I spoke this evening at our mid-week service here at Timberline Church. We’re in a series considering the implications of living a spirit filled/influenced life. Tonight was on “learning humbly.” We explored the idea that recognizing and submitting to objective truth (or “true truth” as Francis Schaeffer used to say) seems to be a prerequisite to being a humble learner. However, much in our culture suggests that truth is a private and subjective endeavor. One contemporary example of that come from spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle’s latest book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.
I’ve been downloading from iTunes and listening to the near 1.5 hrs. mp3s of a weekly conversation that Oprah is having with Tolle on the content of his book. In her first discussion or “class,” Oprah states that what she’s doing (in getting this message out to the world) is the most important single thing she has done yet in her life. She believes that these teachings from Eckhart Tolle are that life transformational. And since I’ve had others ask me about this book, and because I don’t think I could offer a better review than Greg Boyd’s, I’ve posted a brief book review written by Pastor and teacher Greg Boyd. Boyd has been a professor of theology at Bethel University for 16 years, and also serves as founder and senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church, MN. I believe Boyd offers a very fair but critical review of Tolle’s book. Please feel free to comment below and let me know what your thoughts are.
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“[Eckhart Tolle’s new book, A New Earth] has become an overnight sensation thanks largely to Oprah’s enthusiastic endorsement. In fact, Oprah is in the process of hosting a 10-week on-line course conducted by Tolle. Over two million students are participating in this! In response to this, there’s been a frenzy of e-mails and video clips being sent out by conservative Christians warning people that Oprah is a false prophet, the heretical pastor of the world’s largest mega-church, a leader of a new cult, etc…
Hearing the buzz I decided to pick the book up at the airport and read it on the plane ride out to the conference in California I attended last week. Here’s my review.
Insights in “A New Earth”
I have to start by saying I found nothing in this book that hasn’t been said many times before by others who espouse various forms of eastern spirituality. More specifically, it struck me that many (if not most) of Tolle’s ideas are simply restatements of ideas espoused by J. Krishnamurti—though, curiously enough, Tolle never refers to him. At the same time, Tolle is a much better mass communicator than Krishnamurti (or any other promoter of eastern spirituality I’ve ever read). He has an ability to package esoteric ideas in ways that westerners can easily understand and absorb, and this undoubtedly goes a long way in explaining Tolle’s success.
As was true whenever I’ve read Krishnamurti, I found some aspects of Tolle’s book very helpful. For example, his analysis of the false and futile ways the ego tries to give itself worth is superb. His insights on judgment, the origins of violence and the causes of relational dysfunction were wonderful. His strong emphasis on “living in the present moment†is full of wisdom. And he is brilliant at helping readers identify ways in which they get stuck. I can easily understand why many readers experience “aha†moments as they read this material. Tolle masterfully names issues all of us wrestle with, usually without knowing it. One can’t help but feel like Tolle is telling their own story.
But this is also why this book deeply concerns me. For, while Tolle is a master at identifying the universal human problem, the solution he offers to address this problem is, from a Christian perspective, as misguided as any proposed solution could be. I’ll say three things.
Individuality, Relations and Love as Maya
First, Tolle espouses a rather typical eastern metaphysics in which the true “you” is not the “you” that is distinct from other people, but the (alleged) “you” that is one with the universe. To grasp this, imagine waves on an ocean. Your individual ego is one such wave, but the true “you” in the eastern religious worldview is the ocean itself—as it is for me and every other “wave.†The wave-“you” is limited and temporary, but the ocean-“you” is unlimited and eternal. According to Tolle and the eastern worldview in general, every problem we have, individually and as a collective whole, is the result our tendency to identify with, cling to and fight for the limited, transitory wave instead of with the unlimited, eternal ocean.
In fact, for Tolle, as for most who espouse eastern spirituality, our individuality is something of an illusion—Maya, as the Hindus call it (9—all page numbers refer to A New Earth). What is ultimately real is our essence, which is the infinite ocean, the “Source†and (yes) “God†(see e.g. 26). If we can remain consciously aware of our essential oneness with all things on a moment-by-moment basis, we will find that the perpetual striving and anxiety that attaches to our individual ego disappears. We will thus be free, fulfilled, peaceful, etc… The three words that are “the secret of all success and happiness†are “One With Life†(115). Instead of living with an ego-centered awareness of how we (as individuals) are distinct from all other things, we must cultivate an ego-free awareness of how we are one with all things on a moment-by-moment basis. And when this happens, there is no longer an awareness of a “we” that is distinct from others at all.
