The subject matter for Chapter 6 was "Breaking Free of the Pain Body" & yet a caller from Dubai got into a meaningless dialogue with Tolle about whether she should wait for her boyfriend to commit.
So even though it looks like the Oprah-Eckhart team kind of jumped the groove they had so powerfully settled into there still were some jewels in the media desert. Oprah kicked off the show with a beautiful reading from Eckhart's tiny tome Stillness Speaks.
Despite the thousands of e-mails of protesting Protestants, Eckhart gave a beautiful description of Jesus on the Cross symbolizing humanity's limitations & deep sufferings. He then contrasted that with just the cross symbol by itself symbolizing the Divine. He went on to say that being trapped in Ego = Evil and that another word for Satan is Ego.
Many viewers will agree, but I fear that the fundamentalists have been given even more cannon-fodder. With Sarah Palin the presumptive Republican Vice-Presidential nominee portrayed in the press as "an anti-abortion, pro-creationism, death penalty diva" raised in the Pentecostal Church, fundamentalism has a new entree to confront Oprah's endorsement of Barack Obama. More on that as the story develops.
Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Breaking Free or Breaking Down?
The 6th webcast was a surprise of disjointed callers & content. Perhaps a clue was the repeated jitters in the feed and drop-outs during the Skype phone-ins. Or maybe it was Oprah cutting off the moment of silence, backing off from her 50 seconds silence zenith last week to just over half a minute.
Eckhart seemed mostly over his cold but Oprah was back to riding shot gun like in the 1st program. What happened?
The subject matter for tonight's class was "Breaking Free of the Pain Body" & yet a caller from Dubai got into a meanlingless dialogue with Tolle about whether she should wait for her boyfriend to commit.
So even though it looks like the Oprah-Eckhart team kind of jumped the groove they had so powerfully settled into there still were some jewels in the media desert. Oprah kicked off the show with a beautiful reading from Eckhart's tiny tome Stillness Speaks.
Despite the thousands of e-mails of protesting Protestants, Eckhart gave a beautiful description of Jesus on the Cross symbolizing humanity's limitations & deep sufferings. He then contrasted that with just the cross symbol by itself symbolizing the Divine. He went on to say that being trapped in Ego = Evil and that another word for Satan is Ego.
Many viewers will agree, but I fear that the fundamentalists have been given even more cannon-fodder. And so are, for that matter, psychotherapists who are trying to give all of us a bigger, better, kinder & gentler ego.
Eckhart seemed mostly over his cold but Oprah was back to riding shot gun like in the 1st program. What happened?
The subject matter for tonight's class was "Breaking Free of the Pain Body" & yet a caller from Dubai got into a meanlingless dialogue with Tolle about whether she should wait for her boyfriend to commit.
So even though it looks like the Oprah-Eckhart team kind of jumped the groove they had so powerfully settled into there still were some jewels in the media desert. Oprah kicked off the show with a beautiful reading from Eckhart's tiny tome Stillness Speaks.
Despite the thousands of e-mails of protesting Protestants, Eckhart gave a beautiful description of Jesus on the Cross symbolizing humanity's limitations & deep sufferings. He then contrasted that with just the cross symbol by itself symbolizing the Divine. He went on to say that being trapped in Ego = Evil and that another word for Satan is Ego.
Many viewers will agree, but I fear that the fundamentalists have been given even more cannon-fodder. And so are, for that matter, psychotherapists who are trying to give all of us a bigger, better, kinder & gentler ego.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Why is it that more people aren't questioning this book?
One of the longest threads on Oprah's message boards is the one titled "Why is it that more people aren't questioning this book?" Interestingly, here at Tolle Teachings, we have received a lot of feedback from licensed psychotherapists who seem to be upset with Eckhart's teachings from a number of perspectives.
One is that the notion of egolessness may be a worthwhile goal for those whose egos are well-developed, but not for those with deeply troubled childhoods that caused their egos to suffer from arrested development. In the latter case, this kind of advice might have catastrophic consequences. Eckhart himself achieved self-realization during a period of extreme suicidal ideation. Should he have had a psychotherapist turn him in to a suicide help-line or should he have been left alone as he was & achieved enlightenment?
This week Eckhart will be talking about the Pain Body, which many spiritual commentators consider his most significant contribution to "New Thought". Yet, one psychotherapist wrote to us & said that she thought the notion was "demonic". She says the Pain Body concept suggests the planet is swathed in some kind of dark cloak from which we can not arise – a depressing prospect she would not share with her patients.
We'll see what Oprah & Eckhart have to say about the Pain Body as this is the topic for this week's webcast- one that Oprah has said there is much excitement about.
