Awakening

I'm rereading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth; Awakening to Your Life's Purpose for my book report. Right now I'm reading about how we are all really mentally ill until we become awakened and realize that our mind is not WHO WE ARE.


This book saved me five years ago or so when I read it for the first time. I mean, literally, I would be in my head so much and so anxious about everything. And when I read this, for me, it was what Oprah calls an "aha moment."


He's also talking about how divisive religion can be "and yet [...] the Truth to which they point still shines at their core." This is getting back to what I was talking about the other day. I have always felt spiritual but not religious because, at a very young age, I found out how divisive religion really can be. People get divorced over it, stop talking to family members, become angry and aggressive in the names of their religions. AND YET.


I don't dislike religions. I used to be in that place where I blamed it for suffering. But now, I see that even in religion, we're still just humans getting caught up in our "selves." Where it becomes our identity and our need to prove "my religion is better than yours" and therefore proving our superiority in general. And that is what hurts us. It's not easy being a good human and letting go of all of our crap that makes us feel important. But what we don't realize is that we are the most important, without all of that "stuff" that we think defines us.


Glad to be reading this again. It is really an inspiring and healing book.