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Summary: The Most Powerful Book I've Ever Read
Review: This book has lightened my life in a way no other book has. It is not only the best book we've ever published (in my opinion), but the most powerful, life-changing book I've ever read.We first heard about the book from one of our distributors in Canada, Barbara Dempsey. She said it had become her single best-selling book -- and she distributes books by Deepak Chopra, Shakti Gawain, and Lousie Hay, among many others. "The Power of Now" had that elusive word-of-mouth quality that only a very few remarkable books have. I got a copy of the original edition, published only in Canada, and it had an instant impact on me. From the first page of his writing, it is clear that Eckhart Tolle is a contemporary master. He is not aligned with any particular religion or doctrine or guru; his teaching embraces the heart, the essence, of all other traditions, and contradicts none of them. He is able to do what all the great masters have done: to show us, in simple and clear language, that the way, the truth, and the light is within us. A state of enlightenment is attainable, here and now. It is possible to live free of suffering, free of anxiety and neurosis. To do this, we have to come to understand our role as creator of our pain -- our own mind, with its constant stream of thoughts, thinking about the past, worrying about the future, causes our problems, not other people, not "the world out there." We make the great mistake of identifying with our mind, thinking our thoughts and feelings are the sum total of who we are, when in fact we are far greater beings. Eckhart Tolle's words are far more clear and eloquent than mine. His book is a complete guide in meditation and realization. It is a book that many people, including me, will want to study for a lifetime. It has the power to change our lives, here and now, and to awaken us to fully realize that we are vast and eternal beings, far greater than we think we are.
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Summary: Read It
Review: Eckhart's methods stitch together the lessons of the sages into a tangible experience. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: If there was only one book i could read for the rest of my life, this would be it! Tolle speaks to the "knower" behind the knowing. Read it and experience it for yourself....
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Summary: Not for people who want to make and keep life complex.
Review: Cuts to the bottom line in where humanity is evolving to. Most people will have resistance to its message for it offers such a profound but simple gameplan that the mind will struggle with it because there is nothing for the mind to do! The books gameplan is to go beyond mind to "all that is" which instanly puts a human being in connection to their 'Being'which is beyond the understanding of the human mind. This is done simply by eliminating time - by Being in the now.
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Summary: Truly transformational.
Review: This book is very easy to read. The approach is simple and direct approach, yet conveys a great depth of meaning. This is the kind of book that is best read slowly to savour all that has come before.
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Summary: A clear and practical explanation of the spiritual journey.
Review: This book is much more than words. I actually experienced the energy behind words as I read. It is quite an extrordinary book, and all the people I know who have read it were profoundly moved. This is especially interesting as the book promises neither fame nor fortune. It only points the way to freedom, a state beyond the madness of the mind.
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Summary: Absolute truth, answers and awakening for humanity
Review: The Power of NOW is a deeply profound book, one the few that has greatly impacted my life. Eckhart Tolle brings us the depth of wisdom from his own spiritual awakening, and serves to provide us all with the tools to move beyond pain and suffering, into personal freedom.
I HIGHLY recommend this book as one of the few out there that will genuinely help you to transform your life. This book clearly helped me do just that. It is an astonishing read, and will surely bring you much in the way of enlightenment and understanding.
