Eckhart Tolle: "A New Earth" | Oprah's Book Club Bonus Episode

Speaker 1 Okay, Eckhart Tolle.

Speaker 3 I mean, my favorite, favorite, favorite conversation to have in the world.

Speaker 4 I'm so happy.

Speaker 3 So, how many of you were Eckhard readers before this? Eckhard readers?

Speaker 5 Oh, this is the Eckhard Reading class over here.

Speaker 3 And how many of you, this is your first time?

Speaker 7 Oh, this is exciting too.

Speaker 6 Wow.

Speaker 3 Ah, this makes my heart sing. I'm so excited.

Speaker 10 Back in January of 2025, I picked Eckhart Tolle's seminal book, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, for the second time for my book club.

Speaker 10 That's the first time I've ever picked a book twice because that is how strongly I believe in Eckhart's profound spiritual insights.

Speaker 6 Deep within you, there is a silent power.

Speaker 10 This year marks the 20th anniversary of A New Earth. It's been translated into 50 languages and sold over 15 million copies.

Speaker 10 I believe that Eckhart's teachings have never been more relevant or needed than they are right now.

Speaker 6 Even one conscious press

Speaker 6 is a mini meditation.

Speaker 10 My hope and intention is that these principles can help you navigate the turbulent times we are now living in.

Speaker 10 Eckhart and I met at a local Starbucks in New York City for some coffee and conversation with an audience who had just read this book.

Speaker 10 They had so many breakthrough moments around his teachings teachings that we recorded this special bonus episode. I'm excited to share with you.

Speaker 10 First, listen to what the audience told us about their experience.

Speaker 12 To have the gift of being together in an audience where we got to share moments of just presencing together, I think was a very special thing.

Speaker 6 Being in the same room with Oprah and Eckhart felt like walking through a portal of presence.

Speaker 14 It was my first time reading A New Earth. It's the main thing for me.
I just took away being more present in my life, and it's amazing the rewards that just come from that simple task.

Speaker 15 For me, it was like going to church, like the best church you've ever been to. Like you never need to go to church again.

Speaker 12 Something shifted when Eckhart started to talk about the pain body, which I have read over and over again. One can find great refuge in just the presence of the now.

Speaker 12 Know thyself. Cease to identify with the content of your life.

Speaker 16 Big aha moment for me.

Speaker 5 How I do what I do matters more than what I do.

Speaker 17 To understand that it's not always about me and that everyone is on their own spiritual journey.

Speaker 16 I'm living life awake, one day at a time, for the very first time in my life.

Speaker 10 Reading A New Earth was a big shift for me.

Speaker 3 I have never had a favorite book before.

Speaker 17 I do now.

Speaker 6 Eckhart Tolle's Pearls of Wisdom have enriched my inner peace and I love myself more.

Speaker 15 A day with Eckhart and Oprah.

Speaker 6 How does it get any better than that?

Speaker 6 What else is possible? Ah, truly.

Speaker 10 Dear listener, I'm hoping that you enjoyed this special bonus episode of our transformative conversation with Eckhart Tolle.

Speaker 1 Mark, did you have a question? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 18 So I feel like I've been on this journey for definitely quite some time and your book absolutely contextualized a lot of where I'm currently at.

Speaker 18 And for me, I'm at this place where my I'm a social person by nature, but my job demands me to be extremely social.

Speaker 18 And I feel that in moving towards a more present place of consciousness, I am constantly managing a tremendous amount of people who are not as aware.

Speaker 18 which will oftentimes then lead me to feel either very isolated or lonely or not quite know how to manage myself.

Speaker 18 So I guess my question is, how do you take care of yourself when you're constantly managing all of the egos around you who may not be as aware or present as you are?

Speaker 6 Right. Now, do you find yourself

Speaker 6 resenting the fact that other people are not present?

Speaker 17 I think I ebb and flow.

Speaker 18 I think there's times where I'll go into consciousness and I'll say, okay, you know, that's where they are and this is where I am and I have to respect them for where they're at.

Speaker 18 And then there's other times where I'm like, wow, this is really hard.

Speaker 6 And I will get angry, yes.

Speaker 6 That's part of the acceptance practice of the present moment, whatever it is, because it's quite normal for humans to be surrounded by other humans who are not doing what they're supposed to do, that's usually the case.

Speaker 6 They go against your expectations.

Speaker 6 You might have noticed that humans can be quite difficult.

Speaker 6 Not you, the others.

Speaker 6 And so

Speaker 6 it's very important to make that part of your presence practice of accepting the limitations of other humans. And again, don't make those things.

Speaker 3 Oh, I love that.

Speaker 1 Make that a part of the presence practice.

Speaker 3 You accepting the people who don't get it the same way you do.

Speaker 15 That's

Speaker 7 that they're there. What are they there?

Speaker 10 To teach you acceptance.

Speaker 6 Exactly.

Speaker 10 They're there to teach you acceptance.

Speaker 3 They're there to help you to surrender into the space. And I think surrender is such a hard term for people because for most people it means giving up.
Yes.

Speaker 3 Or I failed or I've given in or I've you know, I didn't keep I didn't fight it.

Speaker 6 Yeah, that's not surrender is a very powerful thing. It's not it there's I mean there there's another word resignation.

Speaker 6 That's a different thing. There's negativity about resignation.
It's, oh, there's nothing I can do.

Speaker 6 In English, English language has two expressions. One is, I don't mind, and the other is, I don't care.
So we're not talking about, I don't care, because there's a negativity. You might have given up.

Speaker 6 I just don't care anymore. Of course.
Well, Mark just had aha.

Speaker 9 I can see it.

Speaker 8 Mark has aha on over there.

