I carried Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth with me throughout my decadent journey to Croatia and Italy without cracking it open once. Prior to that I lost it and had to buy another copy. Prior to that it sat by my bedside untouched for at least two months. It is safe to say that I was instinctively avoiding the book or that my ego cleverly kept it at bay. But alas, after a rocky reentry back to the states including the loss of our luggage and a day in New York without clean clothes then a gosh-awful virus which knocked me on my you know what — I had nothing else to do but read A New Earth.

I think it was the contrast of watching an entire season of Sex and the City on the plane ride home from my trip and finally reading A New Earth that revealed the truth about the ego first hand. Rather than a little devil on one shoulder and a little angel on the other, two distinct versions of me emerged after reading Eckhart’s book (I love calling him Eckhart). One me was ready to drop everything and move to New York to have lunch with the Sex and the City girls (never wearing the same outfit twice of course) and the other me was in physical and mental agony as I was confronted by my ego and so called pain body (thanks Eckhart now I know why I’d been resisting this book!).

The more I read I began to see two parallel Universes reveal before me. One that produces the absolute meaningless like Beverly Hills Chihuahua and the other that produces the deep and meaningful like A New Earth. How can two so distinctly different versions of life co-exist and how can two so fully developed and diametrically opposed versions of me co-exist? And more importantly which is real? Is one better than the other? Where do I go from here? Which me was asking these questions? (This ego thing can get a bit freaky…)

As I continued to read and eventually finish A New Earth I began to see many similarities between Eckhart’s insights and Life Cultivation, the practice I teach. Isn’t there a saying that goes something like “We teach what we need to learn most?” The single most important take away from this book is that the ego does exist within all of us, will run a muck on our lives if we let it, keep us from ever being happy - AND - above all else DO NOT take a position or even think that there is anything wrong with it. I know this seems like asking a lot (talk about a leap of faith) especially when you begin to see the costs of the ego in charge. If you make the ego wrong, it will fight back with vengeance. Just reading the book made mine go wild. In the book Eckhart talks about just letting it be and feeling your pain. That is the key, just let your ego go about it’s business and observe it. See it and even feel it separate from you and allow it to reveal where your life is run by your ego and where it is not. THEN, the key is to practice Life Cultivation and cultivate what Eckhart calls consciousness and I call “U”, your unique source of creative energy.

Life Cultivation is the practice that will lead you to happiness now and ultimately lasting fulfillment - becoming enlightened in this life Jivanmukta if you’ve read my recent article in Your Guide to Thrive 5. Life Cultivation clears what deadens or traps your U (internal energy or consciousness) and cultivates or expands what enlivens or expands your U. The focus is on first connecting with U (your internal energy or consciousness) and then creating your life from there or expressing yourself and bringing your U to life.

The other term I use for U which is more aligned with Eckhart’s philosophy is your True Self. Your True Self is that part of you that is connected to or one with consciousness yet is totally unique. Lasting Fulfillment comes from the joy of expressing U or your True Self in this life and experiencing your True Self in every aspect of your life from home, work, love, body and soul. In A New Earth Eckhart talks about your internal purpose as becoming or being consciousness and your external purpose as what you determine it to be. Life Cultivation is about realizing both your internal and external purpose by discovering and expressing your True Self. My book, Chameleon Butterfly Dragonfly is a guide to to doing just that and thus a guide to lasting fulfillment.

So then what about the part of you (or me) that wants to lunch with friends, shop, be beautiful, rich, travel the world, find love, have your materials desires met? Is that the ego? Is that wrong? Here’s where a fine line comes in. The art of cultivation. The art of distinguishing your true desire from your fear based need. True desire is a form of expression and leads to fulfillment and fear based need is the ego and leads to a vicious cycle of never having enough or perpetual unhappiness. I believe that as women one of our purposes is to receive pleasure. To allow ourselves to be adorned and adored (which may explain our future generation’s obsession with the Princess - hopefully!) The more you get beyond your ego and fears and cultivate U or your True Self the more you can simply express and manifest your true desires by what you create and allow the Universe to deliver.

The place where The Secret, A New Earth and Life Cultivation collide is within you. By cultivating abundance, gratitude, joy, and passion within, you expand your U, chi, hara, consciousness, energy, vibration and begin to seamlessly co-create with the Universe. You become a magnet attracting to you what is a match or expression or your True Self. You will experience lasting fulfillment as your life becomes a mirror of your True Self. You can begin to see that positive thinking and realizing the ego is helpful but not enough - the key is Life Cultivation, expressing your True Self or bringing U to life.

I believe it’s my purpose to support all women in becoming fully expressed and deeply fulfilled. If this philosophy resonates with you, join our community, continue to follow my monthly e-guide Your Guide to Thrive, participate in upcoming workshops and telecourses or contact me to explore how one on one coaching may support you (cindy@bringUtolife.com or 858 692-8538). Feel free to invite your friends to join our community as well. The more women (and men too!) that become fully expressed and fulfilled, the more balanced and fulfilled the world will be.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.