Thursday, November 13, 2008

A New Earth Revisited

Several days ago, I was tagged by Bas at Istanbul Expat. This tagging has to do with books, which I LOVE!!! (smile) Love my books! Anyway, when he tagged me, I wasn’t reading anything which is kinda rare for me. I usually am reading something. Of course with me that can mean something that I have been reading for months because I have this habit of reading more than one book at a time and the reading gets strung out. I will have about two or three books going at once and then I’ll hop from one to the other and then revisit the previous one and I’m still able to pick up where I left off. I’ve always done this even when I was a kid. It may sound like my mind would be frazzled by this, but it works for me. Can’t explain it, but to each his own, right? It’s sort of one of those march to your own tune things and my tune comes in stereo. (smile) I have heard of other people doing this, so after that I was like, okay, so I’m not alone. LOL. Gotta love it! Do any of you do this?

Anyway, he tagged me during a rare dry spot. I was taking a breather. The rules state that you pick up the nearest book for this tag, but for once there wasn’t a pile near my bed, because I had cleared the decks. So I put this tag on the back burner for a while. Well, in the last few days I have started to re-read a favorite book of mine, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle because the time felt right. And I decided to take a chill pill and read just one book...a novelty ain't it? (wink) Then this morning, I looked at a note I had placed on the side table, right here next to the couch, it said, “Don’t forget the tag from Bas!” I said to myself, “Oh yeah, can’t forget,” and then I put the note back down. I turned to walk into the kitchen and kicked over a pile of books I had sitting on the floor next to the couch…my new “to read” pile. “A New Earth” singled itself out, so I took it as a sign.

The rules of this tag are:

1) Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2) Open the book to page 123
3) Find the fifth complete sentence on the page
4) Post the next three sentences
5) Post a comment and tag five more people

So here it goes.

From “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle

‘The ego doesn’t know that the more you include others, the more smoothly things flow and the more easily things come to you. When you give little or no help to others or put obstacles in their path, the universe---in the form of people and circumstances---gives little or no help to you because you have cut yourself off from the whole. The ego’s unconscious core feeling of “not enough” causes it to react to someone else’s success as if that success had taken something away from “me”.’

I read this book earlier this year, and it, along with other things helped me out of a dark spot I was going through. I read it along with the Oprah book club webcast seminars and it was great to have the author on the webcast there every week to help me go through it. I won’t lie, it was a tough read for me when I started it initially, because so much was crowding my mind at that time and I couldn’t comprehend no matter how hard I tried. And also it is just a lot to take in. The book’s words were fighting for space within my head and they were up against some pretty stubborn sad thoughts in there. But once I participated in the first webcast and had Mr. Tolle to lay the groundwork, the trickle out of the old stagnant thoughts started. Maybe just a drip in the beginning, but anything was a help at that point. And by synchronicity, the next day, or later that morning for me in the UK, I started my blog. It was my first “step out” since I came here to England. This was a baby step that started me in forward motion again. (smile)

As for the quote, I haven’t come to this point during my re-read yet, but I remember it standing out to me before. It reminded me of the importance of simply sharing the spotlight with others. And it reminds me so much of my friend Kim that I lost recently. She personified this. Fear robs us of so much in life and keeping everything all for ourselves does cut us off from the whole. You can call it the whole of humanity in a spiritual sense or the whole person that you and I are meant to be. It doesn’t cost me anything to help someone or cheer them on along their path, but it costs me dearly to not do it. It diminishes us I think.

This book has so much more to it and it challenges me and I like that. I imagine that I will refer to it time and time again during my life. I love it when a book stays with you like that.

As for passing this one on, I will just open it up to you my dear readers. Please feel free to take this tag if you would like to participate. Have fun!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a nice turn of events. In the post in which I tagged you, I said I blogged about the book I mentioned in there before.

When I blogged about that book before (Inheritance of Loss), I discussed another book in that blog post.... A New Earth.

Synchronicity indeed. ;-)

And what a profound book!

A Valdese Blogger said...

I frequently read more than one book at a time. Right now I'm stuck in a kind of weird alternate universe, and it appears I'm going to be there for awhile.

Anonymous said...

I read that book, it was absolutely excellent. ;)

Anonymous said...

Very good book choice. I reread A New Earth from time to time myself.

HEALTH NUT WANNABEE MOM said...

I have heard this is a life changing book! You have inspired me to pick it up. Thanks for the review!

Dori said...

Bas,
Weird and cool at the same time...wow, I forgot about that since it's been quite a few days since I read your post. Definitely synchronicity. We were vibing big time :) It is definitely a profound book. One of my all-time faves. Thanks so much for tagging me.

Valdese Blogger,
We're in the same club with the multiple books thing :) I hope things clear for you soon.

Zyriana,
It was good. I like to sometimes just flip to a random page and see what it says :)

Lea,
We're vibing too with the re-reading :) I find it kind of "chooses" me sometimes and I pick it up when I just happen by. So it's great to be reading it again from the beginning. I'm glad you enjoy it too.

Health Nut Wannabee Mom,
Great! :) I hope you enjoy it. It is great and I also want to read more of Tolle's books.

The Silver Age Sara said...

The books sounds wonderful and worth reading and I'm glad you chose to share it with us.

ShonaVixen said...

i guess that my next book coz i dont have one to read at the moment (well really have to be studying but it helps to escape from all that)...love your blog btw

Dori said...

Mountain Woman,
It's a great book. I revisit it and I pick up something new every time. I'm glad I could share my experience :)

ShonaVixen,
I hope you enjoy this book. It really makes you think. Thanks for your compliment on my blog. I will have to visit your blog too :) Thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

How's it going? :)

I moved from Istanbul to Sofia, Bulgaria about 2 weeks ago :)