Speaker 6 I think that's great.

Speaker 6 When you say, I don't care anymore,

Speaker 6 you still care. There's a negativity inside that I don't care anymore, but it still does.
But I don't mind.

Speaker 6 Then you're free.

Speaker 3 I don't mind.

Speaker 3 Ooh, that's a good one, isn't it?

Speaker 5 Okay, what just happened to Mark

Speaker 3 is one of the big lessons I learned the very first time I read this book on page 41, where you say, life will give you whatever experience. is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

Speaker 5 How do you know this is the experience you need?

Speaker 3 Because Because this is the experience you are having at this moment. I think a lot of people have trouble with that phrase because they think that you're saying you brought this moment on yourself.

Speaker 3 But that's not what you're saying.

Speaker 6 No. Now, you will often find

Speaker 6 in New Age teachings,

Speaker 6 you will find often people say,

Speaker 6 You created that. Why did you choose that? Yeah, why did you choose that? You created that moment.
And I never say that you created it. What I do say is

Speaker 6 accept this moment as if you had chosen it. I don't say you chose it.
That's not helpful because that makes you feel guilty or resentful. Oh, I didn't choose it.

Speaker 5 But why would I choose this? Yes, yes.

Speaker 8 I didn't do this to myself.

Speaker 6 Accept this moment as if you had chosen it. Because it's here.

Speaker 6 That works. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And so it is there for the evolution of your consciousness.

Speaker 5 Everything, so think about that for a moment.

Speaker 3 Life will give you the experience you need for the evolution of your consciousness. And how do you know that's the experience you need? Because that's the experience you're having.

Speaker 3 And think about every time you've been through a tough thing, what was it there to do? It was to evolve you to the next level, right?

Speaker 3 No matter how hard it was.

Speaker 5 It was there to evolve you to help you move out of that and move you to the next level.

Speaker 3 So when you're in the middle of the thing, you just ask the thing,

Speaker 3 what are you here to show me so I can move on out quickly?

Speaker 2 That's what I found.

Speaker 6 And sometimes you don't know until afterwards why I did that for you. But now a child, for example, a child cannot, probably cannot do that, cannot ask why am I,

Speaker 6 what is it teaching me. But afterwards, we look look back on their childhood and say, all the suffering that I went through as a child were actually part of my evolution.

Speaker 6 If I had had a more normal childhood,

Speaker 6 I wouldn't be who I am. The same with you, because I remember when you talked about your childhood and your mother.

Speaker 6 If your mother had been able to give you true love, more love, you won't be who you are because that forced you to go deeper within yourself and find the source of yourself. Absolutely.
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 It's hard to see it, particularly when you're a child, though.

Speaker 1 You can't see it.

Speaker 3 So I want to introduce you all to Victoria Garrick Brown and Aubrey Gavallo.

Speaker 3 They are zooming in from Los Angeles, and I hear that you guys were inspired by Eckhart's and my 10-part digital series of A New Earth.

Speaker 3 They host their own podcast series on a new earth to bring it to a different generation, a younger generation. It's called So Much to Say.
So hi to both of you and tell us, how did this come about?

Speaker 3 Hi.

Speaker 6 I'm Victoria. Aubrey.

Speaker 4 Thank you so much for this opportunity. We first started reading the book and we only got through about three chapters until we needed a breather.

Speaker 4 It's dead. It's very dead.
Felt moved and changed.

Speaker 4 It took us a few years to then feel like we had grasped just the awareness of ourselves versus ego to then finish the book and go further into the material.

Speaker 4 And when we did that, we would call each other and we'd go over the chapters. And we thought, why not record this so that other people who maybe don't have a friend who wants to do the work?

Speaker 4 can listen and feel part of it. And as far as the title,

Speaker 11 I would call Victoria after every chapter and just say, I have so much to say. And she was like, there it is.
There's the title of the podcast.

Speaker 3 So much to say. So what, what have been the biggest ahas for you? Both.

Speaker 4 Well, actually, Oprah, the quote that you just read is the one that I was joking when Chris Evans was on. That's the one I would tattoo.
It literally, it helps you accept the moment as it comes.

Speaker 4 But there was actually a part that we're still stuck on and we're hoping Eckhart could help us better understand it.

Speaker 4 It's on page 141 and it says, nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now. And if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?

Speaker 11 Yeah. And, you know, as a personal example, my dad passed away when I was young.
And while I'm in a great place in my life now, that is something that I hold with me every day.

Speaker 11 And I'm curious how you hold presence while also still holding space for that person and that sort of loss.

Speaker 6 Yes. So

Speaker 6 you can remember the past,

Speaker 6 but at the same time, be in touch with the deeper dimension of presence as you remember the past. You are not the past.
The memory of the past does not completely absorb your attention.

Speaker 6 Some of your attention remains within you as the awareness. You are the awareness of this.

Speaker 6 This memory lives in you and you honor. this memory.
You are not completely absorbed in it. You are not completely consumed by it.
That's also the case if, for example, somebody close to you dies.

Speaker 6 Of course, there is mourning. There's deep sadness.
And usually after somebody close to you dies, sadness comes in waves. It comes and goes.

Speaker 6 That is something to be allowed. And that's fine.
But in between the waves of sadness, you can

Speaker 6 come to a place of acceptance, go deep within. So there's peace even.
And then even when a wave of sadness comes, comes, there's still peace underneath the sadness.

Speaker 6 I experienced that when my parents died, there were tears.

Speaker 6 And at the same time, there was an underlying peace. There was an acceptance and a peace.
And they both coexist,

Speaker 6 but does not exclude. the fact that you are mourning.

