Movie Review by Zinta Aistars
Studio: TOP RECORDS
DVD Release Date: September 30, 2008
Run Time: 90 minutes
Director and Actor: Eckhart Tolle
Price: $19.95
When the friend who sent me this DVD as a gift wanted to know what did I think of it, he knew I would tell the truth. My truth: I wanted to slap this simpering, snickering, snuffing little man NOW. As he spoke about life being in the now, and that the future is now, and that even if we were capable of time travel, the moment we arrive in that other time would be NOW, well, I simply wanted to slap him silly. In this moment. Now.
And really, I don't think I am so utterly intolerant. But all those odd little noises he makes. Oh. The little burps in the back of his throat as he sips from his water glass, now, and the seemingly involuntary (and maybe they are) little snufflings and simperings, the way he would laugh without laughing, as if it were such a dirty joke that our laughter must be politely suppressed ... oh, what an annoying being. In my now. That I would rather have in the past. The other and previous now.
All right, all right, so I get what he is saying. But it is not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, is it? That if we are always thinking of tomorrow, where we wish to be, all the changes we might desire, how we would improve on now if only, if only ... then we miss this moment, now. Got that. And on the other end of that time spectrum, if we are forever wallowing in our past, those golden days long gone, hind sight tainting them to a more golden hue than they ever were when they were NOW, and longing for some impossible return or revision, again, we miss this moment, NOW. Which may just be the most golden moment yet. Got that.
Yet isn't there great wisdom to be found in a bit of introspection? The learning of lessons, result of past mistakes, would be that. And shouldn't we have a few goals in mind down the road, some focus on which to train our eye, that we might actually be able to begin building, now, for that now to come?
Seems to me, the magic word here is not NOW. It is more like, BALANCE. Not overly staring over our shoulder lest we bump into some wall; not overly gazing toward the horizon, because it could be a very different horizon by the time we get there. It's all in the balance, not the extreme.
Not much of a water drinker, anyway. Put that water glass down, Eckhart, before you spill it ... in the future. Yeah, and Oprah? Missed on this one. My gifting pal? Still. Now. A pal who knows I tell the truth. As I know it. In this very moment. Could change tomorrow.
3 comments:
Thank you (now) for your honesty. I have read his books (sorry Eckhart - in the past) and wondered which part of discernment I was lacking because, in the now, I could not figure out what was so enlightening about what this gentleman had to say. There may be folks who spend their life continually rooting around in the past and/or future, but your point about balance is well taken. Where would I be today without a past or hope for the future? Nowhere, I think. It's comforting to know there is someone else who was not knocked off their foundation by Tolle's revelations.
Sincerely, Skye Leslie
You so nailed him on the video - he does suppress the laugh and make all these little noises and it came across as kind of crazy to me. Thanks for your review - I did not get my life purpose out of this video.
I don't think Tolle would disagree with your interpretation of balance. I think he is asking others not to regret or dwell on the past in unnecessary ways. Tolle would have died in a car accident if he didnt think of the future, so of course he does, and we will too.
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