Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New World Library (2001), Edition: 1, 128 pages
Description
New Age. Nonfiction. HTML: Eckhart Tolle is rapidly emerging as one of the world's most inspiring spiritual teachers, sharing the enlightenment he himself experienced after a startling personal transformation. His views go beyond any particular religion, doctrine, or guru. This book extracts the essence from his teachings in The Power of Now, showing us how to free ourselves from "enslavement to the mind." The aim is to be able to enter into and sustain an awakened state of consciousness throughout everyday life. Through meditations and simple techniques, Eckhart shows us how to quiet our thoughts, see the world in the present moment, and find a path to "a life of grace, ease, and lightness.".
User reviews
LibraryThing member bugeyzz23
This is a very powerful book that encapsulates the concepts from the original book THE POWER OF NOW. If you practice the concepts, you learn to live in the moment and not overthink things. It's wonderful if you can pull it off.
LibraryThing member tommiller
Outstanding Book
Great practical tools for inner peace.
Very simple, live in the moment focus.
Great practical tools for inner peace.
Very simple, live in the moment focus.
LibraryThing member SystemicPlural
'The Power Of Now' is better, but I love how this book presents itself as something explaining the original, but it is really just more of the same eternal truth in present moment experience.
LibraryThing member tony_landis
Found "The Power of Now" more useful but this book also serves a purpose
LibraryThing member MJC1946
His work is overrated.
LibraryThing member Dawna.Kreis
It took me quite awhile to finish this book. There was a great deal for me to digest. Even then, I believe this is one that I will have to periodically refer back to in the future.
"The mind identified state is severely dysfunctional. It is a form of insanity.
"Almost everyone is suffering from this
This is a concept that stood out so starkly and put things in greater perspective for me. It also gave new meaning to the words "we're all crazy here". According to Tolle, as long as we continue to identify with the mental self as our True self... We truly are.
"The mind identified state is severely dysfunctional. It is a form of insanity.
"Almost everyone is suffering from this
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illness in varying degrees. The moment you realize this, there can be no more resentment. How can you resent someone's illness. The only appropriate response is compassion."This is a concept that stood out so starkly and put things in greater perspective for me. It also gave new meaning to the words "we're all crazy here". According to Tolle, as long as we continue to identify with the mental self as our True self... We truly are.
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LibraryThing member JennysBookBag.com
Loved it, worth buying.
LibraryThing member DrT
March 31, 2022 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle
Why I picked this book up: I have been doing reading in mindfulness, really enjoyed Thomas C Oden’s The Structure of Awareness so I wanted to read this one.
Thoughts:
1. You are not your mind (I am not my thoughts)
2. The present moment is all we have. (So live in the moment). Listen to your mind for 10 minutes to see what it tells/tells you. What is missing from the present? Nothing, we can all handle the present. We worry about the future or guilty about the past. We need to be in the now. Use senses fully. Be where you are. Look around. Just look, don’t interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be.
Past—————-Now.—————> Future
We are always stuck in the now like Thomas C. Oden’s structure of awareness.
3. Acceptance of “what is.” Surrender to the now and accept what is There are no problems, only situations to be dealt with now. Or to be left alone and accepted as part of of the present moment until dealt with. If you cant take it, surrender take action immediately action, speak up or do something to bring a bout a change in the situation -or remove yourself from take responsibility for your life.
Why I finished this read: I finished it as I was draw in, am a Christian, have a lot to learn. About being in the present, am a beginner at being and was sad when it was finished.
Stars rating: 4.5 out of 5
by Eckhart Tolle
Why I picked this book up: I have been doing reading in mindfulness, really enjoyed Thomas C Oden’s The Structure of Awareness so I wanted to read this one.
Thoughts:
1. You are not your mind (I am not my thoughts)
Show More
“I’m such a…”, ”I wish I hadn’t…” “I hope that I…”. “I can’t wait until…”. Tolle asks when can u turn your brain off? What are the thoughts I observe throughout the day. I want to become the silent observer. Dis identify from the thought stream. We observe and are above the thoughts. It goes to longer gaps between thought (called “no mind” gap) during no mind gap we are more aware, awake, alert, and fully present in the moment. We focus on the now. Here we are aware of the present. We want to be conscious during our mind gaps that get longer. You feel a presence a stillness, a peace where we no longer depend on the future for fulfillment and satisfaction you don’t look to it for salvation. 2. The present moment is all we have. (So live in the moment). Listen to your mind for 10 minutes to see what it tells/tells you. What is missing from the present? Nothing, we can all handle the present. We worry about the future or guilty about the past. We need to be in the now. Use senses fully. Be where you are. Look around. Just look, don’t interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be.