Speaker 6 What you need to be careful about is that the mourning does not talk, does not develop into something pathological because you could be, if two years later you're still weeping a lot,

Speaker 6 then this sadness has taken possession of your mind. You cannot stop thinking about this person that passed away.
You're continuously reviving the memories and the memories are very painful now.

Speaker 6 All the good times you had are now considered as very painful memories because they're all gone. And then mourning can become pathological.

Speaker 6 So you have to be careful that there's a time for mourning and then there's a time for also for letting go eventually.

Speaker 6 Then the peace prevails rather than the sadness may still come in little waves. But then peace begins to take over.

Speaker 6 You live in always two worlds. There's hulas, I sometimes call it, you're a human being.

Speaker 6 You're a human, that's the person, that's conditioning of the person, that has the reactions of a person but many humans don't realize yet that they are all there there's a being dimension which is the awareness and so you have to we have one you have one foot in the human world where you are a person conditioned by the past and you have you need to have a certain amount of compassion with that entity also that character that you are

Speaker 6 you have some compassion but you are more fundamentally

Speaker 6 yes more fundamentally, you are the being.

Speaker 6 And so

Speaker 6 the realization of the beingness of you, of the deep I am, that is the spiritual realization.

Speaker 6 But the important thing is this being dimension, as opposed to what many so-called spiritual people believe, they think they

Speaker 6 They believe that at some point they are going to become enlightened

Speaker 6 if this or that or the other happens.

Speaker 6 But it never happens in time. Spiritual awakening is not an achievement.
It's a discovery. Because everybody already has that dimension within themselves.
You don't need to get it.

Speaker 6 You don't need to achieve it. You only need to discover what's already there because

Speaker 6 it's something.

Speaker 3 It's a part of you being a human being.

Speaker 6 And being is the essence of you.

Speaker 3 Being is the essence of you.

Speaker 5 That is why we're here.

Speaker 3 That's right. Is to discover that.

Speaker 6 Yes, that's the discovery of all the ancient traditions.

Speaker 3 I don't think we're doing a good job.

Speaker 6 I don't think we're doing such a good job. We are a work in progress.
So we're not a finished product, and that's the good news. Because if we were with humans, we're a finished product,

Speaker 6 very sad. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 10 Eckhart says, each one of us is a work in progress. Our spiritual development is far from finished.

Speaker 9 We are on the way to awakening, but we haven't arrived yet.

Speaker 10 Being awake means reaching reaching the deeper dimension of ourselves that is higher than thinking. Both Buddha and Jesus describe this heightened awareness.

Speaker 10 Eckhart says, we will find it when we relinquish our normal state of consciousness, which he describes as relentless, compulsive thinking.

Speaker 6 So we are work in progress, and all the ancient traditions point to the very thing that we are talking about, the being underneath the human.

Speaker 6 This is in esoteric Christianity, discovering the Christ within

Speaker 6 as your essence identity.

Speaker 6 In Buddhism, they talk about the discovery of your Buddha, your innate Buddha nature. Every human has that Buddha nature.
Or in Indian spirituality, it is the Atman, the divinity within you.

Speaker 6 Brahman is the external divinity, and Atman is the inner divinity.

Speaker 3 And so unhappiness no longer has a place with you is because you,

Speaker 3 Eckhart Tolli, in this lifetime as a human, have focused more on your being than your human part.

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 6 Exactly. That's it.

Speaker 6 I got it.

Speaker 6 That's exactly it. That's exactly it.

Speaker 10 Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 I know you all have so much to say.

Speaker 4 We do. And one last thing

Speaker 4 we wanted to share with you guys is that we have a group chat. We text our aha moments with our friends and it's called called An Eckhart a Day Keeps the Ego Away.

Speaker 6 Oh, I love that. I love that.

Speaker 6 I love that. I love that.
I love that.

Speaker 3 So, what was your Eckhart for today?

Speaker 1 Did you have an Eckhart thing for today?

Speaker 6 This is our Eckhart for today.

Speaker 9 Your Eckhart is actually an Eckhart for today.

Speaker 6 An Eckhart a Day.

Speaker 3 Thank you both so much.

Speaker 5 Thank you so much.

Speaker 6 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 19 I thank you, dear listener, for spending your time with me and Eckhart Tolle here on the Oprah podcast, coming up more thought-provoking questions from the audience.

Speaker 19 One reader wants to know this: whether it's drugs and alcohol, gambling, shopping, or overeating, what does Eckhart say is the one thing that can provide us hope when it comes to addictions?

Speaker 19 Plus, we've had many conversations about this on the podcast. Young people in smartphones.

Speaker 19 Eckhart shares his wisdom for a mother who's looking for help managing her teenage son's obsession with social media. Stay with us.

Speaker 20 The holidays are back at Starbucks. So share the season with a peppermint mocha.

Speaker 20 Starbucks signature espresso, velvety mocha, and cool peppermint notes, topped with whipped cream and dark chocolate curls. Together is the best place to be at Starbucks.

Speaker 19 I am back with one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time, Eckhart Tolle.

Speaker 19 Earlier this year, I chose his book, A New Earth, for my book club for a second time, something I've never done before, and I believe that his teachings and his wisdom are needed now more than ever.

Speaker 19 He joined me at a neighborhood Starbucks in New York City with an audience audience of readers who are looking for answers on how to live a more present and more conscious life. Let's get back to it.

Speaker 9 Carrie, where are you?

Speaker 6 Hi.

Speaker 16 Thank you both.

Speaker 16 I wasn't able to receive this message when I read it a long time ago. I was a young mom

Speaker 16 and I experienced some severe big T trauma.

