Returning the Gift

As I looked at the cover, I saw a lotus and the color purple which meant that the author was vibrating at a higher frequency than most on this planet. The book can basically be divided into two: Tolle and Adyashanti cover the more philosophical and theoretical aspects of life whereas Laura and Timothy talk about the practical aspects of putting spirituality into action. So it’s well balanced.

Tolle and Adyashhanti are for the more serious reader or rather the more evolved soul and some things that they say may be difficult to digest for the newbie.

For eg:

Donoso: Is there such a thing as hope?

Tolle: I wouldn’t recommend it. Because it gives you more of the future, traps you in it, rather than letting you be in the here and now.

Most are told never to give up, that there is always hope and something good will happen in the future when the simple truth is that everything you want is available to you at this instant in time, you only have to realize it and more importantly accept it.

Adyashanti makes two great points (amongst others) when he says:

People have an awakening experience on Saturday, and then by Monday morning, they have to go back to work. That’s challenging for a lot of people. The support structure or understanding from those around does not exist currently in most countries.

We’re waiting for some grand leader who will inspire us. It kept repeating in my mind and I suddenly saw that waiting for someone else to awaken is ridiculous. What am I waiting for? When are we going to awaken? And this brought all of the energy back to myself.

The practical experiments that Laura (Forgiveness in Rwanda) and Timothy (Seeds of Peace) talk about are heart-warming. They end up broadening your perspective that will help you lead a better and different life. The reader will gain a lot by reading what they have to say.

Negatives: Statements like ‘I need to give this burden away to God’ and there are three kinds of business in life: my business, other peoples business and God’s business’ and ‘God has the responsibility for ultimate justice, not us’ contradict the oneness concept espoused by Tolle and Adyashanti. This leads to a fractured experience for the more evolved reader who understands the very essence of Tolle’s and Adyashanti’s teachings.

In a nutshell – A must read for almost everyone on this planet, small books like these that are 70 pages long will go a long way in healing the planet rather than reading sacred texts that go into the thousands.