This eastern worldview that Tolle espouses fundamentally contradicts the biblical worldview. It’s important we understand why this is so. For Tolle, the world of distinct things and distinct people is only quasi-real. Ultimate reality is one, “formless,†“pure potentiality,†“pure awareness,” etc. This means that relationships are only quasi-real, since relationships must take place between distinct persons. And this means that love is only quasi-real, since love is obviously a relationship.
This is why Tolle says that the biblical teaching that “God is love†is “not absolutely correct.†The truth, according to Tolle, is that…
God is the One Life and beyond the countless forms of life. Love implies duality: lover and beloved, subject and object. So love is the recognition of oneness in the world of duality (106).
In other words, since duality is not an ultimate reality, love is not an ultimate reality—which is why God can’t be said to be love. Love is rather a means to an end—the end being the recognition that you and all other people are not really distinct. Love thus helps us transcend the world of duality and enter “the light of consciousness itself.†“To love,” Tolle says, “is to recognize yourself in another” (105, emphasis added). For, ultimately, there is no “other” to love. There is only the self.
By contrast—sharp contrast—the biblical worldview affirms that the teaching that “God is love” is not only “absolutely correct†but is the most important and correct truth there is (1 Jn 4:8). In the biblical worldview, God is an eternal, perfect, loving relationship. As Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God is eternal, perfect love shared between a plurality of “persons.” Love and plurality are not pen-ultimate realities: they are ultimate reality!
Not only this, but out of perfect love, God created a world filled with ultimately real individuals with the hope that they’d share in and reflect the joy and ecstasy of his eternal, perfect, and ultimately real love. The goal of life, therefore, is not to dissolve all individuality into oneness but to eternally affirm individuality in loving relationship with all other individuals and with God. The goal is not to realize you are God, but to be eternally related to God with a love that participates in the perfect love that God eternally is.
This fundamental difference is clearly manifested in the way Tolle teaches people to “stay awake” and “live in the now,” in contrast to the way Christians such as Brother Lawrence (The Practice of the Presence of God) and Frank Laubach have helped people “stay awake.” Tolle encourages people to cultivate an on-going awareness of their essential oneness with life. The goal is to transcend the ego and lose any distinct awareness of yourself. By contrast, Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach encourage people to cultivate an on-going awareness of the presence of God and to surrender to this presence on a moment-by-moment basis. Tolle aims at experiencing one’s own divine “I AM” on a moment-by-moment basis. Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach aim at experiencing a loving relationship with the I AM on a moment-by-moment basis.
Clearly, Tolle’s eastern worldview fundamentally contradicts the most important aspect of the biblical worldview.
Freedom From A Religious Belief System?
Second, there’s a profound inconsistency that pervades Tolle’s book (which, not coincidentally, I’ve also found in all of Krishnamurti’s writings). Both in his book and on the Oprah show, Tolle claims he is not promoting a “belief system†(17). This is why he and Oprah claim his book—and his course—is compatible with whatever belief system a person might already have. Whatever you believe, Oprah says, Tolle’s technique to become self-aware and live in the moment will make it better—”like seasoning on a meal,” she says. In fact, Tolle claims we are entering a new age in which we will witness the end “not only of all mythologies but also of ideologies and belief systems†(21). For, in keeping with Krishnamurti’s life-long teaching, Tolle believes that belief systems are ego-centered interpretations that we impose on reality and that therefore hinder our pure awareness of reality. To the extent that one attains pure awareness in the present moment, one transcends beliefs.
Ironically, every page of Tolle’s book contains beliefs—that is, interpretations of reality. For example, the belief that belief systems are ego-centered interpretations that we impose on reality is a belief. So too, when Tolle announces that the belief that “God is love” is incorrect, he is obviously announcing a particular (mistaken) belief.