Speaker 16 that I never dealt with. Well, I dealt with it with addictive behaviors that I'm ashamed of.
And I never tackled those ever until this past year. So when I reread this book,

Speaker 16 I was able to receive it for the first time.

Speaker 16 So I'm truly grateful for that. But the pain of big T trauma and the

Speaker 16 numbing out of addictive behaviors can come in like a tsunami and just take, it takes me out and and the memories.

Speaker 16 And I haven't yet been able to deal with that pain body. I haven't been able to make peace with

Speaker 16 that person.

Speaker 16 And I keep

Speaker 16 in this shame spiral. So how do we separate our identity and honor our experiences

Speaker 16 and get through that?

Speaker 16 Like, aren't addictive behaviors just feeding the pain body? And how do I separate that?

Speaker 6 just can you give an example can you give an example of the addictive behavior so that we can feel it

Speaker 6 more

Speaker 16 yeah my addictive behaviors are are definitely alcohol right and

Speaker 6 overshopping would be the two things that I numb out to and so you still experience that occasionally as a recurring problem?

Speaker 16 Yes, that's what I'm in treatment for and in therapy for. Right, okay, let's see.

Speaker 6 So addiction of that kind

Speaker 6 can be very, very powerful. They're almost like a case of possession.
You're possessed by the... It can transform a person's behavior.

Speaker 6 In their case, it's alcohol or shopping.

Speaker 6 I usually recommend that

Speaker 6 when you feel the

Speaker 6 addictive pull coming on,

Speaker 6 you can feel it in yourself.

Speaker 6 At that moment, create a time interval and allow yourself to feel the energy of the addiction, that pull that

Speaker 6 has taken you over. Instead of immediately doing what it wants you to do and giving in, make it into meditation.
Put the light of your awareness on the feeling of it.

Speaker 3 Won't that send you further into wanting to do it?

Speaker 6 No, because awareness grows, the awareness will grow, and because you're shining the light of awareness on an unconscious pattern, whenever you shine the light of awareness on an unconscious pattern, it tends to shrink, diminish.

Speaker 6 It may not go away immediately. It's still, if it's a strong addiction, it will try to linger.
So you may have to do it.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 quite often, so

Speaker 6 I worked with somebody who

Speaker 6 was extremely overweight and he had this eating addiction yeah and

Speaker 6 and he said

Speaker 6 often he would not he would be so unconscious that when

Speaker 6 he would only discover that he's been eating again when he's already he's already swallowing in the middle of the night he would get up go to the fridge, get something out and such and then he's eating something and suddenly realize that he's eating something again.

Speaker 3 Because he'd done that unconsciously.

Speaker 6 Yes. I mean, he's not sleepwalking, but

Speaker 6 he's speaking unconscious. And so

Speaker 6 it worked for him to introduce a time interval between, instead of giving in, when he discovers the impulse, feel it and be there as the witnessing presence of it.

Speaker 6 So be there as the witnessing presence. And make it

Speaker 6 gradually

Speaker 6 allow the time interval to be longer, longer.

Speaker 6 Let's say it's

Speaker 6 10, 15 minutes. Feel the

Speaker 3 and then perhaps I would have eaten the thing by that time.

Speaker 9 I know exactly what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 I've been standing in the pantry, yeah, and I've gone to the pantry because something happened that upset me because I'm an emotional eater.

Speaker 3 And I will be and I will be opening the nuts and getting the raisins and doing my whole little thing and saying to myself, this is happening now because

Speaker 6 i that was an upsetting phone call and i i didn't want to have to deal with that and i had to deal with that and so now i just need to eat something to calm myself down so i'm very much aware of why i'm in there that's a very important aspect of it what you just said the mental commentary that justifies the behavior that's a very important aspect of it so in your case there's a reason why you allow yourself to do that with a person i worked with

Speaker 6 he for example had the mind bad and says you have had a rough day

Speaker 6 You deserve a treat.

Speaker 6 What else have you got in your life? It's your only pleasure. You've got lost, you've got left in your life.
You might as well, you have nothing else, do you?

Speaker 6 The mind has been taken over by the addiction and justifying the addiction.

Speaker 5 So what do you tell yourself when you're shopping?

Speaker 16 I'm unconscious to it. I don't even know I'm doing it until it's over.
And then I'm filled with shame.

Speaker 16 And then I'm angry with myself over and over and I'm stuck in that cycle of shame. So now I've

Speaker 16 received this book differently so I feel like it's my first step to being present

Speaker 16 and riding the wave of the urge, like not scratching it or not or not giving in to the addiction.

Speaker 1 Just observing it.

Speaker 6 Just observing it.

Speaker 16 And it's really hard to do.

Speaker 6 It's hard.

Speaker 3 It's hard.

Speaker 3 But you're right. It's first step.
And first step for you. So for all of you who are reading it for the first time, I'm so excited because what it does is it opens the aperture.

Speaker 3 It allows you to see your life differently.

Speaker 5 And as you stay more open,

Speaker 3 more things will show up, more books, more experiences, more conversations. that lead you to a more being space for yourself than just doing, doing, doing the whole human thing.

Speaker 10 So,

Speaker 3 this is the beginning for those of you who've.

Speaker 6 Don't you feel that way?

Speaker 3 Those of you who've read it before, that it opens the door for much bigger things. Laura is here with her son, Oliver, who's 13 and in the ninth grade.

Speaker 1 Laura, what's your question?

Speaker 13 So, as adults, of course, I mean, we're all engaged in social media now, but we didn't grow up like with social media since we were aware. And my son and all teenagers are in that space.
So,

Speaker 13 how, with that immersion or maybe addiction to social media and the stimulation, how can they be truly present?

Speaker 6 Well, that's a very big thing, a very big challenge

Speaker 6 for youngsters, especially these days.

