A New Earth: Create a Better Life

Once basic survival needs have been met, a person searches for a purpose to give meaning to their life. While most humans are concerned with the outer purpose of their life and focus on what they can achieve, Tolle teaches that this is secondary to the inner purpose, which is to awaken. Tolle defines awakening as “a shift in consciousness in which thinking and awareness separate” (259), with awareness being “the space in which thoughts exist when that space has become conscious of itself” (261). In other words, awake people do not allow themselves to become lost in thought or identified with it. Awakening is universally the purpose of humanity, as when an individual becomes “whole” they “become a conscious part of the interconnectedness of the whole and its purpose: the emergence of consciousness into this world” (277).

A person will know that they are being more guided by their inner than outer purpose when they know that their goal is to be in the moment, not future-tripping in the service of the ego. Here, the “negation of time” closes the gap between inner and outer purpose, “between Being and doing” (265). This means that “you’re doing […] becomes a channel through which consciousness enters this world” (265). Future-projected anxiety and stress are symptoms of forgetting the primary inner purpose of awakening. Uncertainty, which is a fearful concept to most humans, can be a gift when we accept it, turning into “increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity” (274).

Tolle posits that the universe is ultimately unknowable, an infinite “unified whole” that thought attempts to conceptualize in “fragments” (280). Therefore, our perceptions of reality and our place in the world are limited by our narrow individual perspectives and a relative understanding of truth. Our individual lives do not exist separately from the universe.

Tolle observes that the patterns of expansion and contraction in the universe are a macrocosm of activities in the human body, such as breathing and circulation. While youth is typically a time of expansion, when humans accumulate growth, skills, and other attributes, old age signifies a “return movement,” as loss of worldly attributes is linked to “the dissolution of form” (283). Western society shuns old age and death, viewing them as opportunities for spiritual awakening because the “emphasis shifts from doing to Being” (286). Crises in early life can also cause this shift and provide the afflicted with the opportunity to disidentify from the fleeting forms in life.

However, adepts of the new consciousness are often able to awaken without encountering tragedy or old age. Their intelligence is not “distorted and misused by the ego” in the service of harmful projects, such as learning how to split atoms to make weapons of mass destruction (289). The adepts become “conscious participants in the creation of form” and allow the universal intelligence to create “through” them rather than taking egoic ownership over their work (289). Through what Tolle terms “awakened doing,” they align their outer purpose and actions with their inner purpose of awakening (293). The way people go about their lives and work toward their goals determines how closely inner and outer purpose are aligned. Awakened doing incorporates the modalities of acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. While acceptance denotes being at peace with the moment, exactly as it is, enjoyment embodies “a sense of aliveness” in the moment, and enthusiasm is the marriage of enjoyment with a sense of purpose (297). When someone is stressed in the service of a goal, they have fallen into the trap of identifying with the ego; however, when someone is enjoying the process, they experience “intensity,” which is “a high frequency” and therefore a valuable emotion (302).

The “arising new earth” that Tolle envisages is filled with both creative achievers and “frequency-holders” who are less ambitious but contribute to human consciousness by bringing “spacious stillness” into the world and “being absolutely present in whatever they do” (307).

Tolle states that it would be a mistake to view the new earth as a utopia, because utopias by their very nature are future-orientated. Instead, the arising new consciousness can only take place in the present, as “awakening as a future event has no meaning because awakening is the realization of Presence” (308).