"A New Earth" - Week 2

[Jeanette in FL]

http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/archive/anewea... - Links for watching any of the webcasts. You can watch on Demand, download to your computer, or get the transcript. There are also other links of interest on this page also.

http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/archive/archiv... - Links for webcast downloads in different modalities.

http://images.oprah.com/images/obc_classic/book/2008/an... - for a transcript of the 1st webcast.

http://www.oprah.com/community/community/bookclub/tolle... – Links to the message boards discussing the book.

http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/exercises/anewearth_exercises_main.jsp - exercises in the awakening process.

Again, they had webcast issues, but it seems to be worked out now. This was another awesome experience.

This webcast dealt with the Ego. Tolle explains that the Ego is a compulsive thought processes of which 98% of is useless. Ego prevents us from living in the present. It concentrates on the past; keeping us stuck or on the future; pretending that there is where our happiness will be. Therefore keeping us trapped in endless loops. The Ego has no use for the present.

The Ego has labels for everything, our culture, our nationality, our families, our things, our opinions etc, which then in turn judges others as either someone who is either a friend or an enemy. It never is neutral or accepting.

The Ego constantly is comparing, “Am I as smart as the other person” “Is the other person smarter than me” “Am I as good looking as the other person” “Is the other person better looking than me”. On and on and on and on.

The Ego is never satisfied for long, it is always looking for more and more. He said that is one of the reasons that people are in so much debt. Once they have something, the thrill is gone quickly thereafter and then they need something else to feed the ego.

He spoke about how the ego develops in children is when we give things names. Once named, the magic is gone, as it now has a label. He said one way to prevent the Ego from overtaking children, when we of course we have to teach them names of things, is to keep the magic alive in them. For instance, when we teach them “oak tree”, we should let them feel the bark of the tree, touch the leaves, see the sun on the leaves, the water droplets.

Tolle spoke about each time we are in the present, the Ego loses more and more control over us allowing us to be awakened and free from the trap of the egoic mind.

Tolle then spoke about illness, when a woman called in about on dealing with her lupus and RA. He said that many people identify with their disease or illness, therefore giving the disease power. He said that people need to stop talking to other people about their diseases and illness, stop feeding and empowering the disease. First one should accept the disease as it is and find places in the body that are healthy and to go to those places and build upon it for healing. He also said that nature is another place to find a place to start healing one’s body. He said not to resist the physical pain because that will create psychological pain, again feeding the ego and the disease.

Another woman called in and wanted to know how to deal with friends of hers that have depression. Tolle said that Depression is the “unhappy self” identifying with “my” sad, sad story. He told the woman to listen to the friend but not to say anything. He said that act of being with the person will not feed the depression. Of course he went much deeper than that.

I have just finished the book and must say it was thrilling. I am going to read it again because it is a very thought provoking book. The first read I just allowed the thoughts to flow, this time around I want to go deeper. There has been a renewed sense of calmness in myself.

The message boards over at Oprah.com are a true test of patience and non-judgment. Whew, they unleashed the lions over there. It is amazing how threatened groups can become when they feel that their belief system is being taken away. I do not understand that.

[I Have A Dream]

1. Thank you so much for the really helpful synopsis, Jeanette.

:)

[conscious evolution]

2. The ego is a monkey

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle: Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let ideas go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there.

That comes from the Hua Hu Ching-An ancient Taoist text.
Nothing I have ever heard or read has even come remotely close to matching the impact this passage has had on me.

Get the monkey off your back.

[Why Syzygy]

3. Jeanette, thank you

for putting this together. I'm going to get started on the program. I'll just have to set aside the time. Your report is encouraging.

fyi .. the webcast links don't work. The community link is fine and the exercise link works. But the others cause an error page.

edit: On the content. If that's the ego, I am more than happy to let it go. I battle a lot with those parts of myself.

[Me.]

4. Thank You

This is hugely helpful and much appreciated

[Why Syzygy]

5. I'm starting a new schedule this week.

I'll be able to log on to the webcast tomorrow night. I don't have access to a book, but I'm going to join the conversation anyway.

Someone has created a local meetup to follow the webcast study. I may be able to make some of those meetings. The organizer posted a preview. The more I read about this, the more excited I am.

Thanks again.

[Why Syzygy]

6. Well I may be jumping ahead to post

before you get week 3 going. But I have to say, I REALLY love this show. Last night watching it, I didn't really have any aha moments. I AM very glad he went into deeper explanation about "what you resist persists", giving it the physics emphasis. I believe that the quote comes from Carl Jung??? .. it always seemed correct but I don't think my brain ever made the direct link which it did last night. It's a good thing. I've also been thinking about it a lot throughout the day. I'm also trying to catch up with weeks 1 & 2 and doing some of the reading at work.

I feel kind of like Eckhart seems to in his unflappable way. It's like one of the most important things we will ever consider, yet it does it in a small quiet way. There is no smash presentation. The outer level of excitement doesn't seem to match up with the inner understanding. If that makes any sense at all.

[Why Syzygy]

7. I also loved ET's story

about the rude repairman. A bit of that can go a long way in some places. ahem

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. I've been watching it too.

Don't have the book but it is stuff I've already learned from reading Buddhism.
ET just puts it in a different way. He seems to be more down to earth than a lot of Oprah's metaphysical authors.

[Why Syzygy]

9. I don't have the book either.

I couldn't get very far into "The Power of Now", and wanted to see how this goes before committing to another book purchase.

He is grounded, that's for sure. Oprah has a way of drawing him out that keeps it interesting. She's fearless and a good harmony for him.

[Jeanette in FL]

10. Please, feel free to update

I am not going to get to watch Week 3 until later today. So please start Week #3 and I can add to it later on.

[Why Syzygy]

11. "A New Earth" - Week 3

Jeanette asked me to go ahead and get this week's thread started. So here goes.

Some of the original links may have changed. It seems to me that Oprah's site has been updated.

This is a link for the overview of "Where to begin" >
http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/begin/anewearth_begin_main.jsp
From there you can get to all the features Jeanette told us about. I haven't explored the whole sub-site yet. I have started the workbook pages, read some of the transcripts and watched one live webcast. It was a lot more fun that I thought it might be.

I'm an Oprah *fan* (but don't get too deep into fan worship at all). I appreciate her shows. Not everyone is so fond of her. And that's okay.

Whatever the case, I absolutely feel this series is profound.

I attended the local New Earth group tonight, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's pretty awesome sitting in a room with 25 people practicing being present.

Who else is doing the class?


Link for last week >
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=245x65823

Link for "A New Earth" at amazon >
http://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Awakening-Purpose-Selection/dp/0452289963/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205990591&sr=1-1