Like the Ten Commandments, Buddha’s Nobel Eightfold Path, is simple to understand but not really easy to accomplish. These eight attitudes are not moral precepts about specifically what not to do, though. They are a simple list of how to behave if you want to live a life with a minimum of suffering for yourself and others.

Buddha does use the word “right” but it is not in the sense that you are damned by God if you don’t take his recommendations. It is more in the sense of what is most appropriate for the moment. Here is the Noble Eighfold Path:

1. Right understanding
2. Right thought
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration

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Because they are so simple, people can interpret these concepts in different ways. Huge volumes have been written on the subject. My interpretation, in short, is approach everything with a free, pure, unattached heart. This ensures that we say the appropriate words as well as perform appropriate actions. We consciously put our efforts towards meaningful goals while remaining grounded in what is eternal about ourselves.

Four of the ideas in The Noble Eightfold Path concern themselves with our inner selves: Understanding, thought, mindfulness, and concentration. This is different from the Ten Commandments, which do not concern themselves with a person’s inner life and more with their relationship to Jehovah and with each other.
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Four of the items on the Path are action-oriented: Speech, action, livelihood, and effort. The Buddha did not leave anything out. And by not defining precisely what each “right” thought or action is, he left a lot of room for interpretation. But the final test is, by living this way do you alleviate suffering? Thousands of years after he delivered his insights, they are still alive and bringing people and understanding of life, so they have stood the test of time.

If you are talking about the patriarchal Old Man in the Sky, who watches every move you make and punishes and rewards accordingly, then, no Eckhart Tolle does not believe in God. This is a primitive God, created in the image of a vindictive, capricious, and unjust man by men who were trying to put a face on the forces of nature. This is a God that has been constructed through fear and the desire to find safety in exchange for rituals and obedience.

Eckart Tolle does not believe in a God that created us from the “dust of the ground,” the way a potter forms a clay pot. Rather, we have emerged from the Creative Forces of the Universe. We are the natural outcropping of many physical and spiritual interactions and were not put here by some man-like God who then tasks us with proving that we are worthy of being alive.
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Furthermore, Tolle does not believe in the hellish aftermath of life that is imposed by a punitive God who has watched us floundering around as we attempt to keep His commandments. Tolle doesn’t even come from “belief” for belief means we really don’t know but would like to think it is true. Like a child believes in Santa Claus. Rather, Eckhart Tolle comes from a sense of knowing. This knowing is based on his own experiences and not on some fairy tale made up by our forefathers a long, long time ago.

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Yes. Philosophy, when taken down to its Greek roots, means “love of wisdom.” Love and appreciation are closely tied to each other. But philosophy is more than just love of wise thoughts and wisdom. It is the analysis of answers to the basic questions of life:

• Who are we?
• Why are we here?
• What is the purpose of life?
• What is good and evil?
• Why is there something rather than nothing?
• Is our universe real?
• Do we have free will?
• Does God exist?
• Is there life after death?
• Can you really experience anything objectively?
• What is the best moral system?

These are just a few of the questions philosophers have been asking since people first began to think and record their musings. They are also questions that cannot be answered easily. Religions of the world have claimed they have the right answers. But philosophers always hold an open mind that their answers are only possibilities. They will continue. loving to ask these questions because the answers provide the wisdom by which we can live happy and fulfilled lives.

The mind and soul are two different entities. Some mentally challenged people express spiritual and loving qualities because they allow their souls to shine through. Our clever minds can often be an impediment to these beautiful qualities. We are constantly judging, comparing, seeing what is wrong, being unhappy because reality doesn’t match up to the ideal we hold in our heads. And we must be right about it all.
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Mentally challenged people are not so heavily invested in their minds and therefore they can be freer and more in touch with their inner selves.

I have personally known people with Downs syndrome and other learning disabilities who have shown wisdom, tolerance, and a love of life that far more educated people were never able to attain.

Several years ago I had a personal trainer who had Downs syndrome. He understood the human body with intuitive acuity and communicated it well in his own way. I learned a great deal from him and his sage-like approach to strength and skill. He was patient and kind and I will never forget him. The strength of his soul far outshone the limitations of his physical brain.

