More Thoughts on A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle Part 2

These material things make up the content of the ego-- our roles, our stuff, etc. Advertising convinces us that things will add value to our lives—in other words add something to our sense of self. For Tolle each thing has its own beingness and should be honored on those terms. Not just for its utilitarian value or what it can do for the owner. We need not find ourselves through things. We are trapped in the hamster cage. We are running alone on the hamster wheel that wants more. Eckhart says, “The unchurched striving for more, for endless growth is a dysfunction and a disease.” (p. 37)

Tolle suggests as a spiritual practice that we investigate our relationship to the world of things. Each of us could ask the question—am I bound up in the things I possess?

The Christian Church teaches tithing and giving as a spiritual practice. When we give/tithe we are reminded that God owns it all and we are just managers of what we have. It all ultimately belongs to God. We are only “stewards” of it. Being able to let things go from our hands, is an act of power.

Here Tolle gives a great quote:
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.” (p. 41)

The ego is a program in the mind. We have programmed it by what we take in and save. Once we hit the save button it stays there waiting for the retrieve button. We are creating the story by which we live.

Once again, Eckhart expresses a teaching of Jesus to explain his point about the ego. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Eckhart interprets the quote to mean—the poor in spirit have no ego, no inner baggage and no identification. The kingdom of heaven for Eckhart is the “simple but profound joy of Being that is there when you let go of identification and so become “poor in spirit”. (p. 43) He goes further to explain—“This is why renouncing all possessions has been an ancient spiritual practice in both East and West”. (p. 43).

More Thoughts on CNN Special Black In America

The CNN Special, Black in America has given me pause again. Soledad O'Brien should be given an Emmy for this special. Don't forget to read for about it by clicking here. I related to it because my own family is black and white. A few years ago, the white side of my family found me on the internet. They were having a family reunion near St. Louis and invited me to attend. At the time, I was resistant. However, this year my father and stepmom attended the reunion in Springfield, KY. There were about 40 or so white members of the family along with 20 or so members of the black side of the family. Why was I so resistant? My legacy of being Black in America? "Can we learn to get along?", says Rodney King. I regret not going now. I realize we still have far to go to reach Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of a "beloved community". Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in the week, but its changing. At least my father and step mother can attend an intergrated family reunion, even when their son is hesitant. Wow!

What is in a Name?

According to Yahoo! The New NBA franchise in Oklahoma City is going to be named either the Barons, Bisons, Marshall, Thunder or Wind. Read More About it Here. What is in a name? My church is called Calvary. When we traveled to the Holy Land this year I rediscovered that Calvary meant "skull". So I have visions of a new church logo that includes some skull and cross bones. What do you think? Maybe we could get a big skull and cross bones on the back of a leather jacket with the motto: Deny Self, Take Up Cross, Follow Jesus! That would be great for a Harley Motorcycle Christian group right? Hey, it's early in the morning, what else would I write, right?

More Thoughts on A New Earth

The misperception is some part of the whole self usually hijacks the self and takes over the identification. This is ego piracy. This hijacked or commandeered self is represented by a “voice in the head” that speaks for the whole self. Tolle’s call to humanity is to resist identifying with the content of the mind. He wants us to become aware of the whole—or to become enlightened.

Tolle at one point placed his faith in the ability of the intellect to solve humanity’s problems. Then a brilliant professor he respected and admired committed suicide. This made him question his faith in the intellect. He also experienced a woman on the subway who kept talking to herself out loud, as if talking to a third person. She was thinking and her thoughts were being spoken out loud with anger. Tolle writes, “For a moment, I was able to stand back from my own mind and see it from a deeper perspective, as it were.” (p. 33) This revealed a shift in him from thinking to awareness.

He found himself thinking his thoughts out loud like the “crazy lady” and found himself alone in the men’s room looking at himself in the mirror. He began to laugh at himself out loud. He describes it as the laugh of the big-bellied Buddha. “Life isn’t as serious as my mind makes it out to be”. (p.33) If we seek our identity in things we trap ourselves in an inauthentic selfhood. Why? Because the true self is much more than what we own or what owns us. Jesus taught that life consists of more than what we possess. He taught, “What good does it do to gain the whole world and lose your soul. Or what can you give in exchange for a soul.”