One is that the notion of egolessness may be a worthwhile goal for those whose egos are well-developed, but not for those with deeply troubled childhoods that caused their egos to suffer from arrested development. In the latter case, this kind of advice might have catastrophic consequences. Eckhart himself achieved self-realization during a period of extreme suicidal ideation. Should he have had a psychotherapist turn him in to a suicide help-line or should he have been left alone as he was & achieved enlightenment?
This week Eckhart will be talking about the Pain Body, which many spiritual commentators consider his most significant contribution to "New Thought". Yet, one psychotherapist wrote to us & said that she thought the notion was "demonic". She says the Pain Body concept suggests the planet is swathed in some kind of dark cloak from which we can not arise – a depressing prospect she would not share with her patients.
We'll see what Oprah & Eckhart have to say about the Pain Body as this is the topic for this week's webcast- one that Oprah has said there is much excitement about.
Monday, March 24, 2008
OprahEckhart Webcast attacked by Christian Fundamentalists
Oprah Winfrey is not webcasting with Eckhart Tolle to increase her fundamentalist demographic considering how right-wing American Christians are reacting via the Internet.
In very short order, Oprah's message boards and our YouTube streamed video comment sections are filling up with mean-spirited Christian extremist hate mail. So much so that those students of the webinar who are trying to discuss the teachings have to wade through thousands of propaganda posts just to have a conversation with one another.
How is that different from Osama Bin Ladin bringing up the Mohammad cartoons 2 years after the fact & declaring a Jihad on the European Union? What is it about fundamentalists & their lack of a sense of humor or even any kind of tolerance? It's especially interesting since Eckhart loves Jesus & uses quotes from the New Testament to illustrate his teachings.
We will not dignify this behavior by showcasing these comments, you can find them yourselves. We will share with you some of the more positive and life-affirming comments that have been sent to us:
I guess the reason we have a 27 million dollar Creation Museuem in Cincinnatti and why federal employees at the Grand Canyon are not permitted to contradict a book sold at the visitor center explaining that the Grand Canyon is not millions of years old but created by the Great Flood 6,000 years ago is because the fundamentalists in our midsts speak louder and more often. This is exactly why these Internet broadcasts are so important; and why a major media figure on the world stage like Oprah is offering the planet at this time a reasonable, peaceful alternative to all this insanity.
You can see how fun & reasonable Oprah & Eckhart are in this last section from last week's webinar that aired on 3-17-08. See you all tonight!
In very short order, Oprah's message boards and our YouTube streamed video comment sections are filling up with mean-spirited Christian extremist hate mail. So much so that those students of the webinar who are trying to discuss the teachings have to wade through thousands of propaganda posts just to have a conversation with one another.
How is that different from Osama Bin Ladin bringing up the Mohammad cartoons 2 years after the fact & declaring a Jihad on the European Union? What is it about fundamentalists & their lack of a sense of humor or even any kind of tolerance? It's especially interesting since Eckhart loves Jesus & uses quotes from the New Testament to illustrate his teachings.
We will not dignify this behavior by showcasing these comments, you can find them yourselves. We will share with you some of the more positive and life-affirming comments that have been sent to us:
"Good to see the truth has reached such a large scale of publicity Makes me optimistic we can change our world to the better!"
"thanku thanku thanku.....veryyyy much!!!!!"
"thank you very much for posting these. I love brain food because we have so much garbage trying to influence us."
"In recent years I have truly begun to exercise the Power of Now...savoring the juicy moment, reveling in the joy of creation and seeing my vision being enacted in the world. Of course, a very key ingredient has been my ability to shift the ongoing thought process from struggle and automatic response (based on past conditioning) to one of positive expectation, true appreciation and the knowledge of who I am and how powerful are my thoughts and feelings in unfolding the preferable reality of joy, love and conscious manifestation. So, there it is, a true life testimonial of how some simple teachings, coupled with a lifetime of desire for truth, can bring about a most favorable result."
I guess the reason we have a 27 million dollar Creation Museuem in Cincinnatti and why federal employees at the Grand Canyon are not permitted to contradict a book sold at the visitor center explaining that the Grand Canyon is not millions of years old but created by the Great Flood 6,000 years ago is because the fundamentalists in our midsts speak louder and more often. This is exactly why these Internet broadcasts are so important; and why a major media figure on the world stage like Oprah is offering the planet at this time a reasonable, peaceful alternative to all this insanity.
You can see how fun & reasonable Oprah & Eckhart are in this last section from last week's webinar that aired on 3-17-08. See you all tonight!
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