Along the same lines, a couple of sentences after prophesying the eventual demise of all belief systems, Tolle announces:
If evil has any reality—and it is relative, not an absolute reality—this is its definition: complete identification with the forms—physical forms, thought forms, emotional forms (22).
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems to be a (mistaken) belief about the nature of evil.
In the very next sentence Tolle goes on to explain that the reason identifying with forms is “evil†is because it causes us to forget our “intrinsic oneness with every ‘other’ as well as with the Source†(22). This is yet another (mistaken) belief.
Several sentences following this, Tolle announces that when Jesus talks about “heaven†he is referring to “the inner realm of consciousness†(23). This is yet another belief—and one that anyone who understands Jesus’ words in their original first century Jewish milieu will easily identify as profoundly mistaken.
So too, when Tolle proclaims that “[a]ll religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them” (he is apparently an expert on all of them) and that anyone who believes “only your religion is the truth” is “using it in the service of the ego” (70-71), he’s clearly espousing a religious belief—and note, one that he clearly believes is the only true one!
Finally, when Tolle repeatedly teaches that one should accept every experience as something that is good for them—for “life,” he claims, is helping their consciousness to evolve (e.g. 41, 57, etc.)—he’s espousing a particular religious dogma…one that I would suspect parents of kidnapped children as well as the kidnapped children themselves might find disagreeable.
I could go on, but enough has been said to demonstrate that Tolle’s claim that he is not promoting a “belief system” is far from true. As a matter of fact, he is promoting a particular religious worldview buttressed by a plethora of religious beliefs. What’s particular aggravating is that Tolle never supports these religious beliefs with evidence or argumentation. (How could he? He apparently isn’t even aware he’s propounding beliefs in the first place!) Tolle just announces these dogmas as though they were self-evident truths. While there are some aspects of this religious belief system that are consistent with Scripture and are even helpful, as I said above, its core is as antithetical to the Christian worldview as any religious belief system could be.
Tolle’s Teaching on Jesus and Christianity
Third, the belief system Tolle espouses is at its very worst when he starts talking about Jesus and Christianity. According to Tolle, Jesus, like the Buddha, was an “early flower†in the evolution of human consciousness whose message was misunderstood and distorted (6). For example, Tolle suggests (without proof) that Jesus’ message was distorted when people began to worship him as a god (15). If this is a distortion, it happened very early since its clear from the letters of the apostle Paul that Jesus’ followers started worshiping him several years after he lived! Where Tolle got his “inside information” about a non-distorted version of Jesus’ message that predates this he unfortunately does not tell.
Along the same lines, Tolle claims (incredibly!) that gnosticism and mysticism in the Christian tradition were movements that recovered the original insights of Jesus (16). The fact that all of the New Testament documents are thoroughly Jewish—not gnostic—and that we have no evidence of gnostic influenced Christianity until the second century (well after the New Testament documents were written) doesn’t seem to concern Tolle.
So too, Tolle claims that when Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life,†he meant to say “[t]he very Being that you are is Truth” (71, emphasis added). He was speaking of the “I AM†that forms “the essence identity of every man and woman, every life-form in fact.” This is the same as our “Buddha nature†our “Atman†or “the indwelling God†(71). Good to know.
Not only this, but when Jesus told us to deny ourselves, he meant to say that we were to “[n]egate . . . the illusion of the self†(79). Similarly, when Jesus referred to “eternal life†he was actually referring to “the dimension of the formless within†you (81). And, most fantastically, when Jesus died on the cross he was giving us “an archetypal image†of how our evolving consciousness is “burning up†our “ego†(102).
A hundred more illustrations of Tolle’s remarkable pronouncements about Jesus and Christianity could be given, but I think you get the point. Two things are clear from all of this.
First, Tolle is promoting (without any supporting evidence or argumentation) an assortment of very particular religious beliefs about Jesus and Christianity that he clearly believes are the only true ones—in sharp contrast to all the wrong beliefs that Christians have embraced throughout history. Now, I honestly would have no problem with any of this if Tolle was simply upfront with what he was doing. If Tolle came clean and admitted, “Folks, I’m trying to sell you a religious belief system that contradicts Christianity in the most profound ways imaginable,” I’d applaud his effort and honesty! I’d think his alternative doctrines silly, of course. But I’d respect the candor. Unfortunately, whether by intention or just lack of self-awareness, Tolle is not forthright about the religious beliefs he promotes.
