New Earth: Chapter Five, \"The

¶ … New Earth: Chapter Five, "The Pain Body"

In A New Earth, chapter five, "The Pain Body," author Echkart Tolle begins by noting that the greater part of most people's thinking is involuntary, automatic and repetitive, shaping a mental status that is no more than a static existence yielding no real purpose (Tolle 80). Tolle asserts that the voice inside our heads has a mind of its own, and oftentimes, we begin to lead a life that is at the mercy of that voice. We become obsessed and therefore possessed by thought and by the mind, which as noted in previous chapters is not a full representation of our true selves but a physical manifestation of it that is separate from the spirit and the true state of existence.

Tolle notes that the mind is conditioned by the past, and because of this fact, the mind, and therefore ourselves, are forced to reenact the past again and again in a cyclical and never-ending loop that one can become lost in if they don't assert power over it and attempt to break free. He aligns this way of thinking with the Eastern belief of karma and the actions of the ego, which individuals have falsely aligned as being part of themselves, when the ego is not truly a representation of the true self we all hope to discover. Tolle notes that in escaping this focus on the mind and the ego, individuals are able to find brief glimpses into a life of freedom from thought, which thereby bring them moments of peace, joy, and true aliveness -- the facets of life that Tolle notes: "make life worth living" (Tolle 80). It is in these moments that individuals flourish in creativity, love and compassion while others are forced to live in a state of being trapped by the ego and all that it entails.

Tolle notes that every living organism has the capacity for intelligence, and human beings have the additional capacity for distinct emotion. Emotion, he notes, is never to be confused with the ego. The ego is not truly the unobserved mind as people tend to believe, but is instead the voice inside everyone's head that pretends to be you. Additionally, the ego represents the unobserved emotions that are the body's reaction to what the voice in the head is saying (Tolle 83).

Tolle explains the human capacity to dwell on the past with the following example: two ducks getting into a fight. The ducks fly at each other flapping and making a scene during the fight, which is always brief yet intense. In the end, a winner prevails, or the two part out of exhaustion or lack of interest. As the ducks separate from each other, they float off in separate directions, flying peacefully through the breeze and the fight itself is completely over. This doesn't happen with human beings. The same type of brief fight may occur between us, lasting mere seconds or minutes. But the second we walk away from the altercation, we begin to replay this fight in our minds over and over -- overanalyzing, expending far too much energy, and often becoming increasingly angry and stressed over the event and the implications of it that we have often brought upon ourselves through our own over-thinking.