Black In America Special Some Personal Thoughts

In the preview of tonights special, Soledad O'Brien will look at two brothers, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and his brother Everett. Everett is serving a life term for a murder he committed, while his brother Michael is a respected author, minister and professor. What happened? They both say it was the choices they made. When Everett looks at his successful brother he says, "It is a testament to the fact that I could have done this or that or the other." Dr. Dyson brings up the controversial comment that it was partly based on colorism. [Meaning that blacks in America treat each other differently based upon the lightness or brightness of skin tone.]

In another segment last night Dr. Roland Fryer, a Harvard economist who is also Black in America, has a controversial program to pay students to get good grades. They can earn up to $250 in a program that tests them on 10 skills assessments. Should children earn money while learning? The principal of the school Marian Brown attests to progress the students have made. Not only will Dr. Fryer pay students to learn, but there is another program called "million" that will give one million New York school students a cell phone that is sophisticated. This cell phone will be off while in school and be a cell phone when out of school.

They profile a student Eric Kennedy, Jr. whose family is close to being homeless. Their subsidized apartment is being taken over by the owner. Eric wants to use some of the money he has earn to help his father pay the bills. Shouldn't learning be its own reward?

When tied to the failure of the public schools in New York, the Public Schools of St. Louis fare no better. The St. Louis City schools have been fatally damaged by the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. St. Louis has been fatally damaged by a law that allows Charter Schools to syphon money needed for the schools to turn around. The future of the St. Louis Public Schools is in the hands of the State. It will require new legislation to survive and there is little will power in the State Legislature to change the existing laws.

So to be Black in America is risky, dicey and dangerous. The special says to be Black in America is to be Single Mothers living on the margins, it means to be students at risk of homelessness and extended families that included the various ups and downs of life.

What can the church do? In interviews with Bishop T. D. Jakes and Pastor Smith of the Rand family church in Houston, the church didn't appear to have the answers. The struggle is complex. People and churches live within the paradox of life today. As Bishop Jakes put it, "we live between the ideal and the real." We preach the ideal, yet must minister with the realities. Life can be a paradox in Black America. So much promise, so much pain. Remember to check it out tonight.

A New Earth Part 3

In Eckhart Tolle’s second chapter entitled, Ego: The Current State of Humanity, he makes the case that our collective dysfunction, causes suffering and pain. It is rooted in the ego. All we can see is the surface of a person or thing. For Eckhart each created thing has an “unfathomable depth.” There is a beingness to things. Only the awakened mind can see into the beingness of a thing. The example he gives is Vincent Van Gogh. The artist’s job is to translate the isness of the subject to canvass so we can really see or appreciate the painting.

In order for us to really see things as they are we must disentangle ourselves from the “I”. He writes, “That disentanglement is what this book is about.” We should use words and thoughts but not become imprisoned by them. Here is the problem with the “I” according to Mr. Tolle. The “I” is an error of perception. We think we are what the ego identifies with—the stuff of life. This stuff the Tao calls, “the 10,000 things”. This stuff the Buddha called, “Tata”.

The ego represents a false self. The “I” equals our roles and identity. Yet, we are much more than these. The false self is identified with a quilt of possessiveness such as: gender, possessions, the sense-perceived body, a nationality, race, religion, and profession, etc. The false self is identified with our roles is this life—mother, father, husband, wife, etc. These all make up the mental construct we call “I” [ego].

Pastor Sings Love Songs, Wow!

Thoughtful Reflections

While going over Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth, I realized how captive to my ego I am. I am in a place of dependence upon God. The parable of Jesus that says "take no thought for tomorrow--if God takes care of flowers and birds--He'll take care of you? I can't even plumb the depths of what that really means. I think I take care of me, but God really takes care of me. I think I supply my own needs, but God really supplies my needs.