Second, as is clear to anybody with even a cursory understanding of the original context in which Jesus’ lived and even a modicum of information about Church History, Tolle’s claims about Jesus and Christianity are demonstrably wrong. Indeed, a little sound exegesis (on the meaning of what Jesus taught) and historical research (on the early church) reveals his claims to be, frankly, comical. The only thing that is perhaps more comical is his apparent lack of awareness that he’s espousing an alternative set of religious dogmas in the first place—and this from a man whose whole agenda is about becoming self-aware!
I am left, then, with deep concerns about this book and with the fact that Oprah (who explicitly identifies herself as Christian) is so enthusiastically supporting it. Again, I’m not denying there are some very good insights in this book. Nor am I joining the rank of those who are castigating Oprah as the new pastor of a new, heretical, internet “mega-church” or “cult.” I believe both Oprah and Tolle mean well and are sincerely trying to help people improve their lives. But I am nonetheless very concerned that the masterful way Tolle identifies and diagnoses the struggles we all wrestle with will make readers more gullible in accepting the strongly anti-Christian religious belief system he’s intentionally or unintentionally slipping in the back door.
I would thus encourage anyone who wants to read this book to do so with a very critical eye (c.f. 2 Tim. 4:3-4; 2 Pet. 2:1).
Better yet, if you’re interesting in a Christ-centered way of learning how to live “in the present moment”—and we all should be—forget about Tolle and read Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach’s Practicing His Presence and/or J. De Caussade’s The Sacrament of the Present Moment. Yes, live in the now! But do it in loving relationship with God rather than by believing you are God.”
— Greg Boyd
18 Comments on “Review of Eckhart Tolle’s book, “A New Earth””
Not a bad summary of Tolle, and better than most that are currently circulating on blogs, but still fraught with misinterpretations and misunderstandings.
1. It is true that Tolle does not reference Krishnamurti in his book, but he has stated publicly that he has been influenced by and admires the work of Krishnamurti.
2. The most critical misunderstanding of Tolle’s teaching is Mr.Boyd’s interpretation of Tolle’s “solution” to our “problem” … “If we can remain consciously aware of our essential oneness with all things on a moment-by-moment basis, we will find that the perpetual striving and anxiety that attaches to our individual ego disappears.” Tolle does not advocate or teach as a technique to remain aware of our oneness. This “oneness” is the result, but not the way. Tolle proposes “mindfulness” which is heeding one’s thoughts, emotions and will and not counter-acting them with one’s thoughts, emotions or will, but only observing them objectively. It is the way of non-conflict and non-resistance to what is. Eventually the ego will lose its grip on our consciousness and at that point we will realize our connection with all of God’s creation. Mr. Boyd’s explanation was the reverse of Tolle’s actual writings on this subject.
3. As for “love” I believe that Tolle is making a distinction between the little “love” which is tied to emotions, ego, etc. and is dualistic and big “Love” which is non-dualistic and the nature of God. If we identify with “love” then we are riding the surface of forms, but if we are truly present in the Now then we are connected with God’s “Love”.
4. Stating that Tolle teaches we can become God is also not accurate. Being aware of your intimate connection with God (we are God’s children) or how we are to return to our original state of being (made in the image of God, be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect) is quite different from “being” God.
5. As for arguing against a belief system and then advocating his own I have to disagree. Tolle states that names, labels, etc. can interfere with true knowledge, but he recognizes (and explains in his talks) that this is a weakness of language that you have to be aware of and always remember that words, beliefs, etc. only “point” to the truth and are not truth itself. So yes he occasionally describes beliefs and concepts, but always reminds people to not identify too strongly with them and look beyond them for the real truth. Krishnamurti was more exacting in this regard and utilized “negation” much more effectively in his teachings to help keep people from creating any sort of belief system around his talks. That said … it also made Krishnamurti more difficult to understand and frustrating to many listeners or readers of his work. Maybe in the end that was a good thing.