Speaker 3 I love what you said.

Speaker 3 The producer wrote that you said, how do I even begin to teach him this work of being present when they're not present at all during the day and they're continuously fed a bunch of shit?

Speaker 20 Is that what I said?

Speaker 10 Oh, God. That's what you said.

Speaker 3 So they're continuously fed a bunch of shit through social media all day that's falsely telling them who they are.

Speaker 5 How do I break this cycle?

Speaker 3 How do I even begin to teach him what's inside the pages of this book? Actually, when I heard you were coming in, I was thinking, you need a young person's version of this. You do.

Speaker 3 You need to break it down. Yes.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 then maybe we all could read that book and feel.

Speaker 3 And it won't take them a year to get through it.

Speaker 9 Yeah,

Speaker 3 but I can't even imagine, because I'm a person who is on social media and I use it for work and Oprah Daily and all that, but I try to personally keep myself out of it, the storm of it, because it's vicious and vile.

Speaker 3 and all-consuming.

Speaker 5 It's just,

Speaker 3 and it's getting worse.

Speaker 5 Don't you you all think it's getting worse?

Speaker 3 It's actually getting much worse. Yes.
And if you get yourself sucked into that, you can absolutely lose yourself.

Speaker 5 Exactly. If you think who you are is who people are representing you to be online,

Speaker 5 you will be messed up.

Speaker 6 A huge addiction for many people.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 also becomes part of their egoic identity. That's the they

Speaker 6 look for recognition,

Speaker 6 a sense of self-worth.

Speaker 5 Well, the likes have become the thing.

Speaker 6 Likes, and then they have hundreds or thousands of friends that never even met

Speaker 6 in many cases, and then they post all kinds of photos of themselves that are modified by technology. So if they met one of their thousands of friends in the flesh, they wouldn't even recognize them.

Speaker 6 because it's all

Speaker 6 make-believe. And

Speaker 6 this is perhaps the greatest challenge in our civilization is that technology.

Speaker 6 If we don't master it, it could easily lead to a breakdown of civilization within two generations.

Speaker 6 Because

Speaker 6 the ability to focus your mind is a vital thing for not for creating something new or for solving problems.

Speaker 6 If you lose the ability for prolonged focus, as many youngsters do because the continuous stimulus shorter and shorter attention spans. If you lose that, then you lose the ability to become creative.

Speaker 6 You lose the ability to solve problems because you need to be able to focus. So, where are we all? It's our first, our responsibility to restrict

Speaker 6 our own use of these and to see how addictive that is.

Speaker 6 I can feel it in myself. I don't use it that much.
I don't post things personally.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 the moment you interact with that thing,

Speaker 6 it pulls you in, there's some kind of like a magnet thing

Speaker 6 and it pulls your attention out of you and goes all in there.

Speaker 6 You lose yourself. So first you lose yourself in your mind, but in a way you could say that device is your externalized mind.
I wrote in the book, you lose yourself in your mind.

Speaker 6 And now you not only lose yourself in your mind, you lose yourself in a technological amplification of your mind in the form of this device.

Speaker 10 Eckhart believes science and technology have made miraculous changes in the way we live. However, Eckhart believes these advancements contribute to our collective insanity.

Speaker 10 He says they magnify human dysfunction to such a degree, it's threatening the survival of the planet.

Speaker 3 Well, let's give Oliver credit because Oliver went to you.

Speaker 1 Oliver, I think that's so cool.

Speaker 3 You went to your mom asking for help because you realize yourself you're obsessed obsessed with it, right?

Speaker 3 Because how much time do you spend on your phone?

Speaker 3 A good amount.

Speaker 3 A good amount.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 13 And we can only control it when he's at home, of course. So, you know, I know there's that idea of kids being more reactive.

Speaker 13 Again, you get the beep, they'll be crossing the street and look at their phone, whereas an adult has the ability not to, but they're so quick to be back on it as soon as anything, you know, buzzes or such.

Speaker 6 In some countries, I believe I read something recently, Australia, was it where they're restricting the use of devices for youngsters.

Speaker 6 How exactly they go about it, I don't know. So at some point, I think we need to arrive at that

Speaker 6 point where we restra especially very young young children.

Speaker 6 must not use these things or very controlled if they do use.

Speaker 3 So what did did you say earlier that within two generations, did you say?

Speaker 6 It could be that civilization would collapse if the new generation of you lose the ability to focus their mind on something.

Speaker 6 How are we going to deal with the problems of the world if we cannot focus anymore? Because any solution requires focused attention. If humans lose that ability, then what's going to happen?

Speaker 6 So it's everybody's responsibility.

Speaker 6 If I don't have children, and it's a bit late now, I'm not going to have any in this incarnation. I can say that for sure.
But

Speaker 3 oh, you never know.

Speaker 6 If I had children, I would definitely, in a very gentle way, restrict their use, and they have to get used to this

Speaker 6 so that only very gradually allow them extended use. And even then.

Speaker 3 I had this conversation with the author of An Anxious Generation, who's also saying some of the same things that you're saying, that certainly schools should get together and you should be a certain age and all of that.

Speaker 3 But the problem is, if all of your friends have it, then you become the odd kid out. You become ostracized, which then begins to shape the way you see yourself and the way the other kids see you.

Speaker 5 And that in itself is a challenge.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 6 Perhaps it would take families getting together in neighborhoods and

Speaker 6 generation. The collective then comes to an agreement.

Speaker 3 So you're not the only one.

Speaker 6 You're not the only one. And I think that might be the only solution.
So for you to take an initiative, so get in touch with other parents. So you have a group of 50 or whatever group may be.

