Eckhart Tolle – You Ain’t I Am

Several years ago I was working as an installation technician for a national communications company. Occasionally, I would be assigned an out of town job. Often I found myself with my co-worker(s) in unfamiliar territory looking for a place to stay or eat. One such night, just as the sun was setting my partner, Mike, and I had an address for a local diner, but we couldn’t find the right street. I saw several young men hanging around a gas station and pulled in to ask for directions. One young man pointed down the road and told me to turn left on the second street. I thanked him and as we pulled away one of the other guys yelled something. Mike asked, “What did he say?”

“Eckhart Tolle, Who do you say that I Am?” – Jesus-

It is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 16:13-17 that Jesus asked his disciples two questions. The first seems primarily designed to provoke thought, the second commitment. “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” was the first question and it resulted in a group discussion concerning the various opinions commonly held about Jesus at that time. The second question was more personal and pointed: “But who do you say that I am?” The actual Greek of the text emphasizes the personal pronoun “you” by placing it at the beginning of the sentence and repeating it later in the sentence. A more accurate but less readable translation would be, “But you, who do you say that I am?”

In A New Earth Eckhart Tolle gives his answers Jesus’ question. Is the Jesus of Eckhart Tolle the Jesus of the Bible and history or is it another Jesus?

Eckhart Tolle and A New Earth – Is He Right About What’s Wrong?

For a number of years I had ongoing bouts with what I thought were recurrent ear infections. About once or twice a year I would become dizzy, light-headed and nauseated. Usually a night of rest would suffice to overcome the problem. Occasionally I would make a trip to the doctor where she would prescribe some antibiotics.

Eckhart Tolle and A New Earth

Last Monday I decided to write a brief post concerning Eckhart Tolle and his book “A New Earth.”  Particularly the post concerned Oprah’s ten week Monday night webinar with Tolle and some very general observations.  Generally, my blog is read by a few friends and family and occasionally someone might find a post that interests them.  Previously, my musings about having poison oak and riding in the Hotter n’ Hell 100 garnered the most attention…At least until now.  It has been an interesting week.  Hundreds of people have visited Proleptic Life to read the above mentioned post.

I have know idea what the majority of those think who have read the post, since only a small minority leave a comment.  But of those who have taken the time to comment, most have not been favorable.  One of those “Matt” has been the most reasonable in his approach.  In our brief conversation we did agree that my brief post was not really a fair and full treatment of Tolle’s work.

After some prayer and thought I have decided to post a few articles with the intent of engaging in a fuller, more thorough treatment of Tolle’s book, “A New Earth.”  I have read the book and there is certainly many ways to approach this, but I don’t have the time to deal with every issue that needs to be discussed.  The area of concern I have is primarily related to Christianity and Tolle’s understanding of Jesus Christ, his understanding of God, and the path that he is leading others down as it concerns their spiritual life.  If Tolle’s book had been written without bringing Christ into it I would have never paid it any attention.  Book stores have shelves full of books on these philosophies and I have never mentioned them.

There is a second reason why I believe this discussion is important.  Yes, it is Oprah.  It is not Oprah herself, but the influence she has.  The sales of Tolle’s books shot through the roof with the Oprah Book club endorsement.  Now she is doing this class with Tolle.  A lot of people listen to Oprah and take what she says as gospel.  I’m not silly enough to believe I will change that, but I do believe I have a responsibility to respond.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with what I am going to write.  I welcome thoughtful discussion, debate and disagreement.  Book mark the blog, check back in or you can keep up with the discussion by using the email update link.

Preparing for a Recession

The credit union of which I am a member sends out a newsletter each month with every account statement.  This month the feature article was about how to prepare for a recession.  Technically, a recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by the GDP.  Some have also defined a recession as when your neighbor loses his job and a depression as when you lose your job.

The article I read made the following suggestions for being proactive in preparing for a recession:

Moses was a Dope-Head

Benny Shannon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has come out with a theory that Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God give the Ten Commandments.  You can read about it here.

The theory is so weak that it barely resembles a cogent thought process.  First, the “researcher” comes at the subject with his own bias, which he openly admits.  He doesn’t believe God spoke to Moses and so there must be some other explanation. The good prof doesn’t believe so he has to explain Moses’ experiences with the LORD as a drug induced psychotic episode.

Second, since drugs make people hear things and see things and so that must be the answer.  Of course, the professor knows this from his own personal experiences with drugs.  Funny thing is Moses took drugs and thought he heard from God and the prof took drugs and doesn’t believe in God.

What I find incredible is the idea that Moses was able to formulate a code of ethics which has withstood thousands of years of time, develop and carry out a plan to lead around 3 million people out of slavery, stand against the most powerful world leader of his day, live to be an old man and be in good health to the final day of his life, write a history of the world that is still revered by millions of people across the world and do it all while being a dope head.  Timothy Leary would be proud.

Brett Farve to Retire

According to FOX Sports Brett Farve is set to announce his retirement from football.  As a life-long Packer fan, and cheesehead extraordinaire, I hate to see him go.  After 17 years it is understandable that Brett would be ready to hang it up.  Football is a tough sport, hard on a man’s body and the effects of 17 years of playing the game will last for the rest of Farve’s life.  Still, it is a sad day.  Brett’s appeal was the way he simply had fun playing the game.  He played like we all did when we were in the park or the back yard.  It wasn’t about fame, fortune, and women.  Brett is a family guy, a regular guy and that is what made him great, not just his record setting career.  Like most people, I assumed that after the great 2007 season he would be back.  Looks like I assumed incorrectly.

Rogers seems to have the skills to step in an be a good quarterback.  He won’t be Farve and no one should expect him to be.  He will be his own man.  There will only be one Brett Farve in football history.

Oprah, Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

It seems that Oprah Winfrey is hell bent on being the priestess of the New Age.  She has bought into the demonic and anti-Christ teachings of yet another new age prophet, Eckhart Tolle.  Oprah recently made Tolle’s latest book her Book Club Pick.  This endorsement by Oprah has rocketed A New Earth into the sales stratosphere.  Oprah has now made a commitment to a 10 week webinar.  She and Tolle will be conducting online classes beginning today (3/3/08) and continuing every Monday night for ten weeks.

While at times Eckhart quotes Jesus and the Bible his writings are anything but biblical truth.  Tolle is promoting spiritual awakening, but not the kind of spiritual awakening in the historic Christian sense.  He states that people can be awakened by his book if they meet three conditions: (1) they have to have an openness to spiritual truth, (2) the truth has to have transformative power, (3) the words have to be neutral and transcend any one culture, religion, or spiritual tradition.

Let me translate:
Openness to spiritual truth – if you exercise discernment, disagree, argue against you are obviously closed minded and not wise enough or smart enough or sophisticated enough to get it.
Text with transformative power – My book “A New Earth”
Neutral Words – New Age, mish mash god, demonic one world religion, John Lenonite “imagine” thinking.

Oprah continues to be one of the most influential people in America – unfortunately she is a pied piper leading people down a path toward spiritual destruction.