6. Tolle does not profess to be a Christian or to follow any particular religion, so I’m not sure why there has been such an uproar over his books. He quotes quite a bit from the Bible, Buddha’s teachings, etc. and has been fairly upfront about his belief that the core essence of the major religions is the same (Universal Wisdom), but that the institutions that develop become separate and different due to identification with the ego-mind.
Can someone be an orthodox Christian, while at the same read and practice Tolle’s “mindfulness”? Probably. Jakob Bohme, one of the great Christian mystics, lived his whole life as a Lutheran and although he was regularly persecuted by the Church … always considered himself a Lutheran.
CSP,
Thanks for the comments—I appreciate the interaction. I’d like to respond to several of your thoughts.
Re: #2 – I think Boyd’s point is that Tolle asserts an interdependent / cause and effect relationship between one attaining higher consciousness (of monism) and the eradication of suffering. These two things, according to Tolle, do seem to be causally related.
Re: #3 – Tolle does not believe in a personal God. Rather, “God†(or as Tolle calls it, “Lifeâ€) is more like a force. So, I think that Boyd’s point stands—that “love†becomes meaningless in a monistic (all is one) concept of reality. For, love requires a real subject/object distinction to be meaningful. Yet, Tolle recognizes no such distinction.
Re: #4 – You’re right, Tolle doesn’t teach that we “become God.†Instead, he teaches that we “are†already God, and we come to know this by achieving “Christ-consciousness.†Further, you state that we are God’s children and point to to a biblical reference. However, the biblical teaching is that we become “children†of God only after we become believers. Before that we are not universally children of God and God is not our Father. He IS universally our Creator. That’s why Jesus says that we must be “born again.â€
Re: #5 – Yes, Tolle teaches that labeling/language/words get in the way of truth. And here it’s very helpful to distinguish between Tolle’s eastern pantheism and the Middle-eastern theism of biblical Judeo-Christianity. The Christian affirms that while language is not the thing being described itself, language can nevertheless accurately describe reality. The New Testament goes so far as to describe the second person of the triune God (Jesus) “the Word†(logos = reason, meaning, etc.). Further, there is even biblical support for naming or labeling reality. The Judeo-Christian account of beginnings (Genesis) involves God commissioning humanity to actually give names/labels to the created order (Genesis 2:19-20). So, while Christians recognize that labels can be inappropriately applied (i.e., being pejorative or demeaning), they are not necessary bad or misleading in themselves. Rather, they are God-given. Words express meaning.
Re: #6 – You stated, “Tolle does not profess to be a Christian or to follow any particular religion, so I’m not sure why there has been such an uproar over his books.†However, Tolle does claim to more accurately interpret Jesus than do any of his followers from history. So, in that sense, Tolle DOES claim to be a truer Christian (or follower of Jesus) than the historical Christian Church.
The biggest problem with Tolle’s claims made while quoting founders or advocates of other world religions (Jesus, Buddha, the Hebrew prophets, etc.), is that Tolle must pervert their teachings to make them fit into his worldview. As Boyd points out, to assert that Jesus (as a first-century Palestinian Jew) was advocating eastern pantheistic (all is God) monism (all is one), is either uninformed or disingenuous. The pantheist’s God (i.e., Tolle’s “Lifeâ€) is beyond all duality. It is beyond the duality of knower and known, mind and its contents, subject and object of thought, good and evil, etc. However, Jesus (along with his rich Jewish tradition) believed that God is knowable. After all, God made Himself known in His acts within history, as expressed in the Old Testament. In fact, the significance of the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is the very act of God making Himself most fully known (“He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible Godâ€, Colossians 1:15, and “in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form,†Collians 2:9).
And I believe that Boyd accurately represents Jesus’ teaching that the end of finding/knowing God does not result in the losing or cessation of the self (Tolle’s “egoâ€) but the finding of it. And this “finding†is NOT by realizing that there is no substantial self, and that there really is no distinction between God and ourselves. So, the Judeo-Christian goal is not union with God (resulting in the loss of self), but communion with God (a real relationship maintaining the subject/object distinction). Whether Tolle’s pantheistic monism is right or Christianity’s Creator/creature duality is right is one matter. However, to conflate the two opposing worldviews (what Tolle is guilty of doing) is, as I stated above, either seriously misinformed or deeply disingenuous. With respect to Tolle, I hope it is the former.