I am ego proud. I want to be the provider for my family. Not having enough money makes me anxious and fearful. Now there must be some constructive and positive connection between work and reward. God Himself tells us to do good works and build upon a solid foundation of the gospel. So what does Jesus mean when he says, "take no thought for tomorrow?" Tomorrow will take care of itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Does it mean to be fully present in today? Does it mean to invite the Divine Presence into today, knowing that by acknowledging and practicing the Divine Presence in our daily lives we will transform our daily lives?

Maybe the connection is the still small voice within that speaks peace in the midst of my anxiety storm. That voice that speaks direction when I feel lost. That voice that speaks joy, when I feel sorrow. That voice that speaks peace when I feel confused.

Listen up! Me. Take no thought, no intellectual-izing, no fear, no anxiety about tomorrow! But give the anxiety to God. You will then be able to hear His calming assurance and receive His direction for your life. Be assured of this, the same God that looks after little sparrows that fall, and has the hairs on your head numbered is the God who gives direction for your life.

Economic news is bad. It will mess with your head and fire up the fear in your emotions. But stop and listen to the still small voice in the inside. It tells us to have peace in the middle of storms of doubt and fear. If God cares about sparrows and flowers, God must care about us humans as well.

Don't be afraid. Have faith in God. Lean not to your own understanding and God will direct your path. So God, how do we become a church that not only meets its own needs but also the needs of others? Your thoughts?

A New Earth Part 2

Sadly, I agree with Mr. Tolle’s assessment of religion. People have used religion to further suffering. Instead of promoting peace, much of the Christian religion has promoted war. War has created untold suffering. All of this is done in the name of Christ. Lately, many other religious people have contributed to the suffering of the world. All of these heinous acts have been done in the name of their deity. For Mr. Tolle, the answer is not more religion but more spirituality.

To be spiritual is not the same as being religious. The new spirituality is a transformation of consciousness. It is a new thought system that frees one from the ego. What Mr. Tolle calls for is a flowering of consciousness that creates a kind of cumulative effect on the world. So the new earth is but the outward manifestation of a new consciousness, a new way of being in the world.

I agree with Mr. Tolle, the world needs change. Dr. Martin Luther King said, our choices are not between nonviolence and violence, but between nonviolence and nonexistence. In this sense, Dr. King was calling for a transformation of consciousness when it came to race. Could this country be in for a sea change of transformation if an African-American is elected president? Not only do we need a new spirituality outside of the mainstream churches. We also need a new mindset within mainstream churches. For too long, we have made an emphasis on right doctrine as the common denominator of mainstream religion. Maybe what we need know are new spiritual practices.

Maybe we should define our faith by how we practice the ethic of love that Jesus preached. Maybe we should define ourselves as people of faith by how we treat each other. The title of the book comes from the prophecy in Revelation that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. While I do not share Mr. Tolle’s esoteric interpretation, I do hear his call for change. If we love people as Jesus taught, will we be able to create “heaven on earth?” What do you think?

A New Earth Part 1

This is my second blogging project. It is a dialogue with a book that is a publishing phenomenon. In fact, Eckhart Tolle’s first book was a number one New York Times bestseller. This book, A New Earth, is another publishing phenomenon that has been pushed by Oprah Winfrey when she chose it for her book club. While I do not attempt to read Mr. Tolle’s mind, I want to comment on what I have discovered in reading the book. Maybe you want to join the conversation. Feel free to send your comments.

A New Earth, is Mr. Tolle’s call to action. For him the world is in dire straights. He writes that we are faced with a radical crisis. The “old way of being in the world…doesn’t work anymore. (p.20)” Our world is on the brink of disaster. He exclaims, “humanity is now faced with the stark choice: Evolve or die.( p. 21)” The great problem for us is the collective dysfunction of the ego. This collective dysfunction is at the root of environmental damage, wars and suffering. His call is to awaken the world to a new way of being. This will create the new earth. What do you say?