A New Earth

Three years ago (I think?) I read Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. The language he used and his way of explaining things was kind of new to me but I loved so much of what I read. Looking back, it was for me, kind of the beginning of waking up. Yesterday during lunch I was looking up Tolle quotes online and thought I’d share some.

-Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.

-Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.

-Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

-Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.

-You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge.

-Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" --- and find that there is no death.

-Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.

-The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.

-A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever.

-Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.

-When another recognizes you, that recognition draws the dimension of Being more fully into this world through both of you. That is the love that redeems the world.

I did something scary on Sunday. I sang my first solo, something I probably at some point swore I’d never do. It went fairly well except for the part where I was completely unsuccessful at flipping into falsetto. I probably should have avoided anything that required falsetto but the arrangement that I sang had special meaning to me so I did it anyway. Thanks for accompanying me through so much, JK.