Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Transformational Power of Spiritual Books

eckhart

Eckhart Tolle says that it is possible for a person to be spiritually awakened by reading a spiritual book, and lists three pre-conditions for this awakening to happen. Given below is the question posed to Eckhart and his response.

Q:Can a person be awakened spiritually by a book?


ET:Yes, if three conditions are met:

Firstly, there must be a readiness on the part of the reader, an openness, a receptivity to spiritual truth, which is to say, a readiness to awaken. For the first time in history of humanity, large numbers of people have reached that point of readiness, which explains why millions have responded so deeply to The Power of Now.

Secondly, the text must have transformative power. This means the words must have come out of the awakened consciousness rather than the accumulated knowledge of a person’s mind. Only then will a text be charged with that power, a power that goes far beyond the informational value of the words. That is why such a book can be read again and again and lose none of its aliveness.

Thirdly, the terminology used needs to be as neutral as possible so that it transcends the confines of any one culture, religion, or spiritual tradition. Only then will it be accessible to a broad range of readers world-wide, regardless of cultural background.

All these conditions were met in The Power of Now, which is why the book has had such an impact on the collective consciousness.

Source: Eckhart Tolle's website

2 comments:

Krishna said...

I agree to what Eckhart Tolle has said but since I have not "immersed" myself in his books ,I do not know the power of its transformative effect on myself or people world over but I can say confidently that the Books of David Godman meets all the 3 conditions as specified by Eckhart Tolle especially the books : NO MIND , I AM THE SELF and LIVING BY THE WORDS OF BHAGAWAN .They have brought about a total change in my spiritual outlook but unlike Eckhart Tolle , David Godman does not have a larger readership for his books but I am sure that those few hundreds who have read his books would have definitely felt a transformative influence in their lives especially the above 2 mentioned books .Putting it in another way I would say that only few are blessed enough to have been able to digest his books and we both happen to be one of those .

VS said...

Yes, David Godman's book do fulfill the three pre-conditions.
His books still continue to be my favourites, especially, "Living by the Words of Bhagavan" and "Final Talks".

In the recent past, I have been listening to Eckhart Tolle's talks and re-reading his books, and I find his works captivating. I am currently listening to "Flowering of Human Consciousness". The message is the same, but the approach and the method of putting it across seems refreshing everytime I listen to a new talk of his. To top it all, my memory fails me whenever I try and recollect what he has said in his talks. This may seem puzzling to you, but I am not alone, and I know a few people who feel the same way whenever they try and recollect the contents of his talks. Try listening to Eckhart's talks, and after a few days make an effort to recollect the content. Eckhart Tolle has expressed somewhere in his books that the content arises from a Stillness, which is why the content seems so fresh and new everytime we re-read the same material.