Speaker 3 One of the problems is a lot of parents want their kids on it because it means they don't have to actually parent. So that device becomes a substitute for you in your child's life.

Speaker 6 That's the real truth. That's also harmful.
Yes. Yes.
Yes.

Speaker 19 Thank you for joining us with this very special bonus episode of the Oprah podcast, a continuation of my conversation with spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle.

Speaker 19 We're taking more thoughtful questions from the audience of readers at a local Starbucks in New York City. And we'll learn why the phrase, my life, doesn't mean what we all think it should.

Speaker 20 The holidays are back at Starbucks, so share the season with a peppermint mocha.

Speaker 20 Starbucks signature espresso, velvety mocha, and cool peppermint notes, topped with whipped cream and dark chocolate curls. Together is the best place to be at Starbucks.

Speaker 19 Welcome back, dear listener. I'm in New York City with one of my favorite spiritual thought leaders, Eckart Tolley.
He is the author of a book I always keep on my nightstand.

Speaker 19 His words and his teachings have fundamentally changed the way I live my life and so many other people who follow his remarkable work. It's called A New Earth.

Speaker 19 And together, Eckhart and I are surrounded by an audience of readers who have really great questions. Let's return to this conversation.

Speaker 3 Okay, Kimba, where are you?

Speaker 21 So my question is around in a similar fashion.

Speaker 3 I have a wonderful teenager.

Speaker 21 at home and he's about to go off to college. And I find myself always asking him the question, well, what do do you want to be when you grow up?

Speaker 8 You know, what do you want to do? What college?

Speaker 21 You know, every adult in his family is asking him the same question. But after reading this book, I thought,

Speaker 8 should I not be asking these questions anymore?

Speaker 21 And shouldn't we both be in the present? So that's my question.

Speaker 6 All right. Thank you.

Speaker 6 Well, we have,

Speaker 6 again, coming back to the human and the being, we live

Speaker 6 we need to live in both worlds, the transcendent dimension of being and the human world. So if this

Speaker 6 it's perfectly digit legitimate to ask what do you want to do when you grow up.

Speaker 6 I wouldn't ask

Speaker 6 who do you want to be?

Speaker 6 It's a d it's a different question.

Speaker 5 Because you already are being.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 6 So not to equate being with some external thing,

Speaker 6 with activities

Speaker 6 or status in society or possessions, not to equate being with that. So that's the realm of doing.
That belongs to the realm of doing. And there's a place for doing.

Speaker 6 And doing, of course, all doing requires time. So that's also the place where time operates.

Speaker 6 So you have a future goal. What do you want to do next year? So there's that dimension.

Speaker 6 We honor this dimension. We need to do our best also in the human dimension.

Speaker 6 But without losing touch with the more vital dimension of the essence of being, that is the mastery of life is finding a balance between this, the human dimension and the being dimension.

Speaker 6 Not losing yourself in the human. Now, nobody has perfect balance.
You're not right in the, except perhaps you, oh, probably.

Speaker 3 I don't have perfect cones, no, not a bit.

Speaker 3 I'm still in the pantry looking for the nuts.

Speaker 6 I know you have

Speaker 6 incredible capacity for doing, much more than I have. Incredible capacity for doing, but you are connected with being.
Yeah. So you are more on the doing side without losing connectedness with being.

Speaker 6 I'm more on the being side without completely losing my ability to do.

Speaker 3 I have more being than most people I know. You do have more being.
Yes. I'm nowhere near where you are.

Speaker 6 Okay, but

Speaker 5 I spend a lot of time.

Speaker 3 And Gail sometimes will just call and say, what are you doing? Being with your thoughts?

Speaker 3 Yes, I am. Actually, I am.
It's a running joke with us.

Speaker 3 Oh, I'm just sitting here being with my thoughts.

Speaker 6 Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 You beautifully sum up, I think, the essence of what this book is on page 295 when you say, not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny.

Speaker 3 I'm going to say that again. It's not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny.

Speaker 3 And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness. And ultimately, it's about how we bring consciousness to every moment and to every action in our lives.

Speaker 2 So do we need to be conscious in every single moment?

Speaker 3 Because that is a tall order for most people.

Speaker 6 Yes, don't make impossible demands upon yourself and then beat yourself up if you can't fulfill them.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 6 you don't need to be constantly present because by saying that you're already creating some future.

Speaker 6 Saying, I need to be present.

Speaker 6 Okay, no,

Speaker 6 it's actually easier than that. All you need to be present is here and now.

Speaker 6 There's nothing else. So

Speaker 6 that can't be that difficult. But only when the mind comes in and says, yeah, but can you sustain it in the rest of your life, you're losing yourself in the future.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 So and then it gets difficult because then your self, your identity comes in.

Speaker 6 Am I spiritual enough to be able to do it? And all kinds of things.

Speaker 6 Ego identity comes back in. Am I going to succeed in being present? Another concept, mental concept.

Speaker 6 But the actuality of it is more simple. All you need is try to be present now.

Speaker 6 Is that that difficult? No.

Speaker 6 But then what about the next moment? You don't know.

Speaker 6 Because the next moment actually never comes. It never comes.
It's always now. So just be present now.
And if you, the moment you realize you lost it,

Speaker 6 you lost your sense of presence, in the moment of realization, it's

Speaker 6 Because if you were truly lost, you wouldn't know you're lost.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 6 In the same way that a truly mentally, let's say a crazy person, although it's a politically incorrect term, but I'm using it in a loose sense.

Speaker 6 A crazy person, a really crazy person, doesn't know they're crazy. But if you know you're crazy, you're not completely crazy because there's a knowing there.

