A New Earth by Echart Tolle

review by Robert Winston Cox

“Your first awakening, the first glimpse of consciousness without thought happens by grace, without any doing on your part. If you find this book incomprehensible or meaningless, it has not happened to you.”

Eckhart Tolle’s new book, A New Earth, has a simple message: your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that.

The opening sentence describes a sunrise 114 million years ago. The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun. Tolle asked his readers, “Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection?”

Many of my Christian brothers and sisters have found Mr. Tolle’s book concerning, yet Jesus is quoted more often than any other source in the book. One of the many times Jesus is quoted is from John 14:6 in which Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” This verse provides an insight not just to Christians but to all human Beings.

If you are fascinated by 2012, you will be interested to know that “the most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first.” An example: Soviet Communism. Is Mr. Tolle correct when he says, “Humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die.”

You will learn that an important step in your evolution is understanding your ego.

Are you able to recognize your ego? Here are some keys: “Whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that’s the ego in you. The absurd over-valuation of fame is just one of the many manifestations of egoic madness in our world.”

“Ego is no more than this: identification with form, which primarily means thought forms. This results in a total unawareness of my connectedness with the Source, God. This forgetfulness is original sin, suffering and delusion. If there is awareness in you, you no longer need to believe in every thought you think.”

Tolle provides a guide to observing and understanding how the ego works. Ask yourself: Have you observed normal people telling certain kinds of lies from time to time in order to appear more important, more special, and to enhance their image in the mind of others?

Taken to the extreme, the mental illness called paranoid schizophrenia is, in Tolle’s explanation, an exaggerated form of the ego. A fictitious story the mind has created to make sense of the underlying feeling of fear.

A paragraph in the book that will provide a perspective on some members of our current society:

“The more unconscious individuals, groups, or nations are, the more likely it is that egoic pathology will assume the form of physical violence. With very unconscious people, arguments can easily lead to physical violence. Will it come as a surprise to you that those people who work without ego are extraordinarily successful at what they do? Anybody who is one with what he or she does is building the new earth.”

Next, Tolle explains the pain-body. The definition of the pain-body:

“The pain-body is a semi-autonomous energy-form that lives within most human beings, an entity made up of emotion. It has its own primitive intelligence, not unlike a cunning animal, and its intelligence is directed primarily at survival. It needs energy to survive. It thrives on negative thinking as well as drama in relationships. The pain-body is an addiction to unhappiness.”

Here is something to think about the next time you consume alcohol. “Excessive consumption of alcohol will often activate the pain-body, particularly in men. When a person becomes drunk, he goes through a complete personality change as the pain-body takes him over.”

Should you decide to read ‘A New Earth’ you will also learn of television’s hidden agenda. “Television controls you by putting you to sleep, that is to say, making you unconscious.” You will learn to use your mute button during commercials and be certain you don’t go to sleep immediately after switching off the set or, even worse, fall asleep with the set still on.

‘A New Earth’ is a seminal book. Learning the modalities of awakening provides us all with a new way of looking at everything we do. Learning to perform all activities with acceptance, enjoyment or enthusiasm is liberating. It is about understanding the importance of being absolutely present in whatever you do.

Read ‘A New Earth’ and decide for yourself. A new species is arising on the planet. It is arising now, and you are it!

Don’t be afraid to pass. Pass the mustard. Pass the soccer ball. Toss me a beer and pass the two-footer, but for the sake of humanity, do not pass on pacifism. If we let this one slip through our fingers, we may wind up losing those freedoms in a land mine explosion.

The anti-pacifist wants us to drop the ball on the issue of war, because the military industrial machine will not make billions if we all decide to shoot hugs instead of guns. However, pacifism is not an issue; it is a way of life, which is way more important than bond issue 420. For the first time in our generational reign, the responsibility of non-violent activism falls upon us.

Pacifism has been a successful tool against oppression for centuries. The single activist can have as profound effect as an army inducing peace. The images of a monk, engulfed in flames, resonates my memory with the dedication of one man’s desire for his people to be left in peace. Maybe the time has come for someone to douse themselves in gasoline and fire it up while enjoying the view of the white man’s mansion of overindulgence. Imagine the look on our leader’s faces as they all look out the window of the oval office…hell, they would likely shrug and give those confused grins that Americans have come to know and abhor.

The pacifist movement must begin with one charismatic enthusiast, although the multitudes are certainly vital. The most successful, non-violent protests have begun with an individual, un-faded by the source of tyranny, threatening to take what’s not theirs, particularly the freedom of the oppressed. Common examples of pacifism are well-documented in the works of a man called Jesus. His pacifism flourished amidst arguably the mightiest military empire the world had ever known. Did he pick up bows and arrows? No, he passed out bread and love. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Jesus knew how to throw down without throwing down like those meat head assholes that get too drunk and invade the cool bars with that “I want to fight somebody attitude.” Remember this: If ever confronted with a drunken idiot at a bar intending on whooping your ass, just smile. Tell him that you got nothing but love for him, and tell him that God especially loves them. It will totally diffuse the situation.

