The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eckhart TolleEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-09-27
ISBN: 1577311523
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: New World Library
Product features:
- Enlightenment
- Meditation
- The Eternal Present
- Spirituality
- Being present
Book Reviews of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Book Review: Open your heart
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a follower of Eckhart Tolle like many who live by his every word. I have meditated for last 20 years. Meditation has transformed my life in ways that I find hard to describe. I would be fine if I never read another word by Eckhart Tolle, as my Buddhist insight meditations are fully satisfying to me. Yet, I find it a great blessing that someone like him is with us on this earth. And he is not the only one who is awake - if you see carefully, you will find there have been quite a few enlightened beings or messengers on earth in very recent times, many more than there were in the past (for a small list - J. Krishnamurti, Dalai Lama, Tyohar, Osho, A.H. Almaas, Khalil Gibran, Neale Donald Walsche, and so on).
I want to address some of the critical comments in the most popular review on this book titled, "The Title Says it All," posted on August 26, 2003, by IAF_67 (USA).
The reviewer says, quote,
"To me, it seemed as if the author was simply repeating the same basic idea over and over again; which, again, is not necessarily a bad thing. However, it begins to become annoying when the book has as many pages as this does; and after reading all of them you feel as though you could have just read the title and received all the information from that."
This reviewer is complaining about the fact that this book repeats the idea of being in the "now" so many different ways. This reviewer is obviously looking for entertaining his "mind." He came to this book for the wrong reasons. The reviewer wants to enter the present moment (as stated in his first para), but it seems by USING the mind. This book will literally take you "out of your mind" and move you to your heart. And repetition is ok for the heart. Love repeats all the time, yet there is incredible newness if you can be present to many subtle dimensions of love. Only mind needs continuous diversity of what it perceives as "newness" because it cannot appreciate the newness in the slightest and subtle changes in the present that keep unfolding. The trees and animals can feel these, but the human mind is too clouded and burdened with the past and the future to feel these. I disagree with the reviewer totally about the book being repetitive. I find that Eckhart Tolle can bring alive the present moment from so many angles. If your heart is open and mind is silent you will find his writing very potent and loving, opening up new subtle doors on many pages.
The reviewer goes on further with his critique, quote,
"After reading this book a couple times, I still don't really know how to get to that spot of inner peace. I don't know, either, how to feel the "...still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher" (pg. 46). I don't even think there was a technique telling you how to achieve that, actually. Sure, the author has included some meditations, but they're nothing new. The same old "Direct your attention into the body. Feel it from within" (pg. 93) type meditations, which can be found almost anywhere else, even on web pages (for free, no less) are included in this book."
Whew! What was the reviewer expecting. I guess a mechanical technique that instantly enlightens him. I have meditated for 20 years. I have experienced moments of bliss many times now, but they do not happen simply by practicing a technique, using the mind. Wouldn't the whole of humanity be already enlightened if it were so easy? Letting the mind go and entering the heart is the hardest challenge for human beings. After all, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and many others have been "repeating" the same message of love and oneness for centuries. For this to happen we have to be in a total let go. Directing your attention to the body is needed to be grounded. That message wont change even for human being to be born in 2,500 A.D.
The spiritual insights do not evolve in the same sense as scientific knowledge evolves. Spiritual insights remain the same, but since the audience changes, new masters use new words. The audience was different at the time when Jesus lived, so Jesus used different words, but which conveyed the same insights even back then. Now the mind of the audience is different (much too clever and sophisticated) and so different words are needed to convey the same insights.
Yes, you can find similar statements made by many others, but you wont find the aliveness that you will in Eckhart Tolle's words. Have you heard any of his tapes? The immense depth and calm in his voice may surprise you.
Finally, the reviewer says, quote,
"Overall, this book did not live up to it's hype. I found it to be long and rambling; the author took the title of the book and expanded it into 191 pages full of the same idea phrased with different words. He attempts to tackle some other subjects too, of course, such as relationships. However, he basically uses the same "power of NOW" approach to these as well; meaning that he suggested a relationship would evolve into true love when both partners had eliminated their respective egos and become completely immersed in the now. That's the solution for EVERY problem, it seems. So he's just using the same message for different problems, which seems to be more of a "pie in the sky" promise to me."
This is your personal experience, but please don't exaggerate the importance of your experience for others. I don't know if you realize that deep down how incredibly "simple" all of spiritual insights are. But that is the problem, the mind is too egoistic and complicated to appreciate these insights. You need "love" to experience the connectedness, "awareness" to experience the present moment, and "honesty" to discover who you are. These same values are also in many spiritual paths, including even the "Conversations with God series" by Neale Donald Walsch, who is another great spiritual messenger. The heart can understand these in an instant, but the mind can take eternity, and still not figure it out. You seem to want different solutions for your different mental problems of worrying, fears, etc. (which you mentioned in your first para). The truth is that the solutions are not many. The same key opens up many doors. Humans want to hear the same solution using different words, however, and so we have so many Masters just doing that. The variety is needed not because the spiritual insights come in different flavors, but because of the human mind, which has incredible diversity with 6 billion people from so many cultures and conditionings. So my advice is simple - move to your heart, and you may actually experience the "pie in the sky" easier than if you were to figure out by continuously "thinking" using your mind.
I recommend this book to anyone with an open heart.
Summary of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Eckhart Tolle is emerging as one of today's most inspiring teachers. In The Power of Now, already a word-of-mouth bestseller in Canada, the author describes his transition from despair to self-realization soon after his 29th birthday. Tolle took another ten years to understand this transformation, during which time he evolved a philosophy that has parallels in Buddhism, relaxation techniques, and meditation theory but is also eminently practical. In The Power of Now he shows readers how to recognize themselves as the creators of their own pain, and how to have a pain-free existence by living fully in the present. Accessing the deepest self, the true self, can be learned, he says, by freeing ourselves from the conflicting, unreasonable demands of the mind and living present, fully, and intensely, in the Now.
Ekhart Tolle's message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment. And while this message may not seem stunningly original or fresh, Tolle's clear writing, supportive voice, and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever wondered what exactly "living in the now" means. Foremost, Tolle is a world-class teacher, able to explain complicated concepts in concrete language. More importantly, within a chapter of reading this book, readers are already holding the world in a different container--more conscious of how thoughts and emotions get in the way of their ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.
Tolle packs a lot of information and inspirational ideas into The Power of Now. (Topics include the source of Chi, enlightened relationships, creative use of the mind, impermanence, and the cycle of life.) Thankfully, he's added markers that symbolize "break time." This is when readers should close the book and mull over what they just read. As a result, The Power of Now reads like the highly acclaimed A Course in Miracles--a spiritual guidebook that has the potential to inspire just as many study groups and change just as many lives for the better. --Gail Hudson
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