kind of teaching and boldly declares its evilness. Second by using Almighty God's chosen name for Himself - I Am. Tolle teaches that we are the I Am.

In my research I did on Tolle's background I found that while he does admit to being influenced by the Bible, his strongest influences, or the teachings he felt he most identified with, were Hindu sacred texts/teachings and Buddhist sacred texts. However, in A New Earth, the vast majority of quotes from sacred texts come from the Bible (I'd say the ratio is at least 3:1). He quotes the Old and New Testaments and loves quoting Jesus directly to reinforce his own world-view. Yet, by his own admission, the Judeo-Christian texts are not his biggest influence.

This is not by accident. It's a calculated move on his part to mislead Christians who may not be well-versed in the Scripture. By taking Biblical passages and twisting them, sometimes slightly - sometimes greatly, he is able to give naive Christians a false sense of security so they embrace his teachings as equal with the Bible.

2 Peter 2:1-3 (ESV) -- But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

3 comments:

Mookie said...

So, in other words, I'd better avoid reading this book, since I'm so very young in my journey?

Jeff Myers said...

Mookie,

No that's not my point. If you want to read it to see what all the hubbub is about, that's fine. But all Christians need to be reminded to be in the Word and test new teachings against the truth of Scripture. If someone quotes Scripture and says, "What it says is this, but what it means is this", you should take the initiative to research it yourself and make sure they're not trying to mislead.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

I am so greatful to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah for turning me onto Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and her beautiful book ""My Stroke of Insight"". Her story is amazing and her gift to all of us is a book purchase away I'm happy to say.

Dr Taylor was a Harvard brain scientist when she had a stroke at age 37. What was amazing was that her left brain was shut down by the stroke - where language and thinking occur - but her right brain was fully functioning. She experienced bliss and nirvana and the way she writes about it (or talks about it in her now famous TED talk) is incredible.

What I took away from Dr. Taylor's book above all, and why I recommend it so highly, is that you don't have to have a stroke or take drugs to find the deep inner peace that she talks about. Her book explains how. ""I want what she's having"", and thanks to this wonderful book, I can! Thank you Dr. Taylor, and thank you Eckhart and Oprah.