Book Review: 'A New Earth' incorporates old ideas

Once again, Oprah gets a book flying off the shelves. What is different about A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle, is not only did it receive Oprah's stamp of approval, but she is also holding online classes with Tolle. Thousands of people all over the world have registered to attend the classes, which can even be downloaded onto iPods. So it's a big deal even for Oprah.

This is Tolle's fourth book. His first book, The Power of Now, which reached the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, emphasizes the moment, and A New Earth also talks about the importance of the moment, but dips into the realms of the forms and egos, as well.

The early part of the book is devoted to the idea of the forms, a term familiar to anyone who has read Plato - but with a twist. The author starts by discussing how each person has been reduced to words such as "I," "me," and our names. This minimizing of our "Being" is what makes it difficult for us to differentiate our "Self" from our egos, which causes us to be cyclically dependent. It's a long and complicated theory, which is why Oprah decided that classes are necessary. It's an interesting concept that should be entertained if for no more than entertainment. Your mind may feel fried if it is not taken in small doses.

Tolle also says that people think too much these days, and these distractions are keeping us from being at peace and doing what our calling - or life's purpose - tells us to do. The human condition, to Tolle, is to be lost in thought. As busy college students always with multiple things on our minds, this idea is not too foreign. What is interesting about this philosophy is its partial break from Plato's emphasis on reason.

The author makes the point that people should trust life when an impulse comes. He understands that not every impulse is worthy because some may come from artificial places. But through deep discernment, a word integral to the lexicon of Jesuit education, you can follow what is right for you.

In college, there is a whirlwind of activity both mentally and physically, which may cause us to lose ourselves in this chaos. To this, Tolle says to find a space of stillness to reconnect is a step in awakening, which is not very different from the idea of retreats and getting away from it all.

Basically, we live in complicated times, but if we look inside ourselves and reject the external factors that define who we think we are, then we can find our purpose. We aren't meant to define what life is for us. We must ask what our purpose is, which is a theme constant in Jesuit education.

Many people may decide not to read this book, suspecting that it is a new-age religion. But it reads much more like a philosophical work. Tolle mentions Jesus and Buddha multiple times, using their lives as examples of how people should live, even though he does have issues with religious institutions of today, which he says divide and start conflicts, rather than what Jesus would want from his teachings, which is peace.

This book is enlightening in some parts because, upon reflection, a lot of the ideas, though not exactly new, make sense. But like all philosophy, one should be wary when reading, not necessarily accepting everything, if anything at all. This book is interesting and possibly worth a second look, but it's not as big a deal as Oprah has made it out to be.