I've been enjoying Eckhart Tolle's class on Oprah.com very much. I was not blown away by his book A New Earth, but I find Tolle to be absolutely heartwarming to watch.

One of the things Tolle shares in A New Earth is his belief that women are not as susceptible to the ego as men are. Well, Tolle, I appreciate that you revere women so much, but as a female I beg to differ. Never mind my own fantastic, stubborn ego. Ego is at work in many women in our culture today, as we focus on our looks instead of our brains, our bodies instead of our hearts, and our appeal to men instead of our appeal to ourselves.

by Stephanie Brail

Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual teacher and author of the bestselling Power of Now. A New Earth is his second runaway bestseller, bolstered by Oprah's Book Club and Oprah's phenomenally successful online course about the book. A New Earth is the first book by Tolle I've read (though I've known of him for years) and has served as my introduction to Tolle.

A New Earth, according to Tolle, will shift your consciousness and "awaken" you, if you are ready. He claims this in chapter one - a bold statement, I felt, for a guy who claims to be anti-ego. But there's something exciting about feeling like you're one of the "chosen ones," those who are supposed to be awakened at this point in history as our earth is in crisis. (Just don't get too caught up in your ego about it.)

Here's one of those amazing little synchronicities. I was at the library last week, looking for some books on yoga. I could not find what I was looking for, so I was aimlessly perusing the self-help/spirituality section to see if anything jumped out at me.

Then it occurred to me that maybe I should get a book by Eckhart Tolle. I have a few friends who are really into him, but I've never read any of his books. (Frankly, the whole Power of Now thing never spoke to me that strongly. Yeah, be in the moment. I get it!) I never had any urgency in reading him, but for some reason felt I should get a book by him that day.

Well, I looked around and there was no Tolle to be found. So I picked out some books and made my way to the exit. On the way out, I distinctly heard a librarian on the phone saying to a patron, "You are looking for a book by Eckhart Tolle?" The librarian repeated the name a few times as he was looking up Tolle on his computer.