Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Stars seem irrelevant Review: It's exceedingly difficult to give this book a "star rating" because it may be the greatest book ever written, or it may be a total crock. Tolle says if you can get past your chattering, discursive mind, you will enter a new place of bliss and stillness. Is this true? I don't know. I can't get past my chattering mind. Sometimes, when I pick this book up, I think it points the way to the salvation of mankind. Other times, it makes me think of what my grandfather used to tell me: "If you don't put your tongue in the place where your old tooth was, you will grow a gold one." This is simply a nasty thing to tell a child -- give them an impossible task, and tell them something cool would have happened if only they had been able to do it. But both this book and the Power of Now do make one indisputably valid point: we spend too much time in our heads, when we should realize deeply that the present moment is ALL WE EVER HAVE. I have not achieved transcendent bliss since I discovered Tolle, but I do more frequently take notice of the HERE and NOW, and find I am somewhat happier for it.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Excellent companion to "The Power of Now". Review: I was stunned when I read some of the negative reader feedback Amazon customers submitted about this new book. I'll grant them that it might be best to have read "The Power of Now" as a prelude to "getting" the clearer, more distilled messages in "Stillness Speaks", but that does not diminish the impact of the book. "Stillness Speaks" is not wordy, obscure, or complicated. It is meant to be simple, and as the author often states, words are just signposts that awaken deeper truths that already exist within us. My opinion is not a prejudiced one. After reading his magnificent first book three times in a row, I'd been looking for another book that would help me to reinforce these new concepts for me. Quite frankly, I couldn't understand the reason Mr. Tolle wrote his rambling previous follow-up to TPON called "Practicing the Power of Now". However, when I picked up "Stillness Speaks" and browsed through it in a bookstore, I could not put it down. It now sits on my bedside table, where I can read a passage every morning. Like "The Power of Now", this book will lift your consciousness and change your life for the better . . . IF that is what you're looking for.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Excellent insights, but missing proper application Review: I can't argue with any individual section of the book. It's all right on the money, and 100% true. However, the problem I have with the book, is that while Eckhart explains why we should quiet our minds, he doesn't really explain the best ways we can apply this knowledge into the real world, here in the 21st century.
This book is written, based on the same exact principles that made the author famous. His "The Power of Now" books, which were fantastic. This book offers pretty much nothing new, but a condensed version of his other books. However, this book lacks the "How to" that his other books do. I wouldn't mind seeing a few chapters on how we can fit this sort of thinking into our real world lives. How we can quiet our minds in certain situations, with examples. The information in the book is solid, but I know personally, and from speaking to others, we're thirsting for more upon completion. Almost as if we got the message, but have no clue how to apply it properly to our lives.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Wonderful Review: I love this book. It has helped to heal and to strengthen my spirit. Among the most valuable books I have ever read. I read a little bit almost every day and it helps bring me to a calmer more peaceful place. I feel happier, I feel closer to those around me, and I feel that my life has become a much more open and beautiful thing since I have been reading the book. I recommend it to anyone.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: The Power of Slience. Distilled version - The Power of Now Review: I thought Stillness Speaks is a rehash of "The Power of Now" in one sense, but also a distilled version of "The Power of Now". The words Mr. Tolle says are meant to be experienced though it is the same old philosophy as "The Power of Now". That is why this book has lots of white spaces. That is why it is sectioned out with all the small paragraphs. If a book full of words is the one you feel you can get as much money back as you can, this is not the book for you because you are focusing too much on gaining knowledge. You want to adopt the words even before you can pause to see whether it makes sense to you. Your mind wants to be occupied with all the words so you cannot stop and to reflect.
This is a book you are not supposed to rush it through and read all of it in one day (though you can surely speed read it and be done in 2 hours because it is thin without too many words). It is supposed to be a book you read only one chapter a day to pause and to reflect slowly. You feel the words and you taste the words. You experience what he said without the noise that is always talking and judging. Then, you experience love and peace. Then, you are awakened from that voice in your head that is always talking and judging (egoic mind).