“The Gospel According To Oprah’s Friends” – 40 min – Apr 21, 2008.
I came across a recent sermon offering a very brief biblical critique of Tolle’s pantheism. The critique comes primarily within the first 9 minutes of the sermon. The sermon was given by Erwin Lutzer, Senior Pastor of The Moody Church.
Here’s just the 9 minutes: (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uje-T69qj2g).
Here’s the entire 40 minute sermon: (www.video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4839345054426850695&hl=en).
Hi Brent,
I work with Greg Boyd at CVM. Nice blog…keep up the great writing!
Blessings,
marcia erickson
CVM Administrator
This is an interesting discussion. Both sides make very good points. Thank you to everyone who contributed. I am glad to know that there still seems to be “nothing new under the sun.” People package similar ideas in different ways for different times to get new followings. This is what we must all be observant of.
Paul Quelet
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.
Hi
I haven’t read the book but have been reading different reviews and comments.
I have a question, where does Eckhart Tolle get all his wisdom/knowlege from?
How does he know all this to be true?
Exactly! Everyone is an authority on their own truth aren’t they? And then the ‘followers’ follow and the ‘authority’ gets rich as people flock like sheep to the slaughter to hear him speak and buy his books. In the end, people will deny the true God (Jesus Christ) and go along with the myriad of false prophets like Eckhart Tolle whose ‘good intentions’ will pave the road to destruction for the millions of duped people looking for love in all the wrong places. When you die, and you are ushered into the presence of God and you see Jesus to your right, as opposed to Eckhart or Mohamed or Shiva to your left: Who would you want to follow? I’ll take Jesus Christ. I urge you to do the same. In love.
Janet, I share the same opinions and concerns as you.
Jesus all the way.
All religions are cult like. I think it’s a shame that the masses are brainwashed into believing any one certain way. I think it’s foolish. I wouldn’t have that much faith in a 2000 year old book or any book for that matter. There are some very insightful things in the bible, but much of it I believe is contrived or has been taken to mean something completely different than what was intended. Not even the bible can tell you what will happen to you when you die. They’re just words written in a very old book, don’t be gullible.
In response to Janet:
Janet says: “And then the ‘followers’ follow and the ‘authority’ gets rich as people flock like sheep to the slaughter to hear him speak and buy his books.”
(The catholic church is the richest organization in the world.)
Vet,
You asked two very good questions:
(1) You wrote: “Where does Eckhart Tolle get all his wisdom/knowledge from?â€
In Oprah’s first ‘skyping’ interview with Tolle (you can listen to it on iTunes), she asked him the same question. Tolle’s response was that while he never channeled another spirit/mind (meaning he was always in control), he did claim to have been almost supernaturally inspired with the content of his book. Now, of course, Tolle doesn’t believe in a personal God. Therefore, he doesn’t believe the power behind the inspiration was personal (with a mind & will). Rather, he believes it to be a sort of impersonal world-soul (as was discussed in the initial post above).
(2) You wrote: “How does he know all this to be true?â€
This is the grand question for all subjective spiritualists (e.g., New Agers). For the spiritualist, when there is no personal God, truth (especially truth claims dealing with morality, meaning, and destiny) becomes subjective or relative to the individual. In essence, the individual becomes the standard/judge for truth and falsehood. With such an assumption, one wouldn’t need to go any further than the ‘self’ to answer your question of how one knows something to be true.
Here’s an email I just sent to Mr. Boyd regarding his review:
Dear Mr. Boyd,
I stumbled across your very nice website/blog today, was momentarily taken by the site and your apparently thoughtful words, until I read this from your Insights in A New Earth and felt compelled to write:
“I have to start by saying I found nothing in this book that hasn’t been said many times before by others who espouse various forms of eastern spirituality. More specifically, it struck me that many (if not most) of Tolle’s ideas are simply restatements of ideas espoused by J. Krishnamurti — though, curiously enough, Tolle never refers to him.”