Speaker 6 Because there's the awareness. The awareness is there.
Yes.

Speaker 3 There's the awareness. I am acting crazy right now.
Yes.

Speaker 3 I appreciated the book. One of my other favorite passages, I don't even know where it is, I didn't underline it in this version, where you talk about

Speaker 6 how

Speaker 5 what a miracle it is,

Speaker 3 what an absolute wonder that we are life, and that most people move through the world thinking of yourselves as having a life instead of recognizing that you actually are life.

Speaker 17 Yes. You don't have a life.

Speaker 5 Yes. You are life.

Speaker 8 Yes. Can Can you speak to that?

Speaker 6 Yes, I often say that you don't have a life because people talk about my life and they refer to, but they identify with something that they call my life.

Speaker 6 And this thing they think about continuously because

Speaker 6 it's the most important topic,

Speaker 6 my life, my life. What could be more important than my life? And they talk about it and think about it.
And of course, what exactly is that? Of course,

Speaker 6 it's a narrative. It's a story in your mind consisting of memories, things that you did, things that were done to you, all kinds of things that you identify with my memory banks.

Speaker 6 So what do people call my life is actually

Speaker 6 memories,

Speaker 6 a bundle of memories that they identify with.

Speaker 10 Eckhart says, many of us fabricate an identity for ourselves. based on our health, our careers, our finances, our relationships.

Speaker 10 And Eckard says, over time we weave these elements into a story we call my life and often we become victim to these narratives.

Speaker 10 However, Eckhart teaches we don't have to turn difficulties into suffering because when you become awake or have a full sense of awareness, we can liberate ourselves from the shackles of our incessant thinking.

Speaker 6 And I call that, I believe it's in the power of now.

Speaker 6 That's actually not your life. That's your life situation.

Speaker 6 Everybody has a life situation. That life situation has a past and a future, an imagined future, but a future.
So that's your life situation. But what about your life? What do you mean life?

Speaker 6 Well, life is this moment.

Speaker 6 Can you feel alive at this moment? Can you feel that you are conscious at this moment? Can you feel the essence of yourself as consciousness in this moment?

Speaker 6 And if you can feel the essence of yourself as consciousness in this moment, that's your life.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 that is not a life that you have. Because if you say, I have a life, then there's you and there's life.
In the same way, if you say, I have consciousness, then who is the I? No, you are consciousness.

Speaker 6 And you don't have a life, you are life.

Speaker 6 This is an amazing realization that the essence of you is life and the life is the consciousness of you. Of course, you still remember those memories are still there, but you no longer go to the

Speaker 6 looking for your identity. You honor the memories and all those things that make up the personality or the person,

Speaker 6 but your identity can now be arrived from a more vital and more real place, which is the consciousness of you in this moment. And that gives you a feeling of aliveness and joy in a deeper sense.

Speaker 3 And also not finding your identity in things

Speaker 3 and labels.

Speaker 6 Oh, yes. Because all things will pass away.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 And all labels you will eventually lose.

Speaker 6 Yes. Yes.
Not seeking your identity in any mental concepts.

Speaker 6 Because that's the egoic identity is actually an identity. based on conceptualization of who or what you are, mental concepts.

Speaker 6 And even possessions, of course, many egos identify with possessions, for example. But even the possession itself, you experience it, it's a mental concept.

Speaker 6 That's my such and such, whatever it is, my car, my house. This is my, they're all mental concepts.
So it's transcending.

Speaker 6 a conceptual sense of identity that's going beyond ego because ego is always a conceptual sense of identity. So we are here to transcend that, still

Speaker 6 allowing ourselves to be a person, a personality in this world of form, in this world where doing is often required, in this world where time is important

Speaker 6 in this dimension, the human dimension, without completely losing yourself, because we have the other foot, so to speak, in the transcendent realm.

Speaker 6 There's a beautiful parable in the New Testament when Jesus visits Mary and Martha, two sisters, and Martha is busy in the kitchen doing, cooking the meal.

Speaker 6 Mary sitting up at the foot of Jesus and listening to Jesus or maybe tuning into his presence and goes, and then Martha gets angry in the kitchen and says, Jesus, why don't you tell my sister to help me in the kitchen because there's so much to do here.

Speaker 6 Why is she just sitting there? And Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you're worried about and concerned about many things, but only one thing is absolutely needful, and Mary has chosen that one thing.

Speaker 6 So what he's pointing to is

Speaker 6 the fundamental thing is

Speaker 6 the being dimension, the kingdom of heaven that is within you. That's the same thing.

Speaker 3 The kingdom of heaven is at heaven.

Speaker 6 That is within you, the being dimension.

Speaker 6 Martha represents the doing dimension. Mary represents the being dimension.
Now, an ordinary pastor would then ask, well,

Speaker 6 how can

Speaker 6 I function like that? Because if Martha also goes to the, who is going to cook the meals?

Speaker 6 Now,

Speaker 6 the real answer to that is ultimately, Mary and Martha need to become one.

Speaker 6 Mary and Martha are really,

Speaker 6 they need to merge back into

Speaker 6 their oneness so that the doing and the being exists in one human being. So Mary and Martha are meant to

Speaker 6 be one

Speaker 6 rather than separate.

Speaker 9 So, okay.

Speaker 3 A new earth awakening to your life's purpose. If we focus more time on being

Speaker 3 than just doing,

Speaker 3 we focus more on our beingness as humans than on the human stuff,

Speaker 3 we will lead a life that is awakened to a greater sense of purpose. That's what you're saying.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 3 In a new earth. Okay, final question.
Are we going to be okay?

Speaker 3 I mean, listen,

Speaker 9 the world is so divided.

