A review by thebigemmt505
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

2.75

“I try to find myself in things but never quite make it and end up losing myself in them.”

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle is a mélange of philosophy, spirituality, and psychology. The book’s primary thesis is that presence is one’s guide to happiness. According Thinking is the enemy of presence, and thinking is the main cause ofIt also explores the idea of one’s higher purpose or inner purpose, that purpose being to notice the presence that notices itself that is you, as opposed to the egoic identifications one typically labels themselves with and calls you. Sound confusing? It is, although only to a certain extent. 

A New Earth is a mixed bag. Many of its ideas and proposals are quite helpful, however derived they are (notably from philosophy.) There are even well known concepts that are just renamed entirely (notably from psychology.) That being said, this doesn’t take from the value that’s offered. The assessment of the ego is well-done. The advice to disidentify with one’s thought patterns and emotions and stay in the present is described much more succinctly than I’ve seen it described by other self-help or even therapeutic resources. To emphasize what is presently happening without implying one should relinquish all duties is a breath of fresh air in a world where so much of the self-improvement zeitgeist is centered around drastic decisions, hustle, and hyper-individualism. The present is a gift so few appreciate, and that point us argued well and exhaustively in the book. Another positive point, the exploration of the existence of space within us all and how important that is to our presence and our purpose is a beautiful idea.

What’s also helpful is that Tolle gives exercises and examples to illustrate his points, and while some of these have issues, it avoided the typical pitfalls of many self-help spiritual philosophy books do: vague feel-good rambling without any practical steps to better one’s state. Unfortunately, though, the world salad is still present in this book. The positives don’t entirely negate the negatives in here, and so have to talk about the massive, massive downsides. 

More concretely, Tolle has a tendency to boil down religious beliefs to their “core principals,” although any religious scholar would probably implode if they read this. It’s unfortunately out of my scope to say how much he waters down and possibly misinterprets religion, but the generalization is certainly there. There are also a variety of statements that are just blatantly incorrect, unhelpful, or even disgusting. Here are a variety of exact ideas or exact quotes that my egoic thinking brain can’t help but criticize: 

Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death: Upon a quick bit of research, this statistic likely isn’t true. It seems to be data from two places, including studies specifically on older patients, where data was extrapolated to fit the entire United States inaccurately. 

“…and so, as every therapist knows, the ego does not want an end to its ‘problems’ because they are part of its identity.”: No, no, no. I’m going to repost part of the rant I did in my reading journal - What any good therapist also knows is this: victims or sufferers of any trauma or mental health issue, if they are searching for attention, in bad ways or good ways, they probably fucking need it. Humans are social, and while there are those that seek excessive attention, wanting attention isn’t bad; attention isn’t bad. There’s certainly ego involved in victimhood, as there is ego involved in seeking attention, but that doesn’t mean acknowledging and grieving what has occurred or what’s currently happening is egotistical. It’s necessary.

“Every ego is therefore schizophrenic, to use the word in its popular meaning of split personality.”: No comment. I laughed at this a lot. 

The body vibrates at a certain frequency: fucking, no it doesn’t. 

Perpetrators of violence and sufferers of violence suffer the same: It’s true that in the end, both do suffer, but to imply that the perpetrators of heinous, horrible, and deplorable acts suffer the same as victims of an atrocity is tone-deaf and absurd. The agonizing trauma might stay with a victim forever; at worst, the guilt and pain might haunt a perpetrator. 

“Abundance only comes to those who already have it.” Prosperity Gospel-esque, Law of Attraction, Give-and-Get nonsense. 

ADHD is caused by watching too much TV: This is objectively wrong, ADHD has a variety of complex genetic and environmental causes. 

“Children who have suffered greatly often grow into young adults who are mature beyond their years.”: Yes and no. The maturity children gain is accompanied by immaturity in another area that often causes the sufferer even more trouble in healing. It’s never worth it, never. 

Lastly, a critique of Tolle’s ideas. The premise of Tolle’s ideas rely on not thinking. Admittedly, this isn’t as bad as it sounds, but it’s not great. To unequivocally encourage a shift from thinking to presence isn’t useful. There isn’t enough encouragement for balance between presence and non-presence, because despite what Tolle implies, non-presence isn’t inherently bad. The growth of the ego, caused by non-presence, is neither bad nor good according to him, yet 3/4ths of the book is spent demonizing what the ego does. There’s a lot of victim blaming in the book based on the ego and the emotional “pain-body” one has. There are implications that those who suffer, due to their own unconsciousness, wish to suffer. And on unconsciousness: in reality, it’s okay, necessary even, to be unconscious and non-present sometimes. 

My radical idea, although it’s less feel-good, is that healing is actually extremely hard for some people, so despite effort, suffering sometimes continues. Presence is difficult for those who’ve suffered greatly, and while the present is a gift, it can be a curse too. It’s okay to lose oneself in one’s own head, to distance oneself from one’s own reality occasionally. It’s what keeps so many people alive in the face of unimaginable pain and limited resources. Balance is always going to be the key, even if it’s hard to find for some. Lack of presence has the ability to both protect and destroy. Honor that. 

TL:DR; A New Earth is a mixture of great advice on the ego, presence, and inner space and horrible anecdotes on trauma and pain. It’s filled with generalizations and falsehoods, although not ones so massive they ruin the read. The book is helpful. Whether it be your introduction to these better concepts or a refresher, there is much to gain from reading A New Earth. It’s just important that you take some of its content with a grain of salt. I do recommend people read this though, overall.