Thoughts can be likened to a voice in the head. This thinking is what prevents us from being, which is our natural state as human beings. This thinking does not only make human beings miserable, it is leading them to pollute the very planet that they rely on for sustenance. However, Tolle points out, it is not Planet Earth that is at risk, as Planet Earth is not nearly as fragile as the human species. Rather, it is the human race that is at risk. By polluting the planet, humans are destroying their very capacity to exist on the planet.

Although humans cannot stay in this condition, neither can humans go back. Humans cannot revert to the stage of sub-conscious being in which animals and plants exist. To survive as a species, humans must rise above the mind. They must attain a higher state of consciousness, where mind is subservient to being, the instrument instead of the user.

Though this change is not guaranteed, it has happened before. Tolle explains that in every species, there are always a few beings which evolve to the next stage earlier than the rest of the species. He calls these beings "flowers." He lists the Buddha and Jesus as the earliest "flowers" of the human species. They achieved this state of being and attempted to teach it to others, yet the meaning of their teachings has been obscured through the years through misinterpretation and the desire to control.
A New Earth, then, is the Tolle's vision of human existence grounded in being, no longer dominated by the mind.

Bibliography

Tolle, E. (1999). The Power of Now. Vancouver: Namaste

Tolle, E. (2005). A New Earth. New York: Penguin