Past—————-Now.—————> Future
We are always stuck in the now like Thomas C. Oden’s structure of awareness.
3. Acceptance of “what is.” Surrender to the now and accept what is There are no problems, only situations to be dealt with now. Or to be left alone and accepted as part of of the present moment until dealt with. If you cant take it, surrender take action immediately action, speak up or do something to bring a bout a change in the situation -or remove yourself from take responsibility for your life.
Why I finished this read: I finished it as I was draw in, am a Christian, have a lot to learn. About being in the present, am a beginner at being and was sad when it was finished.
Stars rating: 4.5 out of 5
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LibraryThing member goosecap
I probably won’t be able to do this as well as I might like, but that’s really not the worst thing in the whole history of forever, you know.
Anyway, first off, this is certainly an adequate summary of the teaching of Modern Eckhart, and also has some characteristics not present, really, in the
But really I want to talk about Eckie and education. It is true that I like to explore the more or less crazy or illusory world of books and ideas more than the mystic per se does, although it’s not as though Eckie has some rule you have to follow about how long you meditate versus intellectualize, you know. Reading is one of my favorite activities; for example, I read this really boring book about Mexican politics about how until recently corrupt politicians could spend anti-poverty money in ways that won elections primarily and helped poor people secondarily at best, and how the poor had to vote to support the status quo because they weren’t entitled to anything (and therefore were afraid of the machine). Of course, if you read about boring things, there’s no end to things, you know. Although to some extent I’ve never fully liked school, and even if I could afford to go back I don’t think I would, partly because as a youth I had no relationship skills, that being “not the proper thing” to learn at school, (I was a kiss ass, you know, much of the time), and also because of the nature of the thing itself, in our current situation.
I mean, I didn’t used to read books so much because I had all these vices springing from wanting to avoid life, basically, and now sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had, I don’t know, been a reliable kiss ass instead of a moody one. (My mother is an alcoholic; moodiness runs in the family.) But really the problem is much deeper, and more knowledge is often more of an entertaining game than a solution to the most fundamental problems of life. I wasn’t really treated the right way by the school system, even, really, in high school or whenever, and home was no balm, either. And god, when you failed, when you embarrassed them behaviorally, they shucked you off and punished you and downgraded you, you know; there was no balm in academia. Either you deserve honor or you deserve punishment, and if you play the game the way that you’re supposed to, honor never pleases the way that punishment stings—until you tell them to go to hell!
Of course, I did lash out and withdraw and so on and grasp at pleasure and generally act stupidly—not that we ever learned or wrote papers about, “how to live your life the right way”, you know. (In 2000 in Mexico, the PRI had an important battle ahead against the….”). But even when you were on the academic wagon, things were not good. In our everyone-is-the-same-but-most-people-aren’t-good-enough system, even to have it within your power, academically, to be conditionally good enough often isn’t that satisfying. Think of what high school is. You learn technical knowledge of like seven different subjects for forty-six minutes each, or whatever it is, you know; you’re supposed to be an expert in everything, and almost no one can do this minimum perfect thing, you know. No wonder kids rebel and say that they’re the best just because they’re skin is smooth or whatever—I don’t need your bullshit!
Although a lot of people do like the elitism on some level, or at least expect it; the point of life is to know more or do more, to prove that you’re better and smarter than everyone else, because…. Because that’s the only way to be happy, and we all agree it’s better for everyone for most people to be miserable, you know. And even most people who say that they believe in God or spirituality are just trying to show people up, to say nothing of clinically intelligent atheists and chemists, you know, so it’s not like I’d bet money on the system changing, although it doesn’t have to, for me to be happy. I do my best for the many people who have been wronged worse by the system, and those who do good things, and I take what I can that I need, and that and a little satisfaction is life, you know. They don’t really teach you that at school, though. They teach you status. They teach you how to insult people, without sounding like a pleb from Twitter, you know.
Obviously this review is a little sad, you know, although I think it’s relevant because Modern Eckhart doesn’t have the academic clout that build-a-better-mousetrap does, you know, and, I don’t know. I mean, you could be in sales or whatever I guess and meditate, but the average critic idiot measures “success”—the “most important thing”, the “only thing”—by how many widgets you sell, and whether you are happy and as far as it lies with you, facilitate happiness in others is just, crap for little girls and religious losers and lies you tell in front of television screens, you know.