Having read and been profoundly changed by Tolle’s book, this immediately left me wondering how it is you developed an insight into something which you have perhaps never read, or completed, or at the very least, read very well, because Tolle does, in fact, refer specifically to Krishnamurti in A New Earth (page 198, Plume paperback edition). Perhaps the insight the great Indian sage reveals through this account is so revelatory and profound you simply missed or misunderstood it.
The rest of your review recites the same tired, holier-than-thou (“…as is clear to anybody with even a cursory understanding of the original context in which Jesus’ lived and even a modicum of information about Church History…” yeesh, such dripping condescension) arguments made by so many Christian apologists, as run through the filter of–sigh–biblical hermeneutics, precluding any real understanding of Tolle’s sometimes contrary views, and once again nearly completely missing and paradoxically confirming his central insight regarding the over-identification with thought and thought forms.
Centrally, what I think you fail to see, or at least appreciate here, as expressed through Tolle’s book and the Eastern religions you so easily and off-handedly denigrate, is a difference in approaches to the divine; you being more inclined toward a kataphatic approach, while others, including me of course, are drawn toward and identify more easily with an apophatic approach to the divine. To this I say, vive la difference, whereas you seem more motivated to say “you’re wrong and I’m (or at least the Bible is) right”! How un-insightful indeed!
I’m left wondering, watching you engage in your rather dubious mental gymnastics, whether any Christian apologist can really understand the notion that “the mind is maya”?
I…think…not!
Contrarily But Respectfully Yours,
Enjoyed reading the arguments. I have had a sneaking suspicion about Tolle’s central question ‘Does my identity depend on my thoughts?’ A matter of belief in the answer! I wonder is the question more accurately ‘Does langauage make me or do I make language?’ To transcend thought to the “void’ seems to me some form of insanity. But to experience the “Mystery’ which is God, maybe ‘beyond words?’ I don’t know, the work and role of Art, aesthetics, feeling,sense, to be truly human, humanised, interconnected. I know so many people who applaud Tolle as a prophet of the twenty first century, and I wonder is it a longing to explain, control what is beyond our understanding, in a period of time when everything seems unstable, a time of rapid change. Perhaps we should all relax, and enjoy creation, in a spirit of gratitude. Are we losing the run of ourselves in believing all this ‘stuff’
In the end, the answer to all questions is an endless stillness that drowns all interpretation. Tolle, like others points the way but as always there are those who undertake the equivalent of counting consonants and disagreeing with the addition.
If there is a God, we need him/her if only to save us from the morons speaking in his name and ripping the planet apart in their blind intolerance and bigotry.
What is different about Boyd and the spanish inquisition? The latter were more honest in that they knew they were destroying truth. Boyd
still uses the camouflage of love and compassion.
Repeat after me (in 2 million disagreeing tongues, interpretations
and hatreds), the bible/koran said…and death to those who disagree.
Jack,
You stated that “the answer to all questions is an endless stillness that drowns all interpretations.†Does this apply to your interpretation of truth/reality that your briefly shared here as well? Does it apply to Tolle’s interpretation? I suspect you’re only applying it to those who disagree with you.
You also state that we need God to “save us from the morons speaking in his name.†Christians make truth claims about God. Above, you are making truth claims about God. Are ALL who do so “morons†or only Christians?
Finally, you seem to criticize Greg Boyd for being hateful and divisive. You attack him, calling him a “destroyer of truthâ€, and likening him to those who took part in the Spanish Inquisition. You then impugn the motives of nearly all theists by calling them “hatersâ€. Jack, you sound much more hateful and divisive than anything I can find in Boyd’s writing. When one condemns another for the vices which one embraces, he is not only being inconsistent but also hypocritical.
It is possible to theorize and debate not only Eckhart Tolle’s books, but any spiritual or religious opinion/theory. The perfect truth, though, with Tolle’s suggestions/exercises as to how we might live a type of more peaceful life; and that is what all his writing is about – is to actually practice the exercises he proposes, be it meditation, or living in the moment. Then you will know why Tolle knows these things, and how he truthfully believes we can benefit from knowing his ideas. Practice these things and you will feel the result. There is a simpler explanation than mind theories.