Also, when you are reading this book, you are supposed to take Mr. Tolle out of the picture as an identity (meaning the form of a spiritual teacher - does not matter whether you respect him or not). Mr. Tolle's words are just a gateway to our spiritual awareness to be in the presence and stillness. The words are meant to inspire and help us return to our authentic self (inner peace) - which exists in the presence. When we get into the mental position of, "What was he thinking when he was writing the book?" or judging "isn't it just a rehash of The Power of Now", you have already missed the point of the book - which is to stay presence and feel the words to achieve stillness. If you already have the book, why not read it with an open heart rather than complaining the white spaces/thin book? You already have it in your hands. Why can't you read it with gratitude and see what the words have to offer you?
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Stillness is Profound Review: Stillness Speaks is a profound book that has taught me how to go within, where inner peace dwells, and the clamor of outside influences can now be as they are, without my getting caught in the midst of the outer turmoil. I learned a great deal from this book, and I thank Mr. Tolle for bringing it out.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: What the world needs now... is this book! Review: Stillness Speaks is, by design, a shorter and smaller book than the author's previous one "The Power of Now". It's as if to demonstrate visually that it's not about "reading more" and "learning more" that brings one to a place of peace. In fact, Tolle often argues for the opposite, the quieting and stilling of the noisy mind, as the way to allow a greater peace and presence to appear.
The author's assumption is that this "presence/stillness/force" is benign and intelligent and good. Some people with traditional views may struggle with the ambiguity of exactly who or what this source of wisdom and peace is, since it's only loosely defined.
To get the most out of this book, the reader may need to suspend some long held beliefs about the world and their part in it, and see things from a new perspective that's free from a sense of self and ego. That's a major shift for many of us. So this is not light reading. To be taken seriously, it requires an examination of your belief system and that's always a bit scary and challenging. But that's often where growth occurs.
I would recommend this book for anyone who's goal is not so much success as it is peace of mind and congruity of life.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Comprehendible but not comprehensive Review: The author-reviewer who claimed that Eckhart Tolle just wrote "Stillness Speaks" in his own style despite what the common market wants is inaccurate. Tolle's title and cover alone suggest media tampering, and playing to the market and sacred dollar-given that Tolle chooses to hide-away and write instead of publicly teach.
Other writers have now jumped on the "The Power of Now" money-train (Tolle's first bestseller) to come up with ludicrous, convoluted titles like "The Power of this Moment".
What these one-step wonder books miss out on is comprehensiveness. The logic of "the now is all there is" philosophy is that there is nowhere to go after that - except writing books for profit. Tolle no longer sits on park-benches watching life go by but toils at his laptop so he has more lira to buy.
However, as a spiritual person, I would say that there are indeed further steps which these books do not broach. There is impersonal social responsibility as proclaimed by Andrew Cohen. Diet and energy-work to prepare for enlightenment taught by Dave Oshana. Simple being as taught by masters like Ramana Maharshi and Poonjaji.
However I would not want to see these topics written about by those who don't know about them as they were experts. So its just as well that certain authors do not go there. My advice is to find a really comprehensive teaching.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A book for awareness and peace Review: Stillness Speaks is a powerful book for those who want to come to a place of true inner peace, no matter what is happening on the outside. It is written with depth and simplicity, it is a sure guide for inner tranquility that teaches you how to come to that place within to discover your own genuine presence, and inner calm amid the chaos that may be going on around you. This book is packed with wisdom, and will certainly make a difference in your life if you really take it in.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: What a great book! Review: I doubt it! How can you be in the now while you're writing? Writing involves organizing thoughts and viewing them through the lens of memory and experience. And ironically, thoughts according to Tolle take you away from the NOW. So how can you be in the "NOW" when you are engaged in regurgitating so many word in so little thought :) Is Tolle a enlightened individual as he portrays himself to be - in the very portraying he unwittingly reveals he's not. However, I do agree that he sure is realizing decent chunks of royalty payments from all his books. It would have been nice to see him credit to ancient Indian scriptures from where he borrowed his ideas by referencing appropriately. But there are so many spiritually starved individuals that they would drink shoddy spiritual gossip and drink it as if it was eternal nectar - that would qualify them for a free ride
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