​There hasn’t been a sincere voice within the New Age spiritual community to call itself on the carpet when it has gone astray. Maybe it’s because New Age people do not want to portray themselves as negative, sending forth negative vibes, paying attention to the negative, or attracting the negative in any way. So I do not hear any voices saying let’s examine how things have been going:

There’s been an overemphasis on manifesting goodies and material stuff coming from a skewed view of the Law of Attraction. Much of the New Age movement has become like the primitive religions of old. People desperately want a lot of things. They want a male child. They want to be healed. They want riches. This is all good. The problem comes when people use New Age Movement’s principles as another form of idolatry. These principles become automatic formulas to get what they want in their little day to day life, avoid unpleasant emotions, and not have to pay the price for their choices. In this sense, it has missed the mark of its founders’ intentions.
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The basis of the New Age Movement is that there is an underlying spiritual reality that infuses everything in the Universe. This life is one of many. We don’t have to act in desperation as if it is our first and last. Not believing and trusting this, people want to hack into life’s secrets by grabbing onto any belief system that calms their fears and also promises to bring them stuff they like. The New Age movement provides systems that show how our thoughts influence our health, those around us, and how peaceful and happy we are in our lives. It goes much deeper than merely manifesting a bunch of good stuff that we are keen on having at the time.

“. . .there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought. Thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. . . . All things that truly matter—beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace—arise from beyond the mind.”

I love this statement because, as civilized beings, we depend so much on our rational minds. At least we think they are rational, until we make mistakes, forget things, and look at the history of the human race and its sanctioned insanities.

Yes, the mind is a great tool and it comes up with all kinds of solutions to practical problems. But the mind offers no comfort during a sleepless night or when we are delving into past mistakes and future fears. Yet we think we are all this mind. That these non-stop thoughts are who we are and what we are. They take us on a white-water raft ride, through swirling whirlpools and craggy rocks over the precipice of a cascade, into our doom.

But if we access the intelligence beyond this maelstrom of churning thoughts, we finally find a connection to deep serenity and peace. The mind can carry on all it wants, we are watching its antics but not getting swept away by them. But first we must put this part of our minds into its place, through accessing the present moment. If we are constantly swirling around with past and future thoughts, that field of peace is blocked to us.
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One of Eckart Tolle’s missions is to show the clear path out of this thing that we think is us. He offers many practices to clear the way. And then, all that brings joy and happiness are there for us, just as they have always been.

Gurus don’t transmit their power. But many people seek them out because they feel better in their presence. In India, when people sit in the presence of gurus to feel the peace of their vibrational fields, it is called “darshana.” It is a common practice and has been beneficial for thousands of years. Some gurus don’t even say a word, yet their emanations are healing, calming, and lead to that inner place of eternal peace.

But the “chela,” or student, must be ready to receive the blessing and grace of the guru. Many people are not ready for it and therefore will not feel it. It will be part of their spiritual entertainment and they will go from guru to guru looking for what they must first discover in themselves. They shop around and want to have special magical powers, as if the miracle of life on earth was not enough.

If you are ready, you will definitely feel the Soul-presence and even see the bright aura of your guru. This has nothing to do with amassing supernatural powers for yourself. It has to do with finding the ground of your being and the answer to your deepest questions.
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You will know when your guru appears. Your guru might not even be a person. It could be a horse, a dog, or any animal that can teach you something about the nature of life, love, and peace.

When it comes to spiritual practice, I prefer not to use the word “should.” “Should” implies that you ought to do something because that is the right and only thing to do. That you are not a good, spiritual person if you don’t do it. Unfortunately, this leads to spiritual oneupmanship and a holier-than-thou attitude: “I sat for 36 hours in the lotus position focussing on my breath. How about you?” Or, “The physical me focussed on the eternal me all day as I sat and did nothing.”

I would rather say, “I practiced what brought me the most joy on my spiritual path.” That might be something active, such as helping people and animals. It might be something creative, like producing art, music, and beautiful gardens.

Too much dogma about the right spiritual practice has created huge conflicts on our planet. People are more concerned with the right way of doing something than with the spirit behind it. We are sinners and infidels if we don’t follow some practice to the letter. We are not going to progress to heaven unless we chant millions of prayers and prostrate ourselves countless times a day.
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If chanting and prostrating yourself brings you joy and a sense of being closer to the Holy Spirit, then great. But don’t think that the rest of the world should do it. Some people have spontaneous enlightenment through grace. They followed no spiritual practice at all and it still came to them. Therefore, I say only practice self-awareness because you want to and because it works for you. Not because you should.

An enlightened person feels all the emotions, not just happiness. We can feel intensely sad and even angry. Let’s not turn enlightened people into saints that dance around in a permanent state of happiness. That can feel fake and inappropriate, such as being jubilant at someone’s funeral. Besides, what makes us happy comes and goes.

