How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you’re having.Eckhart Tolle

Tolle Quote

This post is long overdue, I wanted to write it before this year ends. It feels important to me, so excuse me if you’re here for art and craft and creativity. I don’t believe anyone of us can do art and craft (well) or be very creative if we don’t take a break and consider how we live our life. The more days I live the more I understand the connection between silence and noisy creativity, between living “out there” and being within…

A New Earth This might be the most important post of the year, at least the links at the bottom are! It’s about a new beginning, a place and a way of thinking (or not thinking that much really). I wanted to talk a bit about how I’ve been influenced by one particular book this year, it’s called The New Earth. And how important the Now is and how much I believe in it. And even though I forget it more than I remember it I want to live by it as much as I can. We can never do more than keep trying. We can never stop trying!

Our mind (brain) is a tricky and difficult place, and even scientist don’t know shit about how it works yet. But I am a firm believer in seeking knowledge and learning new things all the time. Reading, listening, asking questions. And not just about worldly subjects as information for work or school or even just for fun knowing any more, but about spirituality too! Yes matters of the heart. How can I become a better person, for myself and for others? How can my life be meaningful? How do I find meaning in this world? One way has been through Eckhart Tolle‘s teachings this year, and this is what I need to share with you all right now.

be totally present now

A few months ago I downloaded Oprah’s free web class A New Earth into my iPod. They are ten talks/classes following along the chapters of Tolle’s latest book A New Earth. I didn’t read the book first because I have tried reading him before, and it was boring. I tried one of his earlier works but I didn’t like it at all. Nothing Tolle says in his books are new information, nor to me nor to the world. To me it’s not new because I do know about the benefits of meditation and I’ve read books and articles about Zen, Buddhism and New Age Spirituality. So I could follow along without too many questions marks and I found the classes very interesting and full of thought provoking material. This material will make you look closely on your own life, your thoughts, actions, obsessions and passions. And it will make you want to grow and change, if you’re ready to do that.

Flickering candle light

I saw that many of you did the same, listened, read, learned and followed along this summer class. In fact the class have been followed by millions around the world. As Oprah says this is truly powerful! And it is. So simple, yet so difficult to grasp. This was a growing contagious beautiful thing in our life, because it is something we all share and want; knowledge about how to live a good life. This is an important subject to me, and increasingly so the past two years. I have not found my way yet, but I’m searching within more than I do outwards. I think I need to be better on doing both simultaneously now.

Tolle talks about how we as humans are on the verge of creating a new world by a personal transformation that shifts our attention away from our ever-expanding egos. He says it’s time to look within, and I agree with him.

Power of Now

Writing in my diary After listening through the classes I still wanted more, so I got the book after all, but as a audio book with Eckhart Tolle himself reading. His German dialect that I first thought ugly and distracting now feels comfortable and calming. And it resembles my own, so I shouldn’t through stones when I live in a glass house with my own Swedish accent. What Tolle is teaching is as I mentioned, very easy but oh so difficult. I think it is difficult because it challenges our way of thinking and being. It’s like nothing we’ve been told by parents, teachers, school or society. And many times it is the opposite of what we’ve been told.

Some statements in this book could make you sad, perplex or fill you with disbelieve or even anger. You will be challenged to think and act no matter who you are – and I think that is a good thing. Something about this reading just seems profoundly important, if you are able to grasp it. I had to listen back a few times to really understand it. Some of the things he talks about sounds like contradiction of terms, like alert stillness for example. What the hell is that? But whether you agree with the information given or not, it has something important to say about the world we’ve created and how we can coupe in it.

I took notes and wrote down several quotes while listening to the audio book A New Earth this year, and I will read/listen to it again next year to reinforce what I learn and try to hear new things. This is a book that will expand as your mind expands, though the year(s) if you let it.

Links to start with