The greatest pacifist of our time, the late and great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., did more for America than George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Superman. His daily life was smothered with hatred so fierce it would have driven any normal man to grab a gun. However, Dr. King was not a normal man. His level of ethical and moral intellect is matched by only the Gods. His message was pacifism and non-violent protest in the ugly face of brutal oppression. A story out of Birmingham from the early sixties goes something like this: As the crowd of protesters approached, they carried no weapons, armed only with the tools of song and peace. The police had their dogs and batons while the firemen had to pull back that lever and let a torrent of hate wash away peaceful human beings like garbage floating away in the street. As the order came to “release the hounds” and turn on the hoses, nobody reacted. No dogs attacked that morning; no heads were bashed in and no grown men were arrested for executing their first amendment rights. The pacifism somehow spread to the police and firemen. Call it karma or psychological transformation of the peace hormone. Whatever it was, it simply comes down to the innate goodness that is in every single person. On that day those cops were stoned on love.

It’s a shame that our two greatest pacifists met their ends prematurely. Or is it? Jesus’ message is heard worldwide by millions of people. Dr. King’s dream is being lived out daily, although we still have a long, arduous journey to end racism. However, we’re about to take a huge step towards that goal in early November.

Pacifism is not easy and it takes extraordinary people to accomplish such a task. But we are the masses, and damnit, we run this country, not the generals, the politicians and not the oil executives. Let us all begin this journey of peace together, and let us not sit around and wait for a miracle to happen. We have the control.

Let me first hit you with some digits. You can build a 7,000 square foot Earthship for $90.00 per square foot. That’s a 5 bedroom home for $630,000. A very luxurious, full of frills and chills home for a big family. Maybe you do not need 7,000 square feet; you only need 2,800 square feet. You can do that, too. Earthships cost between $20.00 to $90.00 per square foot and range in size from 600 to 10,000 square feet.

Another plus: Earthships are completely off the grid. You have no utilities, making your biggest expense meat and dairy products.

The Setup

All exterior walls, except the south facing wall, are constructed with dirt-filled tires. Then, you “berm” up the north, east and west walls, essentially piling dirt that you excavate out of the hole (transplanting dirt from floor to outside and build up on outer walls). The south wall is floor to ceiling windows. They are at an angle that is determined by the latitude line you are building on, in order to maximize sunlight for heat and growth of the internal garden that runs the length of this wall. This front wall acts as the main hallway for the home, and all rooms are built off of this. If you’re really into the self-sustainable lifestyle, then you would also have your bathroom on this front wall with a self-composting solar toilet and a kitchen with a solar oven. These features cut down on heating and cooling costs, as well as help produce and maintain fresh fruits and vegetables. The garden also preserves fresh air inside. (I won’t go into how – we all took science in school.) Internal load-bearing walls are also constructed out of the dirt filled tire. Some split-level Earthships even have a central internal courtyard large enough for a tree. If the thought of having an internal garden or a real tree in your house frightens you because of the idea of bugs in your house, then you can simply screen in these areas.

There are more design features that help cut your cost of living, such as solar panels and fresh water reservoirs. You can incorporate any of these features into your next home or your current home to save money…or, to make money. Imagine building a 2,800 square foot home for only $154,00 and then selling it for $279,000, which is about what you would pay for a new home built traditionally in today’s market. You just doubled your money. Perhaps if you like to wear $245.00 Seven Jeans, $90.00 Hugo Boss T-Shirts, $290.00 Kenneth Cole shoes and drive a $65,000 gas guzzling SUV, then think of how much easier it would be to afford those things if you lived in a home that cost you comparatively nothing.

An alternative to dirt-filled tires would be the use of cinder blocks. It’s an easier and less time consuming option. If you are going the cinder block route, then your foundation and pad are tied into the walls with re-bar, then you fill the cinder blocks with concrete as you build up the walls. This gives the walls more thermal mass for containing heat and cool air inside. It will also add to the structural integrity of the home. Some people have incorporated piping into the floor and walls, which helps with heating by cycling sun-warmed water through these pipes during the winter. Skylights are another feature that helps with lighting, heating and venting.

Earthships are almost indestructible. You don’t have to worry about tornadoes, and the power outage we had last year would not have affected you in an Earthship.

Earthships and 2008

So why have you never heard of Earthships? Well, the biggest drawback to Earthships is zoning and ordinances set in place by the city and state. The earth-filled tire option may be impossible due to this, so the cinder blocks are the best bet until zoning laws become a little more earth-friendly. Although, consumerism may keep that from ever happening, some of us still hope.

