Well, tonight Oprah and Eckhart Tolle gave their first international class on Tolle's book A New Earth. How many of you were able to tune in to the webcast on Monday, March 3? I got on and "took my seat" at 7:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in the USA. The pre-class presentation was pretty good. Then when Oprah and Tolle sat down for the class, the audio and video kept stopping and starting. It finally got so bad that I got off of my computer and went and watched "Medium" on TV at 9:00 p.m.
Here are the few notes that I did take from the class before I gave up on the audio/video problems:
On page 7 of the book A New Earth, it says that reading the book will change your state of consciousness or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken those who are ready to be awakened.
What does Life or God want from you? What is your life purpose? What do you want from Life? Don't try to define what your purpose is. Ask Life what has as your purpose.
When Oprah asked about how he wrote his books (The Power of Now and A New Earth), Eckhart Tolle said that the books were inside of him wanting to be written. He set up a time for writing each day and honored that time and space. Some days the words flowed and other days just a few sentences might come out.
Most thinking is repetitive and unnecessary.
Be open and trusting to the flow of Life.
One of the exercises this week to do before the class was to spend time just looking at and being with a flower without labeling it as anything. Tolle said that flowers are representative of the spiritual realm. He said that flowers are like messengers from another realm. Spend time with them. Contemplate them without labeling them. You can do that with a tree also. Just be with their essence. They aren't concerned with the past or the future. They live in the present. Be like a baby learning about the flower or the tree for your very first time.
Religion can be an open door into spirituality.
Someone asked, "Why now? Why is all of this happening right now?" Tolle said that things don't happen until there is a need for them to happen. He said that we need to step out of the collective ego.
This was all the notes that I was able to take before the stops with the video and audio got worse and I turned the class off. Maybe this will be enough to give you an appetite for reading the book. Because of the technical difficulties, tonight's class was a disappointment for me. I don't know if it was my computer or if others were having the same difficulty. I sent in a question to the Oprah staff asking about it. I hope your experience was better than mine.
Patricia
22 comments:
you weren't the only one that missed out. come join the fun!
Patricia, I was so disappointed! It sounds like I got about as far as you did before the buffering started. I did every imaginable thing to my computer to try and fix it, to no avail.
I am going to watch today and hopefully next Monday will be better!
Theresa and Debbie, thanks for both of your comments. That lets me know it wasn't just me with my poor computer skills.
Patricia,
Apparently, the website crashed because there were too many people on! At least, that's what I heard. Also, I heard that the video will be available.
Andrea, my plans are to watch the video sometime today. The information was great.
Yes, I heard about this, but I am pretty busy in the evenings with homework and bedtime routine with my kid. I LOVE Eckhart Tolle! I have the printed and audio versions of "The Power of Now." Great stuff!
This IS enough to whet my appetite for the book. Thanks!
Marj, good. Thanks for sharing that. My point in sharing this experience is to encourage others to read the book even if you can't participate in the class.
Patricia - My viewing started with the stop and go and mostly it was stopped. Then it just went blank. I got about as far as you did and when I tried to get on the site it said they were having technical difficulties. I will be viewing it today. Some of the notes I took were similar to yours. Here they are:
-What does the greater purpose want from me? What is my place in the whole?
-The flower is a messenger from another realm. It's less dense and Spirit can flow through it more freely.
-The human condition is lost in thought.
-Religion can be an open door to spirituality or a closed door.
-With regard to religion, there is no conflict if you go deeper - you get to the same place - Christ consciousness. All books by Joel Goldsmith are about deeper Christianity.
-Oprah said she was a free thinking Christian.
-Need to step out of collective ego.
Do you know if there is a workbook we're supposed to print out and use?
Pat R., thanks for adding your notes to mine. It adds to the article. Yes, if you go on to the website and there are exercises that you can either save and answer online or download and print out. If you will click on Theresa's name above, it will take you to her site and the answers that she gave to the questions about this chapter. Each week, we will have questions on the chapter that you can do as homework before the class. Again, thanks for adding your notes to mine.
Looking forward to a better result next time. Thanks for the update, Patricia. I can imagine that any program would crash with all those people on line!
