2008-08-12 A big ego writes about ego

I was given this by someone who saw Oprah raving about it and bought two copies in a state of excitement. I thought that the first three pages were quite good then was extremely disappointed as the rest went no further than to rehash Buddhism. My overriding concern is Tolle's continual denigration of the ego and his attempts to persuade us that if we could just annihilate any sense of being an individual or having individual thoughts or preferences we could all acheive permanent bliss. In fact, if we all followed this advice we would all coagulate in one big splurge of mush as no one would be allowed a personality at all.
This kind of spirituality feels very uncomfortable. I have always believed that the ego is a misunderstood beast and gets very bad press in New Age circles. We each represent a shard of God, here to express and experience our uniqueness and to evolve the whole while understanding we are part of the whole to which we will return following death. In addition, Tolle's regurgitated and extreme trashing of the ego is incongruent given that he benefits from the proceeds from a whole range of products, from calendars to cards, emblazoned with his name. No ego there then!
This book feels like a quick attempt to jump on the coat tails of his previous book and, for me, offers nothing new. I am sure this will do very well for the Eckhart Tolle franchise but am concerned about the cost to anybody who adopts this philosophy without understanding that 'God' the Universe or whatever you believe in gave us the ego for a reason. It enables you to find who you are and what you stand for. There is nothing inherently spiritual about voluntary self anhihilation. Even the Dala Lama left Tibet rather than adopting a stance of staying put and being 'meek' in the presence of danger. It isn't a New Earth it is a rehash and it doesn't say what it says on the tin 'awakening to your life purpose' should read 'putting your life purpose to sleep as it doesn't exist.'