BUY THE BOOK! “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle available here. “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” by Eckhart Tolle available here. "Stillness Speaks" by Eckhart Tolle available here. For more information you can visit Eckhart Tolle’s website. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah Oprah’s Book Club: Presented by Starbucks offers a conversation with global thought leader Eckhart Tolle about his groundbreaking work, "A New Earth," which has sold fifteen million copies worldwide. Oprah says it has had more effect on her than "any other book by a living author." Eckhart talks about overcoming cancer and reveals simple, transformative lessons on diminishing ego and becoming a more conscious human being. Oprah and Eckhart also engage readers, including the actor Chris Evans, as they share their favorite teachings and quotes from the book. Eckhart and Oprah are joined by a live audience at the Starbucks Reserve® Empire State Building® store for conversation over the new Starbucks Cortado, a small but robust coffee classic made with three Starbucks® Blonde Roast ristretto shots and velvety steamed milk. Whether you're new to Eckhart's work, or have been forever changed by his wisdom, this is the conversation for our times. SUPPORT THE SHOW Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: Instagram Facebook TikTok Listen to the full podcast: Spotify Apple Podcasts #oprahsbookclub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Eckhart Tolle's book 'A New Earth'?
We're going to have a great show, you and I. Here comes the man, y'all. The man. Mr. Tole.
Do you see it?
We're in a coffee house having coffee with Eckhart. I'm telling you. Hi, everybody. I am so excited to welcome you to Oprah's Book Club presented by Starbucks. It's so good to be here at the Starbucks inside the Empire State Building right in the center of Manhattan. So hello to all of you who are listening on the podcast or watching us on my YouTube channel.
We joined forces with Starbucks to bring three of what I think are some of the best things in life, books, coffee and conversation together. all together in one place. And Starbucks paired this month's book club selection with a strong cortado. And so enjoy yours. Okay. Let's have a toast to you. Toast to you. Thank you. I also really appreciate the idea of meeting a friend for coffee with a book.
Don't you like that idea? Especially if you get to talk about this book. After 109 book club selections, I have never chosen the same book twice. Until now. Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. Awakening to your life's purpose. As one of the great spiritual teachers of our time.
Even one conscious breath. is a mini meditation. I believe Eckhart's work has never been more relevant or deeded as it is today. Deep within you, there is a silent power.
Over the years, right now, you all are online with me from every corner on our planet. I've always been eager to share a new earth. This is my own free copy of the book. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the book. It's been translated into 50 languages and sold more than 15 million copies.
On this podcast, we're taking a deep dive into some of Eckhart's key concepts like recognizing the ego.
And so to know your own ego is already an awakening. How to stay in the present moment. The beginning of present moment awareness is to be aware of your sensory perceptions.
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Chapter 2: How can we recognize and diminish our ego?
And also wanting to be, I remember reading this, I think it was either in A New Earth or Power of Now, that stress is wanting the present moment to be something other than what it is. Yes. And that, you all relate to that, right? And that you're stuck in traffic and you're like stressing about getting to the da-da-da.
If you just relax, first of all, if you can't move the traffic, then what are you stressing about? And if you just relax into it and accept, get to acceptance of this present moment, it makes everything flow more easily. Yes.
And I have found that that principle of being able to be in the present moment, which has now become my greatest gift to myself, is the best offering you can give to yourself and to anybody else. Because it means you accept this moment for what it is. And even if the moment isn't what you want it to be, you can't begin to change it until you get to acceptance.
Yes, that's also the basis for intelligent action or wise action. I think the key word is wise, where there's wisdom and there's intelligence. Yes. An intelligent person can easily have a huge ego, so you cannot equate the ego and intelligence. They often come together easily. Wisdom is something different. Wisdom arises out of the awareness. Out of the awareness.
So to make wise decisions, the basis for wise decision is first an acceptance of what is right now, rather than a reaction against what is, an emotional reaction against it. that prevents you from arriving at a wise decision of what to do.
