A New Earth & Positive Psychology

I've completed my informal study of positive psychology and other books related to the science and economics of happiness by reading the following books:

• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
• Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin E. P. Seligman
• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
• The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubomirsky
• The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz

I'm not planning to read any more but as I've been thinking about the topic, it has brought me back to thinking about Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, which I've written about on several occasions.

It seems to me that the purpose of A New Earth is to increase people's happiness and thus increase everyone's general happiness and to all become "awakened" or "enlightened."

But it also seems to me that positive psychology provides more of a plan to increase happiness, and certainly is much more based in science and facts.

So my advice to people who liked A New Earth: consider reading The How of Happiness (my favorite book so far about positive psychology) or some of the other books I've read in the field of positive psychology, particularly if you're looking for more concrete prescriptions of how to make your life better!

Hay House, Inc.

I just read Mark Oppenheimer's May 4, 2008 New York Times Magazine article, "The Queen of the New Age," which was eye-opening for me.

I had never heard of Louise Hay or Hay House, Inc. and am surprised to find that I have read or own books published by Hay House (such as The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: a practical guide to the fulfillment of your dreams by Deepak Chopra and Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks and Wayne Dyer).

I am very wary of "New Age" books but since my mom reads them I'm generally open to reading them, just with a fairly heavy dose of skepticism. (How appropriate that I am writing this on Mother's Day.)

Last year, Hay House sold 6.3 million products and took in $100 million (8% of which was profit)! That's a good chunk of change. New Age books are certainly all the rage -- just think of the success of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, and anything by Wayne Dyer -- and Hay House has the market cornered.

Not only do they make oodles of money on their books, dvds, tapes, cds, and other products but they must make a good amount on their events too. The I Can Do It! 2008 - Las Vegas 2008 conference featuring 35+ of Hay House's top selling inspirational authors -- including Wayne Dyer, David Hawkins, Brian Weiss, and Louise Hay herself -- costs about $200 per day to attend (or a bargain rate of $350 for the whole weekend)!

While I can't see myself paying those fees for a New Age conference, I feel like I would certainly pay those kinds of rates to attend conferences by a panel of historians (like David McCullough) or scientists and science writers (like Norman Doidge and Oliver Sacks) but it doesn't seem like many other publishers have followed Hay House's lead.

Mainstream publishers take note!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

A New Earth: awakening to your life’s purpose by Eckhart Tolle and started reading Lisa See critically-acclaimed novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

I'm reading it for a book club and so far I LOVE it. I love historical fiction and love reading books by Asian American authors so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

I've only read the first few chapters and have already found See's writing to be beautiful and emotionally moving. The theme of female friendship and and See's detailed description of 19th century China make for a mesmerizing read!

I'd never heard of nu shu (女書, nǚ shū in pīn yīn) -- secret writing used by women in China to communicate with their female friends -- and am fascinated that this was See's inspiration for this book. Will have to do some research and see what I can learn about it.

A New Earth: awakening to your life’s purpose by Eckhart Tolle

I just finished reading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and overall I'd say I liked it and recommend it.

While most of the concepts were familiar to me as Buddhist ideas, it was nice to be reminded of them. I did not like his use of his own terminology, though I suppose it makes the concepts less intimidating to non-Buddhists.

To summarize, the book is about letting go of your ego, be aware of your emotional baggage and learn to let go of it, avoid putting "good" or "bad" labels on things, and become enlightened.

Now I'm on to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See! As a Chinese-American, I'm very much looking forward to reading it!

Carrying the Past (A New Earth)

I decided to keep reading and am now in chapter 5 (out of 10) of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and just read this Zen koan or story of two Zen monks (which I most recently read in 2007 in a tricycle Daily Dharma email), Tanzan and Ekido:

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

Tolle uses this Zen koan to illustrate the "inability or rather unwillingness of the human mind to let go of the past." Tolle has coined a term "the pain-body" to describe the "accumulation of old emotional pain" each person "carries in his or her energy field." Hmm....

I like Zen koans and after I first learned about them in John Tarrant's chapter "Koan Practice: The Great Way is Not Difficult If You Just Don't Pick and Choose" in The Best Buddhist Writing 2005 (originally published as an article in Shambhala Sun in November 2004), I've been meaning to read Tarrant's book Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy. Tarrant used this Zen koan in the article I mentioned:

Zhaozhou often quoted this saying by Sengcan:
The great way is not difficult
if you just don’t pick and choose.

I will have to move Bring Me the Rhinoceros up my list of books to read. And I just heard John Tarrant is giving a class on this book in May at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA! I'll have to look into attending!

A New Earth: awakening to your life's purpose by Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth and so far it all seems very familiar.

I mentioned earlier today that Tolle synthesizes ideas from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Daoism, and other spiritual traditions in A New Earth. I think this book seems very familiar because I've read many books about Buddhism and several about practicing Buddhism such as:

• Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh 03/26/2004
• Music in the Sky : the life, art & teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin 10/11/2003
• Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh 12/30/2003
• The Monk & the Philosopher: father & son discuss the meaning of life by Jean-Francois Revel & Matthieu Ricard (forward by miles) 06/18/2004
• The Best Buddhist Writing 2005 by Melvin McLeod 02/27/2006
• Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness by Robert A. F. Thurman 01/24/2007

He also makes me think of some of Deepak Chopra's books:

• The Path to Love: spiritual strategies for healing 01/02/2005
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: a practical guide to the fulfillment of your dreams 10/07/2007
• How to Know God: the soul's journey into the mystery of mysteries 10/07/2007

And of these uplifting books:

• Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991)
• The Story of B by Daniel Quinn
• My Ishamel by Daniel Quinn
• The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
• The Art of Possibility: transforming professional & personal life by Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander 01/05/2005

So far, I think A New Earth is a good book for those who are frustrated with established religion and looking for spirituality and meaning in life.

A New Earth: awakening to your life's purpose by Eckhart Tolle

I'm reading A New Earth: awakening to your life's purpose by Eckhart Tolle and I'm not sure what to think of it.


The latest selection in Oprah's Book Club, A New Earth tells readers that we humans must "Evolve or die" and promises to show us the way by teaching us to transcend our egos and let go of attachments using ideas from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Daoism, and other spiritual traditions.

I haven't read Tolle's other books The Power of Now or Practicing the Power of Now, but many friends and family highly recommend his work. I hope he lives up to the hype (the NYTimes doesn't seem to think much of him).

The Secret History of the War on Cancer by Devra Davis

I'm reading The Secret History of the War on Cancer by Dr. Devra Lee Davis. Wow...this book almost makes you afraid of everything. Who knows, your shampoo and lipstick, the paint in your house, the pesticides used on the food you eat, the chemicals in processed meats, the air in your town, the water that you drink...they could all contain chemicals that cause cancer.

Fortunately, I'm not the paranoid type. From now on, I'll carefully read the list of ingredients on product labels, cut down my intake of processed meats (despite my love of pastrami and bacon), more or less quit drinking, purchase organic fruits and vegetables when the price difference is within reason, and just hope for the best.

I would definitely recommend this book to those who are surprised to hear that so many cancer causing agents were already identified by the early 1900s.

I've started A New Earth: awakening to your life's purpose by Eckhart Tolle, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Will write more as I get further into each book.