Eckart Tolle – A New Earth & Oprah’s webcast

Ever since I left CTEK (my last job) back in Jan 07, I’ve been trying to figure out what I should be doing with myself.  It’s been a quest, thusfar unfruitful.  I’m working, but most, if not all, leaves something to be desired.  My mother, in an effort to help me obtain focus, bought be a book and made me promise to read it, and participate in the corresponding online class.

About the class & book - Eckart Tolle has written a book called A New Earth, Awaken to Your Life’s Purpose.  In partnership with Eckart, Oprah Winfrey has put together a live, online webcast where you can watch and actually participate.  It’s a 10 week long course, or rather a book discussion, with Eckart.  Last week was week 1 and I couldn’t attend, but watched it with Mark (my husband) last night.  I watched Week 2 tonight, live.  Regardless of what you think about the book and the class, it truly is a technological feat what they’ve pulled off.  About 700,000 people watched the show last week, live.  An additional 1.5 million people watched it during the week.  Even if you don’t want ’spiritual awakening’, you have to appreciate there are a ton of people out there that do, and if this brings people closer to goodness, then Oprah has truly achieved something great.

Anyway, my formal education is in psychology and science, so many times eastern philosophies leave me with many unanswered questions.  I find most of it hoakey, fluffy, lacking substance.  But I did promise my mother…

So I’m at chapter 3, and I’ve watched 2 of Oprah’s & Eckart Tolle’s classes now.  And while much of the conversation is saying the same thing over and over again, I’m finding it rather fascinating.  My quick summary so far is this:

I am different that the sum of my thoughts, my pasts, my future, and my opinions.  Those are things, concepts in my life.  I am an entity that is separate from them, and the more I recognize this, the more in the present I can live.  The more in the present I can live, the happier I can be b/c I am not affected by my past, by other’s impressions of me, or of my wants of tomorrow.  Interesting.

Instead of asking myself what I want to do with the rest of my life, I need to ask the world what it wants from me and how I can best be of service.  This too is a fascinating concept.  It takes me off the pedestal (what?!?) and turns my life into one of other-service instead of me-service.

Be at one with nature – this is a quick way to shed the “ego”, which is my past, my thoughts, my opinions.  I do this already though so this isn’t a new lesson for me.

So this morning, I sat in complete silence and stillness in my living room.  It gets great morning light and this is where most of my plants reside.  I sat there and tried to quiet my mind as much as possible for as long as possible, and when my mind went active again, I tried to redirect it to ‘asking the world how I can best service it’.  I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to know when the world answers me, but I sure hope it does and I can recognize it for what it is.

This has been my first ’spiritual journey’ and I’m keeping as open of a mind as I can.  If you are interested in discovering your life’s purpose, go buy the book, and sign up for Oprah.  I’ll keep blogging about my experienes on my first spiritual journey.

Short bike ride – 110 days to go

I got on my bike for the first time all season today.  I didn’t want it to be a long ride, just to get my ass used to the saddle again and explore a little bit about our new neighborhood (Vista Ridge, Erie).

Let me say that while my crotch is sore for not-fun reasons, Erie is a fabulous place to ride.  I went about 14 miles in about 35 minutes, on a paved road with little to no traffic, rolling hills, huge cottonwoods, the late afternoon sun, and miles and miles of farmland with the mountains as a backdrop.

I just felt the need to say thank you to the world for the great day today.

I want to be born old

I’ve always thought it would be so fabulous to be born old and grow young – then my sister forwarded this to me from Woody Allen…

“In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people’s home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.  You work for 40 years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!”

Love it.