But if you can accept this moment as it is, and then one could say a higher intelligence begins to operate, and that is wisdom, that higher intelligence is wisdom.
You accept the moment and then say, now what do I need to do?
Exactly. Then I've accepted it.
You get it? You get the difference? Instead of resisting the moment.
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Chapter 3: What is the role of present moment awareness?
Does it still resonate the same way? No.
I don't feel the suffering anymore at all. It's like evaporated. I remember it. I remember, for example, In my childhood, I was mostly unhappy because of an unstable family background. I didn't have a happy childhood. I remember that. But on a feeling level, I don't revive it. It's not there anymore. It exhausted itself. It evaporated or it got burned up by the presence.
I don't know exactly how to put it. But the unhappiness has not survived in me, except as a memory, but not on an emotional level. So it's gone, which is good.
Isn't that a profound thing to be able to say, the unhappiness has not survived in me? The seeds of Eckhart's evolution emerged from a difficult childhood. Born in Germany in 1948, Eckhart's parents separated when he was a child. He eventually became a distinguished research scholar at Cambridge, but his burgeoning success failed to soothe the anxiety and depression that dogged him.
At age 29, pushed to the brink of despair, Eckhart contemplated suicide. It's in this moment of pain a new awareness was born. Eckhart says he experienced a spiritual transformation so profound his suffering disappeared.
Unhappiness for many people becomes an intrinsic part of their sense of identity.
Yeah.
And so that also explains why many people have a resistance. As every therapist knows, many people have a resistance towards letting go of their unhappiness. So the therapist tries to... Because that has become their identity. That's their story. They think they lose themselves if they let go of their unhappiness.
They're not complaining about being unhappy. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I know, Chris, I was saying to the audience before, and I don't know if you heard me, Eckhart is actually the only person of the thousands and thousands and thousands of people I've interviewed who has no ego, who just I mean, who is who who not only writes about it, but actually lives it and walks the walk.
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Chapter 4: How does acceptance influence our lives?
Many, many, many negative states can arise when you're being challenged. That's one way you can go. Or the other way you can go, and that usually happens if there's already a certain amount of presence in you, you've already...
practiced or you've had glimpses of presence or even more than glimpses of presence, when then a challenge comes, it can easily happen that the challenge, one could almost say forces you into becoming more present. It then deepens your presence. So an example, even from my life, there's always a presence in my life. There's always a presence.
Sometimes when I talk now, there's a presence in the background. I can sense the stillness behind the words. And one could say the words come out of the stillness. And that's even when I go about my daily business, there's always two ordinary things. There is that sense of peace. You are aware of the awareness. I'm aware of the awareness.
And then two and a half years ago, I went to the doctor, another doctor story, you had one, now I have one. I had certain symptoms, intestinal symptoms, finally had to have a colonoscopy. After the colonoscopy, the doctor said, you have cancer. Oh. And when you hear that, usually, I mean, it could mean, yes, you could have a few more years. It could also mean you only have six months or 12 months.
When you hear that, that's, so I was a little shocked. The person was shocked. And immediately, I noticed an enormous intensification of presence, shh. as if somebody had turned up the dimmer switch. And on a practical level, 10 days after the diagnosis, I had an operation. But in those 10 days, I spent hours and hours in intense presence, usually presence in the background.
And this presence came into the foreground, so I would sit in my room, just no thought in my head at all, just an enormous amount of awareness, just filled with awareness. I could feel the cells of the body filling with awareness. And I believe that was a kind of self-healing also. And I had the operation and they took a section out of my colon.
And then after the operation, another scan and said, fine, it hasn't spread anywhere. And I continued with the wonderful presence practice because presence is also extremely healing. So I gave that as an example for when you're really challenged, and you're already familiar what presence is, then you will find that you become, through the challenge, you become more present.
So it deepens you at any challenge, then deepens you to, rather than a challenge making you more unconscious.
