Day: August 19, 2019

I bought two Eckhart Tolle books ten years ago in London. If these were library books, I would have given up on them.

This book had too many repetitive messages and the tone is a tad condescending. I was able to finish this book for a couple of reasons.

First, I started to read them in bed before sleeping. As mentioned in an earlier review, I have never been in the habit of reading in bed, but I wanted to start to fit more reading in my day. I would read about 15-30 mins before falling asleep. This was great before bed because it is boring and repetitive!

I can see why they were popular and bestsellers. Tolle’s messages and lessons aren’t inherently bad for me personally. I have been meditating more again and I have been open to spiritual or “New Age” books and messages. There were some meditation tips buried in this book, but that could be gleaned from other works too.

I thought the execution of this book didn’t work. Not only did he repeat things about being in the now, he kept using random teachings from other religions to reinforce this message. These interpretations are sometimes of dubious quality. Interpretation is interpretation except I didn’t see how he was better than other spiritual teachers. The book makes you think he is more enlightened than many others except I find it hard to believe sometimes based on how patronizing he can be.

A lot of this book wouldn’t work for most people either so I am surprised these books sold so many couples. I think the messages in the book are explained better by other books or even by going to certain free meditation courses. The best would be to discuss some cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) with a trained counselor or therapist as Tolle’s methodology is similar. He is very vague though about the details.

I will read my copy of The New Earth after this and I do not anticipate it being any better.

Started in 2009, but picked up again August 4-18, 2019.