To an enlightened person there is a permanent state beyond the emotions, which are impermanent. We feel the emotions on one level but on a deeper level, we are observing them. There is a sense of detachment. We recognize that we are not our thoughts and we are not our emotions (which are often generated or triggered by our thoughts). We rest in an eternal peace that lies in the background.
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Sometimes people seek enlightenment because they want to be free from all painful emotions once and for all. But we cannot have one thing without its opposite. We cannot have happiness without also knowing what unhappiness is, to contrast it with. Enlightenment is not about cancelling out anything that makes us miserable. It is about being at peace, no matter what thought or feeling comes up.

When someone does a terrible wrong to us it isn’t easy to forgive as soon as possible. Sometimes it takes a while to work through the issue. I don’t want to put anyone under time pressure to forgive as soon as possible. I would rather say, “Forgive and let it go for your own freedom and happiness, when you can do it.”

How long it takes for us to forgive depends on how much we want to forgive. Sometimes, holding on to a grievance feels right to us, even though it impacts our health and happiness in negative ways. This is because we are “right.” They did bad stuff to us that we didn’t deserve. But, unfortunately, being right in this case doesn’t lead to health and happiness. it keeps us stuck in the painful event.

Forgiving doesn’t mean we thought what they did was OK. It just means that you are releasing it and letting it go so it won’t further plague you. You already suffered enough. Why keep going over it?
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Letting a grievance go instantly may not be possible but it is desirable. And this is not because it impacts our Soul. Nothing can hurt our Soul. This is a principle many people who survived torture, false imprisonment, and unspeakable humiliation have grasped. “They can do all kinds of things to my body, but nothing can touch my Soul.” The Soul is inviolate. But the mind must free itself of grievances if we want to experience a happy life on Earth.

Buddha was very clear about “believing” anything. His dying words were:

"Behold, O monks, this is my advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

He does not use the words, “Believe in me, believe in my doctrine, or believe in the No-self.” He says “work hard,” not “believe.” He does not support anyone believing in him. Instead he says,

“Be a light unto yourself; betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves.”

He is telling us: Work hard to gain your own salvation. Be a light unto yourself. If you believe in something, you are taking “external refuge.” You are directed to go within. Not to believe something that someone told you. Verify it for yourself by contemplating what is real and eternal and what is unreal and fleeting.
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So, no, I do not “believe” in what the Buddha says about non-self. But I take it gratefully as a pointer. He is showing the way but I must do the internal work. Merely believing in something is taking the easy way out.

Being aware of our true nature is the basis of enlightenment. This is when we experience that we are eternal souls. We see that we are more than our bodies or our minds and we tap into a dimension of ourselves that is beyond time.

When we have reached that state, the idea of progress might not apply. We can go on to ever expanding awareness of the beauty and grandeur of Life but I would not necessarily call it progress. It’s more like, once you see it, you cannot lose it. It underlies all of our consciousness. We do not have to strive to get from here to there. We are already here and we are already there.

We can go in and out of this state according to how much we allow our ego minds to run the show. But I don’t want to depict the process as being a linear path to being a more and more spiritual person. We can watch the play of the mind and its impact on our emotions, fall for it or not, in an game of hide and seek. It can become cyclical but it is not a straight line.
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Self awareness is not a deception. In one way you could say that it is impossible, like your eye trying to see itself. But in another way, self awareness means we are in tune with larger, underlying forces of the Universe. Knowing ourselves on that level is not bogus. It is the only level that counts, as any other aspect of ourselves can be destroyed and is not eternal.

To become a “proficient” astrologer, you don’t need to be spiritually advanced. But that is just proficiency. It means you are good and can do your job ably. You can study the charts and all their permutations and interpretations, memorize the signs and their ascendants, and have all kinds of book knowledge.
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But to be an inspired and excellent astrologer, you must be spiritually advanced. Astrology is only one component of a complex system. It includes past lives (where Saturn was on your natal chart in this lifetime), your aura, your energy fields, and so much more. Therefore, to be a truly gifted astrologer, you need to have a psychic gift that turns it into an art, even more than a science.

Yes, enlightenment is the answer for external happiness. This is because internal and external happiness are linked. If you are not happy within, at peace with yourself and the universe, no matter where you are or what you are doing, you will not feel any kind of lasting joy.

You may be on the beach in Hawaii, sipping a Mai Tai under a clear, bright blue sky. The ocean is majestic with its glittering barrel waves. But if you think you are your ego mind and its problem-generating apparatus, you will quickly descend into a hellish state. Maybe you will compare your body to someone else’s on the beach and start the criticism process of them or yourself.

Or maybe you will think of all the work you left undone at home. And that reminds you of the difficult people you work with. Then you might feel dread because your beautiful vacation will come to an end. You will have to pay for it. It reminds you of other financial worries. On and on it goes, yackety yack.
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Enlightened people know that they are not this non-stop commentator in their heads. They identify themselves with something greater and infallible. They know they are The Eternal Soul and not this finite mind that thinks it is protecting us by generating fear, even when we are relaxing on the beach. Momentary thrills and temporary kicks are possible without enlightenment. But for lasting joy, underneath all the turbulence on the surface of life, enlightenment is a must.