I got my copy of _A New Earth_ by a Tolle fan who had read everything of Tolle's that he could get his hand on and had a couple of his lectures on DVD, and he felt comfortable giving me his latest book without my having read any of his earlier work.

My impression is that Tolle lays his groundwork not only in his first book but also in the process of developing all of his works. I don't feel as though I missed anything substantive by reading _ANE_ first--though I certainly wouldn't mind going back and reading _TPON_ someday...

I just bought New Earth as well. I thought you may be interested in what Eckhart had to say about both books from an essay I found on Amazon dot com.

"The One Thing" -An essay by Eckhart Tolle
This is a PDF file.

images.amazon.com/media/i3d...ttolle.pdf


"Why write another book?

Since the publication of The Power of Now, I have given hundreds of talks and teaching
sessions all over the world, and in the course of those seven years, the teaching evolved.
While the essence remained the same (The Truth is timeless.), new perspectives arose,
new signposts, alternative approaches to the Truth, as well as an added sense of urgency.
A New Earth reflects this evolution and this urgency.

If The Power of Now worked for you and changed your life – as it did for countless
people all over the world – there is no need for you to read A New Earth (although you
may enjoy reading it and may find some of it helpful in recognizing the ego and thus
sustaining the state of Presence).

My feeling is that A New Earth will make the teaching (the one thing) accessible to an
even wider audience, including people who perhaps would not have dreamt of reading a
“spiritual” book but have within them a hitherto unrecognized longing for spiritual
awakening.

A New Earth will also be extremely helpful for those who read The Power of Now,
found it interesting, but somehow missed the essence of it. It presents them with new
perspectives on the same truth, new signposts, pointers towards Presence. Different
pointers work for different people.

Millions are now ready to awaken because spiritual awakening is not an option anymore,
but a necessity if humanity and the planet are to survive. Everything is speeding up – the
madness, the collective egoic dysfunction, as well as the arising of the new
consciousness, the awakening.

We are running out of time. From the perspective of the ego, that’s bad news and will
give rise to fear. From a higher perspective, the running out of time is exactly what is
needed for the new consciousness to come into this world."