Corinne, those are my same thoughts. I went online this morning for a short time and watched several of Oprah's After The Show that she did about A New Earth. They were very interesting and added more information. You will find them at www.oprah.com .
Hi Patricia,
Add me to the list of those who had to log off the "New Earth" class. I was so excited about it. I even re-scheduled meetings so I could attend.
All is well. I decided to read instead. I'm finishing up a new book called, "Anchor in the Spirit as God Beings" by Phyllis Reid. It's a wonderful book on transformation and one's spiritual journey. I'm recommending it to all of my friends.
I will return to your "New Earth" blog often. Thank you for the great posts!
Create a great day!
Mary :>)
Mary,thank you for your comment. Feel free to visit anything. I am sure that I will write more as we get into the class.
I just went on to the website www.oprah.com and downloaded a written transcript of last night's class. You can download the video from last night's class also if you prefer to watch it. It looks like you can still sign up for the class even if you missed the first one. I would do it before next Monday since you have to download the program for the video before hand.
Patricia:
I heard that others had the same problem on their computers too so it wasn't just yours. I think it was because over a half a million people tried to access the same medium at the same time.
Your account of the class sounded interesting and I had been thinking of buying his book but I'm not yet convinced that I will enjoy reading essentially what Wayne Dyer has been touting for years.
I do "get it" when Tolle advocates looking at a flower or tree without labeling them. I also understand how he is encouraging us to be "one" with them, especially the flower because of its spiritual connections.
In particular, I've been thinking of buying some orchids for my home, having been inspired by Bill Strickland's book, "Make the Impossible Possible." On the cover is an orchid. He has a story about one that changed his life forever.
Thanks for reporting on this class. I shall look forward to the next installment and learn more. Perhaps by then I'll add Tolle's book to my list of "must buy books" at Amazon. Right now I have a stack of books waiting to be read at this time.
Stephen, I love the writings of Wayne Dyer and his enthusiasm for life. Like you, I have a stack of books waiting to be read. I also have a "To Buy" list of books that others have recommended to me. I want to read the books I have on hand before buying any others. I love reading. I always have. I think that "Make the Impossible Possible" is in my stack of books waiting to be read. So is Tolle's book, "The Power of Now."
Hi Patricia
I wrote a reasonably long comment to this post this morning (my time) and it seems to have got lost. Never mind.
I've heard about Eckhart Tolle's new book and am looking forward to reading it. I hope we don't have to wait too long for the Oprah episode to come to Australia.
Interesting blog, by the way.
Kelly
Kelly, thanks for stopping by. Don't you hate it when you write a really brilliant or at least thought provoking comment and then it gets lost. I do.
Be open and trusting to the flow of life.
I love that line. My problem is not doing it around nature, but around people. Just relaxing and enjoying them without judging. Too bad the program was so choppy. They'll probably put it on Youtube. Your site is really growing, it's great to see.
Peace,
Karl
Karl, thanks for your comments. The program was posted this week on Oprah's site. I haven't had the time to sit and watch it. I downloaded the script of the program instead. Tomorrow, I hope to sit down and read it. With all of the snow being predicted here in Arkansas, I should have the time since we won't be able to get out tomorrow.
This is our second snow in March. Rarely do we get any snow in March in Arkansas. We are getting ready for Spring. Our temps were in the 60-70's last week.
Every experience has a purpose. When you permit negaive energy to control your perspective, then you are permitting ego to interfere. As you evolve to realize apparent difficulty is a test, you realize you are invited to contemplate different sides of your life. Suddenly, you find meaning in things like dependence on computer technology and hidden desire to spend more time in nature. Compuer breaksdowns are always blessings in disguise to those who choose to view them this way. Deep interest in Eckhart Tolle's writing expands the mind and awakens soul in unseen ways.
Liara, I agree with you that there is a purpose behind each of our experiences. We are the creators of all of our experiences. You remind me of one of my favorite sayings. "In my world, nothing ever goes wrong." I first read it as a quote in one of Wayne Dyer's books. It is a quote from an Indian guru that Dyer liked.
Post a Comment