I think this is really hard. What you're saying is, you are really E.T. Your initials are E.T., and you are like E.T., Sitting here in the chair because I don't know nobody else who could do that. You know, you hear that you get the cancer diagnosis and you go, oh, oh, I think my presence is going to come forward. You know, that's really, really. challenging for most of us in the world.
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Chapter 5: What is the connection between suffering and identity?
The ego needs fighting. The ego needs enemies. Enemies not necessarily, but also in the form of other people. Enemies in the form of other groups of people, political groups or whatever it may be. But it also leads enemies in the form of even situations in which you can find yourself and you don't like the situation. So you make the situation into an enemy or something that you have to do.
You're doing it, but you don't really want to be doing it. You're doing it reluctantly. So you make the doing also into a kind of enemy. So whenever you're doing something also to give your fullest attention and not doing with some... hidden resentment that's also a very dysfunctional state. And that also strengthens the ego. These are all aspects of ego. So it requires a lot of inner vigilance.
Your main purpose in life is to have that inner vigilance. Is to have inner peace.
And it's the thing that I ask myself, all the time before making any decisions is, is this my ego or am I doing this from the state of real awareness? What is the reason? What is the real intention behind it? Because if it is an ego-led decision, it's going to get me in trouble or I'm going to end up being resentful or I'm going to end up being upset with myself or someone else.
And I think being upset with yourself is actually worse than being upset with other people. So I'm constantly asking that question of myself for almost everything that I do. Is this an ego move or is this coming from my pure self?
That's a wonderful question. But at other times, the ego can also arise so suddenly and spontaneously that you don't have time to ask yourself, why is this suddenly there? And then you can recognize in that moment or just after that moment, ah, there it is. There it is. Yeah.
Grace is 26 years old and here with her mother. And I heard you wrote a note in your book. What is it?
Yes. So my aha moment came fairly early into reading the book. And it is when you explain that we are not our thoughts. We are that space before the thoughts. And that really floored me so much that I needed to take a pause. And I just kind of sat with it for a second. And then I really wanted to visualize it. So I wrote in my book, You. And And I underlined it and I left a space in between.
And then I put thought and underlined it. And that might sound simple, but I really just needed to actually see that physical space between the two things. For me, I've spent a lot of my life struggling with anxiety and depression. I've been through a lot of therapy. And reading that gave me pause because I had just accepted that over-intellectualizing, over-analyzing my thoughts.
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Chapter 6: How can we respond to obstacles instead of reacting?
Chapter 7: What insights does Chris Evans share about Eckhart's teachings?
Yeah. And that's just because you stay in that space. It's always there. You are always aware that you are aware.
Yes. Yes.
And you are always aware, even when you're speaking to us right now and having this conversation, that what you're saying, that your thoughts are not you.
not losing oneself in this thought stream, even when one speaks. You can often see when you observe people having a conversation or discussion, they easily lose themselves in their thought stream. The emotion comes in. The moment you identify with the thought very quickly, an emotion will come in also. And then you start arguing when you have conversations with your family.
Do you lose yourself in your mental positions? then the other mental position becomes to you an enemy. So it's very important to practice presence when you meet your family members. And they may have different opinions on your different mental positions. Can you allow them their mental position? And don't equate their mental position with who who or what they truly are.
There's a being underneath their mental position. They are not their mental position. That's just the ego. So then sometimes you can be compassionate towards their mental position and allow them to have this. You don't need to put them right and say, no, you're wrong. The moment you get into right and wrong argument, your ego is back. The ego loves proving other people wrong.
And so, of course, you need to be right. Being right is one of the great things that the ego strives for.
That's right. And so I think in one of the books you talk about, do you want to be right or do you want peace? Yeah. Yeah, that was another huge lesson for me. Do you want to be right or do you want to have peace? And I didn't realize in all those years when I'm like, well, I know I'm right. I am right. I even had a T-shirt that says, I know I'm right. That that that is that's an egoic move.
You know, I thought it's just like, I know I'm right. So.
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