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Summary: Don't Climb the Signpost
Review: Tolle's book is an important one... a much needed reminder that is too easy to forget. All too often people can pass entire lifetimes 'missing the moment.' One can, like the worst type of junkie, become so comfortable with-and so used to-anxiety, worry, and procrastination that to simply experience tranquility in the present becomes an impossibility. For such people, the simple and inspirational teachings that The Power of Now details can incite a revolution in one's experience of being alive. That being said, though, this book possesses flaws and confusions that must be sifted through using a keen sense of criticism (yes, this too, is an important faculty of the healthy human being). First of all, becoming present is a practice-not a realization. I'm not sure Tolle makes this clear. Like any 'new thing' the appreciation of the present moment can seem novel and exciting but if one doesn't make it a practice and use discipline to habitualize the practice, then one will have merely another gimmick, a spiritual toy to play with for a while and then put aside. The reason why all the schools of enlightenment require masters and students and instills its practitioners with discipline and a set of methods is because nothing in life comes all at once but must be cultivated with care over a period of time. Because of this truth, I genuinely doubt Tolle's claim that after his midnight awakening he was-all-at-once-transformed, never to require further training or practice. The experience he describes at the beginning of the book might just as well be labeled a psychotic break as a religious experience. Either way, the genuine appreciation of the moment can neither be totally 'on' nor totally 'off.' It is a variable experience that can be developed but will always remain part of the organic experience of being alive. Be wary of those who seem to show no anger, no sadness, no flaw... such people are usually very good actors and nothing more. Spend time with such people, in different types of contexts, to reveal the true human being. No unidimensional personality can exist in reality. We are always part of our context and environment and no matter our training or character can be expected to occasionally fall short of others' expectations. A guide to enlightenment, then, should teach us that enlightenment is neither a great distance away nor too near. It is thoughtful experience revealed through action and word. I have seen car mechanics who are enlightened beings when they work on cars but atrocious when with their families. I have met novelists who convey all the wisdom in the world through a pen but seem haughty and fractured in normal human conversation. And I have met spiritual 'masters' who secretly creep away to have sex for the sixth time in a day or to check their stocks on the internet. Enlightenment is a myth, and some people treat it like a commodity to purchase or sell. To live well requires the experience of the present-often-but not all the time and in all situations. Joseph Campbell once expressed the opinion that the type of enlightenment we have become familiar with is unique to a conception of self that was once fairly common in Asia. The type of self most moderns live by, especially we very 'special' Westerners with our love for 'Individuality' and 'Self-Expression,' excludes the possibility of such an experience. Perhaps it is time, then, we drop this idea and redefine what enlightenment should mean now-and to people like us. Use this book as a pointer and compass, not as a map. The Buddha said it best, Be Lamps Unto Yourselves. I would add-and don't hide from the dark when it comes.
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Summary: Good Concepts
Review: This book really drove the point home about living in the Now. I listened to the book on tape, and some of the things that the author said were difficult for me to understand, because I don't think I've heard them before. I wasn't familiar with alot of the terms he used. But the parts I did understand, I found very interesting.
I think if you are new to these concepts you might have a hard time. But there is still plenty in the book that the beginner can understand and use.
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Summary: . . .Not A Keeper For Me
Review: My late husband and I bought this book after hearing so much about it through spiritual channels. He liked it, as he was always open and receptive to anything that talked of Truth. I was disappointed in it. Although I can certainly relate to the 'Now' as being the only power, because God is the only 'Power' and God is certainly in the 'Now', I found it somewhat repetitive. Once I grasped what he was saying, the rest became boring as I realized I already knew what he was talking about so why go further?
I did not find it 'spiritual' but rather psychological in its deliverance of, what seemed to me, overcoming one power with another. Also, Tolle writes a lot about pain, which seems like the mind wants to stay on that word and have it etched rather than on the opposite one of 'health' or 'well-being' or God. Now I know a lot of people have pain in their lives and this is a very real word to eliminate or 'overcome' with the power of 'now', but I think he emphasized the word 'pain' too much. For those who use affirmations as a way of overcoming negatives, this book would not have done it for me, and it may not for you either. I really don't know how the book got to be so popular. Tolle must have had a good advertising campaign to get it off the ground and into people's homes through promotion.
It may be a good book for those starting on a spiritual journey or for those who are not quite there yet, or as a complement to other spiritual books in one's library, but it didn't appeal to me as a book worthy of holding on to.
Gail Gupton, Author, 'The 31-Day Diet of Spiritual Enlightenment'
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