How some religious people often view New Thought-style spiritual advice: Should it really be discarded?
I am not inclined to give serious thought to "New Age-sounding" topics such as "energy fields" — much less discuss such topics seriously with conservative friends. So, taking the basic advice below, I now interpret modern spiritual teachings in a way that makes sense to me, without changing the essential meaning of the material. As a result, I can adopt a wide variety of wonderful, modern spiritual teachings and apply the knowledge in my day-to-day life.
I completely understand why many religious folks — particularly adherents to fundamentalist-style belief systems — tend to avoid or even criticize modern books and teachings having to do with New Thought, the Perennial Philosophy, Eastern spiritual traditions, or similar spiritual teachings.
Those raised within conservative fundamentalist religious environments (if they were anything like my own church and private school as I grew up) are likely to have their sensibilities offended by modern spiritual teachings when they appear to differ from Christianity. Good examples might be the teachings of modern spiritual gurus like Wayne Dyer and Eckhart Tolle — teachings that are often referred to as New Thought , the perennial philosophy, and other names.
The truth is, today’s spiritual seekers cannot help but be exposed to these kinds of spiritual teachings. Anyone who is even remotely a spiritual seeking type is most likely familiar with at least parts of present-day advice designed to bring about spiritual enlightenment. It seems to me that New Thought-style spiritual teachings are ubiquitous and pervasive in modern society (certainly a positive, very welcome development); however, as a seeking type, there’s no way I could have missed it.
Back to the point: Please don’t ignore these teachings.
As an ex-fundamentalist Christian who now has a strong belief in basic universal spiritual principles, I strongly suggest taking in modern spiritual teachings with a non-judgmental, open mind.
All intellectually honest, open-minded spiritual seekers will gain much by reading the books mentioned in this post. I guarantee it!
Please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I have since learned that a more intelligent, helpful, principled approach to modern spiritual teachings includes:
- Interpreting and translating certain phrases into more familiar, personally acceptable, traditional terms. (For example, "pain body" and "negative energy fields" are translated to negativity – and thus become more "acceptable" to me; also, I become more receptive to the teaching.
- Taking what you can and leaving the rest. (In other words: When certain spiritual terms or teachings seem not to apply to you, ignore that bit for now rather than discounting the whole book, developing a negative attitude toward all material by that author, or even worse — refusing to accept any teaching from the entire body of knowledge or spiritual tradition.)
In other words, please do your best not give in to automatic rejection of new-sounding spiritual teachings just because of any ingrained religious beliefs, traditional religious dogma and baggage, etc.
I strongly recommend Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
heavyweights. Examples include Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, Thich Nhat Hahn’s Art of Power, and the Dalai Lama’s Beyond Religion.
Background of this post
I strayed into this subject — conservative attitudes towards New Thought teachers (including modern spiritual gurus Eckhart Tolle and Wayne Dyer) — as I was blogging some of my thoughts about Eckhart Tolle’s teachings about unhappiness (in a post appropriately entitled Eckhart Tolle: Unhappiness). It was almost as if I were attempting to make excuses for, or explain, why I take New Thought spiritual teachings seriously — having come from a conservative, Christian fundamentalist upbringing that did not teach such things.
It’s rather interesting to note the sticky, even stubborn tenacity of the beliefs taught during one’s childhood, early schooling, and upbringing – which are still somewhere in our heads.
Thanks for reading!
Resources: Conservative attitudes toward modern spiritual teachings
- A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
- The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- Eckhart Tolle on Amazon
- Eckhart Tolle author page on Amazon
- Eckhart Tolle on Wikipedia
- The Power of Now – Wikipedia
- A New Earth on Wikipedia
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