There are now designs for Earthship apartment complexes. Picture South Tulsa built entirely of Earthships rather than the Cookie-Cutter-Shake-and-Bake houses that keep vigorously sprouting. Of course there are some down sides to Earthships. If more Earthships were being built, then more cities would struggle financially since people wouldn’t be spending as much on assorted utilities. But this would cut down on the assorted pollutions created by these utilities, and that’s the point of an Earthship – to cut expenses and increase the longevity of you and yours and the natural resources of the world.

I have simply scratched the surface with this information, but if you are interested, contact Solar Survival Architecture in Taos, New Mexico for more insight into smart living.

By Nathan Caleb Camerer

Mind + Body + Soul: Spiritual Health

"Whole Being"

Today, through the unraveling of the human genome, biology has shown that no man is 100% man and no woman is 100% woman. A man is 51% man and 49% woman. Likewise, a woman is 51% woman and 49% man, just a difference of 1%.

If you have taken birth from the Masculinity of your father and the Femininity of your mother – then, how can you be only male or only female? The qualities of both are bound to be there in you!

This is the basis behind the symbolic representation of the classic Hindu religious figure, Lord Shiva – who is represented as being half male and half female.

Whether we accept it or not, we are an embodiment of both male and female energies. We are whole, not divided.

In order to be complete, to be whole, it is essential that we are able to accept and express both the masculine and feminine aspects of our nature.

This is often made difficult, because from a very young age we are conditioned into our roles as either Male or Female. So in order to regain the wholeness of our being, we must not be afraid of what society will think of us if we express the energy opposite of that of our physical body.

What is the worst thing that can happen? People might call you “Gay”?! Who cares! This is Oklahoma; a guy is a queer if he speaks articulately and a girl is a lesbo is she gets a short haircut.

People are starving for ways to categorize and judge others in an effort to justify their own idea of what is masculine and feminine. Let them! Embrace your whole being, both the Masculine and the Feminine. Embracing these energies will help you develop your true psyche. You’re on your way to enlightenment!

Discusses the new wave of Presidential Diversity
- Cort Moffitt

Is our country ready for a woman to lead the ranks? Is our country ready for an African-American to fill the role of the presidency? I suspect if we have to answer questions regarding race and gender about our presidential candidates, then we are not ready for someone other than an upper-class, grey-haired white man to hold the high office.

Unfortunately, America has two candidates capable of taking the reins to this runaway wagon we call the United States, but we the voters continually want to discuss the one factor that should not be a factor. It’s a sad truth that many citizens of the U.S. are tainted by preconceived stereotypes of the human race.

Women have been proving their worth in the business, sports and political arenas for years. Women have been exhibiting the requisite shrewdness of the cruel capitalist, the grace of a world class athlete and the savvy of the most adept politician, so why must we consider gender when going to the polls? Acknowledging such a question is a regression in morality. Of course Senator Clinton is qualified to run our country or she would have never made it this far.

Enough people have shown faith in her to dispel any fear that she will be an incompetent pawn for lobbyist and special interest groups. Moreover, Senator Barak Obama is the first legitimate African-American candidate with a real chance of braving the trials and tribulations of a presidential race.

"America has needed a fresh perspective for far too long."

This man is as qualified to run our country as his opponents, and certainly as well as the cowboy we call president now. America has needed a fresh perspective for far too long, and Sen. Obama can provide just that. If we as a country discard this man because of his race and name then we are a country living in the past. Such a stereotype would never be outright spoken, but it is quite obvious that this man faces just that. It is time to let go of our grandparents’ biases and shed the albatross of ignorance that should have passed away with our ancestors.

"We must alter our damaged image to the world."

We cannot afford for the qualified to go unrewarded. I hope with all sincerity that America is ready for a change in the demographic of our leader, but I fear we are not. Ours is a country screaming for change but hesitant to take the next step. When race and gender cease being a factor in the presidential race, then perhaps we will be ready for a leader who is not the carbon copy of the capitalist puppet with whom we lay our trust. America needs a face-lift. We must alter our damaged image to the world, and electing a qualified leader is the initial and most crucial step.

What the two democratic candidates offer is a fresh perspective on how our great country should be led. Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama are running on very similar platforms differentiated only by subtle differences, but on the whole they are promising the same things. So what is the deciding factor for the democratic nominee? The answer may simply be an issue of security for the individual voter. Which one gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling? Hey, John Q. Voter, are you ready to elect a qualified candidate regardless of race or gender? The world is waiting.

Why Some Food is just plain better for you?
"Wheat Bread vs. White Bread"

Yes, we know - it is what your mom fed you growing up. Unfortunately, your mom was not making decisions that were in the best interests of your health. In order to get that soft, chewy, melt in your mouth texture, they strip or BLEACH out all of the good healthy, hearty grains and nutrients. Not only that, but white bread inhibits your digestion by acting kind of like a gum ball in your gut.

If you are going to eat white bread, you might as well wash it down with Kool Aid. Then you can be a Kool Aid drinker and a White Bread eater. Choose 100% Whole Grain WHEAT BREAD everytime, because white bread is for losers.