I never I would but indeed I am- i am reading a self-help book. It wasn’t initially bought for helping myself but instead; whilst I was in a book store with my dad (buying some maths books for little men), my attention launched itself to ‘Oprah’s Book Club’ list and my oh my was I taken away by what she would say about the books. I swear; if Oprah released a new toilet paper line- I would buy it faster than it takes to make noodles!
My reading find was A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle- absolutely worth the purchase. It is such an eye opener. Nobody can truly figure out what the read is about until they actually go for it. In his book, Tolle explains how we have a consciousness which we have not yet discovered and how we think we are living the truth but in fact- we are living unconsciously through a facade part of our creation.
The feelings we go through and the actions we take are because of this situation which we cannot stop unless we live in the ‘now’ and realise that it is holding us hostage. We feed this part of ourselves when we are jealous, having low self esteem, lazy, apathetic, gossipy, competitive etc. Basically, this has led to wars and all the current problems which the world is facing today because this part of us does not get enough. It is always ‘hungry’ and never satisfied with people, material possessions and even food!
And it is so clear- seeing these things is so much more possible when you become aware of this problem. We spend most of our time coveting what our neighbours have and not realising that we could be giving ourselves so much more. We abuse ourselves by feeding this unconsciousness with the actions it has. Oh yes, ‘we’ do not commit the actions- it is this unconscious body.
I remember the first time I realised that I could be jealous- I stopped and asked myself, “but me? I’ve never been able to feel this way, how could I feel this way?”. It is only now that I realise that I was able to spot this unconscious part of my being which was acting on its own thoughts and not mine- I had to stop it immediately and from that I learned. The truth is; we do want to forgive and let go of grudges and we do want to open the gates of success in our lives, we do want to be better people in society and help others instead of competing with them. But the problem is that we have been socialised into this unconsciousness- and we believe that it is us, but no, it is the unconscious body.
The good thing is that Tolle does let the reader know from the very beginning that this is not some self help book or ‘quickie’ for a life change- it is living in the presence and continuously noticing the problem. We cannot choose to get rid of this feeling- we just have to be aware of it so that we can have change in our lives.