Speaker 3 It's hard to say anything without somebody getting offended. It's hard to know with AI and with all the conspiracy theories and with everybody having their own

Speaker 3 YouTube channel and everybody saying whatever they want to say. It's hard to know what is true and what isn't true.
And discernment is missing. We don't, we, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to know.

Speaker 3 Are we going to be okay?

Speaker 6 Well, your main responsibility is to

Speaker 6 for yourself, are you going to be okay?

Speaker 6 Am I a better,

Speaker 6 maybe a more direct question is, am I okay in this moment?

Speaker 6 Because

Speaker 6 your state of consciousness is your responsibility. And I would say, don't underestimate the importance.

Speaker 6 of your state of consciousness for the world because you you are an inseparable part of the your state of consciousness also

Speaker 10 because we are the world yes we are the children yes Eckhart says we still have quite a distance to go in our spiritual growth what's critical is that we transcend our thinking he says it's absolutely necessary for our survival Eckhart believes that the human race is at a turning point we must evolve beyond our current state of consciousness.

Speaker 10 When a significant number of people connect with their transcendent selves, an entirely new world will be born.

Speaker 6 Eckhart calls that a new earth.

Speaker 6 We are going to be okay because you

Speaker 6 are going to be okay and you are okay. Okay means conscious.
Are we going to destroy ourselves?

Speaker 6 Probably not.

Speaker 2 I thought you were going to say maybe.

Speaker 3 That's what you said when you came to dinner years ago. You said maybe and

Speaker 5 it only lasts a couple hundred years, the dark ages.

Speaker 3 Yes, maybe.

Speaker 6 Well,

Speaker 6 it's still a possibility, but it would only be a temporary setback. But temporary setbacks are actually part of the evolution of consciousness.
I believe that the Earth itself has already experienced

Speaker 6 five mass extinctions of life. over millions and millions of years.
The last one was when the dinosaurs died out.

Speaker 6 Earth has already experienced five mass extinctions when 60, 70, in some cases 80% of all life forms became extinct. And each time

Speaker 6 Earth recovered, not only it took a few years, a few million years to recover each time, but each time Earth recovered. And every time it recovered, the life forms that it produced then

Speaker 6 were more complex than the previous life forms. So there was chaos leading to a higher order, then chaos coming in again, disrupting chaos,

Speaker 6 descend into chaos

Speaker 6 and again leading into

Speaker 6 higher,

Speaker 6 a more complete, a fuller expression of manifestation of consciousness, the complexity of life.

Speaker 3 So the chaos and the confusion and the disorder that we're feeling offers an opportunity to move into something higher.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 6 And the chaos also is part of the suffering actually has an awakening effect on humans to come back to human beings. Suffering is a great awakener.

Speaker 6 I have experienced in my own life, many of you have experienced in your life. And that works both on an individual basis

Speaker 6 and it also works on a collective basis.

Speaker 6 Because sometimes the sometimes the suffering suffering comes to you as an individual. At other times, suffering arises and affects millions of people at the same time.
That's collective suffering.

Speaker 6 And most of that suffering is actually produced by humans.

Speaker 6 They do it to themselves and to each other.

Speaker 6 And so it's natural disasters are only secondary. The worst suffering

Speaker 6 is inflicted by humans on other humans.

Speaker 6 This is a dysfunction of the egoic mind. playing itself out there.

Speaker 6 So, and again,

Speaker 6 if that happens, and I do know, I have a strong sense that we are moving into a period of turbulence, not only in this country, many other places in the world too. We are moving, you can see kind of,

Speaker 6 if you're on a boat on a river, and you can look, oh, there's a turbulence coming, they're getting more rocky, maybe even a few waterfalls too.

Speaker 6 And so we are collectively moving into a period of turbulence. And that's fine.

Speaker 6 That is your responsibility is to stay conscious, not to get drawn into the turbulence which ultimately

Speaker 6 into the current. Yes.

Speaker 6 The turbulence ultimately is

Speaker 6 an inner turbulence that manifests this outer turbulence. So not to become part of that.

Speaker 6 When you use device, social media and all those things,

Speaker 6 stay present.

Speaker 3 Don't. So more than ever, it's important for each of us to do the work of being.

Speaker 10 Eckhart says, the coming changes for humanity are necessary for our evolution.

Speaker 5 Collectively, we are going through difficult times.

Speaker 3 We all recognize this.

Speaker 10 Because real change only occurs when society is pushed to the brink.

Speaker 5 Without adversity, there is no transformation.

Speaker 10 He says, when hardship strikes, we don't have to fear because that too is a catalyst for spiritual growth.

Speaker 2 Eckhart teaches us historically, humanity has gone through many regressions.

Speaker 10 They are intrinsic to the process of awakening because every setback is part of the journey.

Speaker 6 The best way to save the world is work on yourself, stay conscious so that you

Speaker 6 are the solution.

Speaker 6 You're not

Speaker 6 part of the problem. Who said, be the change that you want to see in the world? Gandhi.
Gandhi, yes. Be the change that you want to see in the world.
That's ultimately, that is your responsibility.

Speaker 6 And it's a wonderful thing. So you can save the world.

Speaker 6 It starts here.

Speaker 3 Starts here. Yeah.
Thank you, Eckhart Tolli. Thank you for the gift that is a new earth.
Thank you to our extraordinary partner, Starbucks, for supporting us here.

Speaker 3 I hope this episode actually inspires you to read A New Earth and talk about it with a friend, maybe over a couple of Starbucks. And thank you for listening and watching.

Speaker 3 We hope you all join our community and become a part of all of our conversations on the Oprah podcast.

Speaker 3 Subscribe to the show on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Everybody, a new earth.
Thanks.