I don’t know; this obviously isn’t a summary of the book the way that this book is a sort of essence of the first book, but it certainly does make you think or whatever, about what you value, about what matters—power or happiness, pride or happiness, pride or peace, you know. And if you haven’t received from God or whoever what you want yet, when do you think that this little error is going to be corrected, and how would you know?
Anyway, first off, this is certainly an adequate summary of the teaching of Modern Eckhart, and also has some characteristics not present, really, in the
Show More
other version of the book. But really I want to talk about Eckie and education. It is true that I like to explore the more or less crazy or illusory world of books and ideas more than the mystic per se does, although it’s not as though Eckie has some rule you have to follow about how long you meditate versus intellectualize, you know. Reading is one of my favorite activities; for example, I read this really boring book about Mexican politics about how until recently corrupt politicians could spend anti-poverty money in ways that won elections primarily and helped poor people secondarily at best, and how the poor had to vote to support the status quo because they weren’t entitled to anything (and therefore were afraid of the machine). Of course, if you read about boring things, there’s no end to things, you know. Although to some extent I’ve never fully liked school, and even if I could afford to go back I don’t think I would, partly because as a youth I had no relationship skills, that being “not the proper thing” to learn at school, (I was a kiss ass, you know, much of the time), and also because of the nature of the thing itself, in our current situation.
I mean, I didn’t used to read books so much because I had all these vices springing from wanting to avoid life, basically, and now sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had, I don’t know, been a reliable kiss ass instead of a moody one. (My mother is an alcoholic; moodiness runs in the family.) But really the problem is much deeper, and more knowledge is often more of an entertaining game than a solution to the most fundamental problems of life. I wasn’t really treated the right way by the school system, even, really, in high school or whenever, and home was no balm, either. And god, when you failed, when you embarrassed them behaviorally, they shucked you off and punished you and downgraded you, you know; there was no balm in academia. Either you deserve honor or you deserve punishment, and if you play the game the way that you’re supposed to, honor never pleases the way that punishment stings—until you tell them to go to hell!
Of course, I did lash out and withdraw and so on and grasp at pleasure and generally act stupidly—not that we ever learned or wrote papers about, “how to live your life the right way”, you know. (In 2000 in Mexico, the PRI had an important battle ahead against the….”). But even when you were on the academic wagon, things were not good. In our everyone-is-the-same-but-most-people-aren’t-good-enough system, even to have it within your power, academically, to be conditionally good enough often isn’t that satisfying. Think of what high school is. You learn technical knowledge of like seven different subjects for forty-six minutes each, or whatever it is, you know; you’re supposed to be an expert in everything, and almost no one can do this minimum perfect thing, you know. No wonder kids rebel and say that they’re the best just because they’re skin is smooth or whatever—I don’t need your bullshit!
Although a lot of people do like the elitism on some level, or at least expect it; the point of life is to know more or do more, to prove that you’re better and smarter than everyone else, because…. Because that’s the only way to be happy, and we all agree it’s better for everyone for most people to be miserable, you know. And even most people who say that they believe in God or spirituality are just trying to show people up, to say nothing of clinically intelligent atheists and chemists, you know, so it’s not like I’d bet money on the system changing, although it doesn’t have to, for me to be happy. I do my best for the many people who have been wronged worse by the system, and those who do good things, and I take what I can that I need, and that and a little satisfaction is life, you know. They don’t really teach you that at school, though. They teach you status. They teach you how to insult people, without sounding like a pleb from Twitter, you know.
Obviously this review is a little sad, you know, although I think it’s relevant because Modern Eckhart doesn’t have the academic clout that build-a-better-mousetrap does, you know, and, I don’t know. I mean, you could be in sales or whatever I guess and meditate, but the average critic idiot measures “success”—the “most important thing”, the “only thing”—by how many widgets you sell, and whether you are happy and as far as it lies with you, facilitate happiness in others is just, crap for little girls and religious losers and lies you tell in front of television screens, you know.
I don’t know; this obviously isn’t a summary of the book the way that this book is a sort of essence of the first book, but it certainly does make you think or whatever, about what you value, about what matters—power or happiness, pride or happiness, pride or peace, you know. And if you haven’t received from God or whoever what you want yet, when do you think that this little error is going to be corrected, and how would you know?
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
7.5 inches
ISBN
1577311957 / 9781577311959