by Sandra Douglas

Created on: April 30, 2008

Today more than ever, people express dissatisfaction with their lives as they look for something more. In Ekhart Tolle's book, "A New Earth", he promises to help us awaken to our life's purpose and find joy by learning to live in the moment. Wow. That's quite an order for questions that many of us have not been able to answer after a lifetime of searching. He goes a step further saying that it is not only the individual that benefits, but all of humanity.

Tolle, spiritual teacher and best-selling author of "The Power of Now", writes his latest book to give readers a path to awaken to their life's purpose. He shows how to recognize the ego in all its grisly forms as it attempts to block our forward path on the journey to self-awareness. He teaches the reader to step back from the ego, to observe and feel, but not to feed the ego. By diminishing its power over us, we are free to develop in a more positive way, which, as Tolle explains, is not only healthy for us but the entire universe as well.

Bible verses from the New Revised Standard Version are quoted throughout the book along with interpretations and present day applications, though nothing extreme. In fact, none of his ideas were anything different than what I've read by other Christian authors and Tolle presents his ideas in a much less heavy-handed manner than those other authors. Tolle is not exclusive in his religious connections either, also quoting from the Tao Te Ching and the Upanishads, as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Friedriche Nietzsche.

Reading the book was an emotional journey in itself with emotions ranging from incredulous to inspired. In the early chapters, I sat back in my chair and said, "Wow. This is a message that people are looking for, but who is going to read a heavy book like this?" Ask a question and the universe answers. I was at a party the next Saturday night when to my surprise, I heard comments to my left and then comments to my right, from people who read the book and were amazed by it. When the book made Oprah's book club, I had no doubt that countless people were about to have their way of thinking turned upside down.

I also suspect that quite a few won't make it through the mid-section of the book. Tolle gives an enlightening discourse on the ego, but the book takes on a voice with a bit too much generalizing about groups of people and how they are affected by ego followed by several chapters on the "pain-body". I almost put the book away when he said that babies who cry

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