mostly though is is amazingly clear i find…

if you asked him, he’d probably admit to saying the same thing over and over again in a million different ways… thats what most spiritual teachers do…

the truth is that there are no problems… if we want to pretend there are problems we can… until we get tired of pretending… then the problems go away

(so… the external situation does not have to change for our problems to be negated… one second they are real and havey and oh so terrible… the next *pooof*… gone… and nothing has changed)

dezian

If you expected to sway me without providing a single shread of evidence, then you failed. Sorry.

I have to say there are plenty of female commentators who also reject the idea that our society is somehow unjust towards women. For recent example, read Barbara Kay’s column in the Globe and Mail regarding the Liberal party’s “pink book”.

Frankly, if you were man, you might also find yourself discriminated against in subtle and not so subtle ways. Just ask any man who’s been through the family court system, or who is afraid to give his own children a bath for fear of being accused of child abuse, the man who’s ordered to pay alimony to an ex wife who cheated on him with multiple men. Or the man who’s suffering spousal abuse but *can’t* tell anyone about it for fear of being ridiculed or simply not believed. That’s the reality of being a man, but I’d be willing to bet you don’t have any empathy for that, in fact I suspect your advice would be to shut of and stop whining. Which luckily for you, most men do.

If you want me to feel empathy for your supposed mistreatment by our society then you better start by showing me specific examples of just how are society wrongs you on a daily basis. The way I see it, women in our country can do pretty much anything men can do, and without restriction.

It’s high time the sexes stopped competing against each other and started realizing that we are simply different, and our differences are a strength, not a weakness.

Likewise, I think its very hurtful for you to assume you understand the feminine experience and for you to discount the extraordinary difficulties related to womanhood.

Your statement “I specifically reject the idea that women in modern North American society are subjugated. If anything the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction” demonstrates an alarming lack of empathy.

If you were able to live as a woman for one day, you would understand the subtle discrimination which we consistently endure. Have things gotten better in the last 40 years? Of course they have. Is there equality? It breaks my heart, but no. Not even close.

I guess I can’t expect you to understand what its like to be female, but I simply ask that you refrain judging things that you can’t possibly know about. Walk a mile and then you can judge the relevancy of Tolle’s comments on gender inequality…or PMS for that matter. Which, incidentally, I found to be very helpful in learning to manage this difficult time.

Thank you for taking the time to offer your comments.

I would like to let you know that you presented your viewpoint in a very clear and well thought out way, and what you said was enough to open my mind to giving Eckart Tolle a second chance in the future.

I still think Eckart was far less clear, perhaps intentionally, about these points.

I think that you’re overassuming a bit. Even though Tolle is talking about the collective pain women carry with them, he’s not denying that men have collective pain too, that men have been (and are being) mistreated.

One could, perhaps, say that the oppression of women is easier to point out, easier to define, considering that it’s not been too long that women have even been considered equally human.

Also, I think the part about gays is basicly stating “the ones who most get beaten up by their surroundings, have the most experiential material for transformation” – that is, the more pain you have endured, the more likely you are to search for answers and alternatives.

I also did not feel that Tolle is per se attacking the mind or declaring it “wrong” or “negative” – my impression of Tolle’s viewpoint, which I agree with, is that he’s just defining the ways that the mind tries to control, lie and cheat to keep its self-image constant. However, used properly and cooperated with, the mind is a great tool.

I specifically reject the idea that women in modern North American society (the primary target audience of his book being North America) are subjugated. If anything the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction.

And connecting it to PMS is just outright strange.

his message is basically, who you think you are is nothing but a self-construct made up of thought and emotional interpretations of things that happened, are happening, or ‘may’ happen. Therefore your attention is engaged in a tug-of war of past and future because its the backdrop of your form idenitfy — in your case ” Jonathan – a guy who doesnt hate gay people blah blah ,who grew up over here, went out with such and such, expects and believes such and such…all that is based on past ‘occurences’ that have conditioned you.

Who you truly are is ‘spacious conscious ‘unconditioned’ intelligence’ That underlying ‘awareness’ That, I am that I am, not I am Jonathan, etc…That unconditioned conscious awareness is more essentially who you are, and who everybody is. That consciousness can manifest in 2 forms as you and me – and then get lost based on our form identity – boy/gir/gay/str8.. and that’s were the joys and sorrows of duality lie.

Read his book again.