It is a big mistake to think that intellectual giftedness and the Soul are interrelated. Again, the intellect has very little to to with the soul and can often block its manifestation in our lives. The mind is a very good analytical tool but the soul come from a different area, more like from a combination of the heart and the gut. Therefore, if a person is mentally challenged, he or she may be more receptive to the qualities of Soul and be more tuned into the pulse of the Universe than those of us who think we are our minds.

Asking, “What is the meaning of life?” is like asking what is the meaning of a flower. You can say that the meaning of a flower is its function—to attract insects to propagate the plant and to produce seeds and fruit. But this is not the meaning, it is its utility and purpose on a very practical level.

A flower is much more beautiful than the function it performs actually requires it to be. Merely attracting bugs and spreading its seed doesn’t require roses to display the richness and variety of colors and fragrances it produces. So if life had meaning, it wouldn’t need to go overboard with so much beauty, it’s simply enough for everything to serve its purpose in one big biological dance of birth, reproduction, and death.

Life is in and of itself. The human mind assigns whatever meaning makes sense to it at the time. Some people don’t even think about it, they just go through every day on the level of the insects: Running around, feeding and expelling food, driven by instincts they never examine or question,. Other people put a religious spin on the meaning of life. God has set out a path for our estrangement and reunion with Him and that is enough for them to know.

Some people think that because there is no meaning it’s all a big, horrible joke, that inevitably ends in disease and death. This is because the human mind demands a story. It wants a neat little beginning , middle, and end. It must assign a purpose to everything so it can feel in control of something that is way beyond its grasp. But to know that life just is, is very freeing. We can sit back and admire its beauty, ingenuity, and perfection without demanding that it stands for something else.

New Age philosophy does not promote narcissism but narcissists can use New Age philosophy to promote their own agendas. Then again, narcissists can use any philosophy to get what they want out of others. And what narcissists want is adulation, praise, and validation from strangers to create a sense of self that continues to elude them.

We really can’t blame New Age philosophy for what people have interpreted it to be. In essence, New Age philosophy is innocent. It looks forward to a “New Age” of love and light through personal transformation and healing. There is nothing narcissistic about that.

Here is where the problem comes in: The New Age Movement encourages self love. As RuPaul says, “If you can’t love yourself, how are you gonna love anyone else?” There is so much truth in this. Taken the way it’s intended, it means we have to care enough about developing our own inner light before we are even capable of seeing it in another.

Loving yourself can be misinterpreted to mean a puffed up, conceited over-evaluation of your gifts and abilities. Or it can mean grab everything for yourself in a never-ending quest for more, more, and more. But this has never been stated as an aim of the New Age movement. Loving yourself is deep, respectful humility in your recognition of the magnificent Universe of which you partake. It has nothing to do with petty egos bolstering themselves with magical thinking.
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If people have cheapened the New Age movement by using it for their own ego gratification, it is nothing new. All the spiritual movements of this planet have been corrupted through egotistical human interpretation. The golden embroidery on velvet priestly vestments is very different from the unadorned robe and sandals Jesus wore in the desert. Charismatic, egotistical, and narcissistic individuals will use any belief system for their personal advancement. The New Age Movement is no exception.

I began reading Lao Tsu when I was 12 years old. It planted a new a way of looking at life within me. I didn’t understand it all, only very little. But I felt what he was getting at. He was talking about The Way, the underlying principle of the Universe: The Tao. He was describing something beyond the stories I had learned from my family’s religion about the meaning of life and why things were the way they were.
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Part of the reason I couldn’t understand Lao Tsu at first was that what he addresses is difficult to put into words. It is beyond the limited concepts of the human mind. Lao Tsu hints at it. He suggests it, quietly, simply. He knows that if you think you know the answer, you haven’t really seen the immensity of It All. It is a philosophy of humility and surrendering the human need to control everything.

I was raised in a religious tradition that placed heavy judgments on sinful behavior. Also we were evaluated about how loving and pure we were. Lao Tsu was not as concerned with moral and value judgments. He wasn’t interested in judgments at all, because he saw they are human-based, relative to each culture, and are changeable. Instead, he advised us to go with the flow. Don’t resist life. Be like the river. In this way, we will find happiness and inner peace.

I could see that following the Tao, people would behave in a naturally compassionate and decent way—not because they are being judged by The Man in the Sky, but because it is the simplest way that leads to the least amount of drama and unhappiness. This gave me tremendous freedom and allowed me to break away from the frightening idea that God was watching me all the time and taking notes on how evil I was, so I could be punished later.