Eckhart Tolle review
Eckhart Tolle’s book is an attempt to awaken you to your life’s purpose but there are no meaningful instructions to take you there. Eckhart is focused on a symptom of the problem that he believes is the problem, “the ego†and I would suggest that this manifestation of the problem is certainly a red flag. However there was never a doctor who could cure patience’s problem by treating their symptoms. Like many doctors, Tolle misdiagnoses the patience and falls victim to the very thing that he makes confident assertions about. Eckhart suggests a treatment to close the hole of self only to discover there are always more openings.
“I think therefore I am†– thought is a product of the mind and without the mind there would be no perception of self or the body you possess. It was God who said “Come now, and let us reason together†(Isaiah 1:18) because He engineered your body and wants you to operate in the mechanics of His design so He can receive the glory. If we do not obey before we know (faith) it will be the mind that is responsible in producing the misperception of who you are, this illusory sense of identity. This illusory sense of self or the arrogance that could be called the ego that Albert Einstein referred to as “an optical illusion of consciousnessâ€. And Tolle’s statement “That illusory self then becomes the basis for all further interpretations, or rather misinterpretations of reality, all thought processes, interactions, and relationships, your reality becomes a reflection of the original illusion,†is certainly true. Tolle may not have the answer but I believe he has a good understanding of the problem. Tolle also quotes Jesus in an attempt to give validity to his theology along with many others, but it was only Jesus who said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.â€
Eckhart’s solution to dissolve this illusion all come down to the word “‘if’ you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The recognition of illusion is also its ending.†Nobody would disagree with his deduction. But a simple illustration of a man walking through a desert without water can test his deduction. It is not until he receives a drink of water can he believe that what he sees is nothing more than an optical illusion stemming from he imbalance state of body and mind.
If the mind or the brain is still in the same physical state that produced this illusion of self then it has no ability to see itself relative to truth. The fact that the mind in its unbalanced physical state has produced an ego is irrelevant and to try to recognize the countless illusions the mind is capable of generating is in itself absurd.
Unbelief comes from a polluted mind or a body that lacks the energy to maintain a balanced state. A mind cannot change its state without acting on the knowledge of the truth but the mind will not recognize truth as knowledge because it has been chemically programmed to reconfigure truth.
Purification comes with a cost of suffering, by the effects of a chemical withdrawal, in order to break our self-conceived ideas on how we see reality. A mind that has not been re-wired has no ability to be enlightened by divine teaching, because it is already programmed to arrange any new knowledge within it own pre-established formula, as to preserve its addictions, and therefore cannot discern the between the holy and the profane. Romans16:18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Tolle and many other men come across so convincing because they have no idea they are completely controlled by their addictions to their own appetites. Our so called wise and learned men come across completely sincere because they have no idea their judgment have been impaired. Their rational seems logical and is received with applause because they are appealing to an audience who baths in the same pool of impediments. 2 Cor10:12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. Pro16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Joh8:34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. Only a relatively short period of time is needed in practicing sin, (or letting the flesh choose) before the brain sets up receivers to accommodate this new chemical addiction that reinforces the appetite. Like a drug addict on the street you are trapped and enslaved to serve your habit.
It is easy to sit back and tell someone that they do not have and answer to the problem and never using our own logic or deduction of reasoning to find the answer. Jesus tells us that we need to follow Him through regeneration, Mat19:28 Truly I tell you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration … We were once there as little children. One of the parts which will be renewed is the mind, Rom12:2 “… but transformed but the renewing of your mind … All regeneration and renewing is centered around “things†in you that are not of your DNA but make up almost 50% of your dry body weight. They turn out to be little separate creatures that are the engine that drives every one of your cells, including your brain cells. Without them, we would not move a muscle, drum a finger, think a thought. 1 Cor1:27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are so that one may boast before him. The problem is these creatures replicate, privately, in their own fashion and if you do not provide the environment they need to regenerate you will never have a mind or thought process “that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect†(Rom12:2).
For in-depth comprehensible study on the environment needed and how the Spirit logically lead me to this place of surrender please go to http://www.freedomcatchthespirit.com