Eckhart Tolle: New Earth, New Self

I read A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle later than most people. But it was the book that kicked off this blog so I decided to update this post. 

What captivated me most about A New Earth was the idea that the human race was evolving toward enlightenment. Fifteen years later, I still like that idea. 

According to Tolle, our true self is consciousness is something that cannot be found or projected but only experienced.  We can only become aware of this true self, Tolle believes, when the false self is  identified and overcome.  To Tolle, this awareness is the key to enlightenment.

But is it?

It is good to overcome pretense certainly. Especially if the pretense leads to the defensive behaviors Tolle lists (fault finding, reactivity, accumulation of objects and paranoiac distrust of others). But I don't think that overcoming facets of ourselves necessarily leads to a pure state of consciousness awareness. 

I think integration is probably the better approach.

Still, I am grateful to Eckhart Tolle for being there when he was!