azureseas

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

wow! I haven't finished this book yet but it is fantastic. Life changing for me. I think it would appeal to all my secular friends.
Has anyone else read it and found it enlightening? Its a simple concept but I had never thought of things this way.

There are a ton of reviews here if folks are interested that can do a better job than me
Amazon.com: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (9781577311522): Eckhart Tolle: Books

freethinking

Loved it! Read it a few years ago - I should reread it again probably...

FT

Hi asureseas,

If you liked the Power of Now, I think you would love "A New Earth" even more. I think Tolle wrote "A New Earth" first, and I absolutely loved the book. I still read it over and over, have passages marked, and find something new every time. I also found the audio version read by Tolle himself to be fantastic. He is not a native English speaker, and his voice is very soothing and hypnotic.

Thanks for sharing Tolle here. I am constantly recommending it, and so many people are turned off by so-called "self-help" books, they are missing out if they haven't discovered Tolle yet.

Very life changing for me as well.

FT

azureseas

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check that out

LaFemme

I tried reading it back when I drank...might be time to read it sober

azureseas

Discovered Eckhart Tolle on Oprah's first Life Class, the one about ego.
Its a good introduction to him as I think I could of been put off by first impression and my preconceived ideas
You can watch the webcast on the Oprah here:
Oprah.com - Live your best Life - Oprah.com
The link is funky & goes away when she is live, like now, I think you can see it on her facebook

freshstart57

I am reading The Power of Now, after Jon Kabat-Zinn's No Matter Where You Go, There You Are.

I am finding that these are not so much self-help books, but an introduction to a different world of perception and knowledge, if that makes any sense. I look at the style of writing, and think that I should be able to speed right through, but I am finding that these books are tough going. I can stop at the end of every chapter or even most paragraphs and ponder. I know I will read them again.

freethinking

I can't remember which one of the books talks about "frequency holders" and all that jazz, but that one was my favorite. I also have some of his CDs somewhere and they got in my head as if I was on an acid trip. It forever opened doors of perception I didn't even know existed...in a good way. Made me question basic "facts" of my reality.

azureseas

The audio book version is a lot easier to tackle, lots of rewinding and re listening

Mattcake

I have a problem with "The Power of Now". Tolle supposedly had a sudden lightning-bolt experience that led him to some sort of spiritual enlightenment. He describes this in the intro.

He then proceeds to explain a system ("Now") so that other people can experience this spiritual state. The one problem is, he himself did *not* practice any of it, at least not at first. His esoteric "change" was immediate.

freethinking

I never considered that - good point.

FT

If the point is that you need a "guru", then Tolle is probably not your man. He never claims to be one in the books, not that I can recall anyway.

I don't much care whether Tolle sets a personal example or not anyway. Maybe he wasn't the first to describe the "ego", but he makes the concepts more user-friendly than Freud, and the point that NOW is all we ever have was not lost on me.

Personally, as I said above, I prefer "A New Earth" where he develops his ideas. I found Tolle years ago, before he was ever on Oprah. I'm glad I did, because if I had found him there, I would probably never have read any of his books.

FT

freethinking

I felt the point he was making is that he came to his "spiritual awakening" by a profound experience. Could he have achieved what he has "spiritually" or in terms of enlightenment (whatever word you want to use) if he had to do it solely by the way he explains to the rest of us? It's a good point IMO - but I agree FT. He has opened me up to the "fact" (for me) that the only thing that truly exists is right now and that is all that ever matters.

flyawayfromhere

I'm going to get the audiobook for this...sounds like a fantastic book. I was wandering around Amazon last night (can you really wander around an online store? lol) and ended up buying the MP3's of Music to Quiet the Mind and it's really good...bearing in mind though that I'm a huge sucker for relaxation music.

flyawayfromhere

Made it through 2 of my 6 audio CD's on this this weekend...this is fantastic! It actually makes me think of AVRT a little bit how you should become an observer of your mind and bring your consciousness back into NOW where your problems don't exist.

I wonder if anyone has had any great success applying Tolle's insight on a daily and long term basis so much as it actually vastly helped them delete their perceived problems.

So very fascinating though, can't wait to listen to the next 4 CD's...will need another road trip. lol

Tosh

I agree. Tolle basically had a spiritual experience that left him in what some may call an Enlightened state of being.

He then went on a spiritual search to try and put this experience into a 'cup', and it seems the cup he put it in was Buddhism.

Tolle is teaching Buddhist mindfulness practise (in a rather grandiose manner), in the PoN; but that's all it is.

And mindfulness is pretty common these days in the realms of mental health treatment; it's usually taught as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) by mainstream psychiatry; they just don't use the word 'Buddhist' when teaching this stuff.

lostbutterfly

sounds interesting, must see if the audio book is available on audible.com so i can put it on my ipod.

Tosh

You'll find loads on mindfulness all over the interweb; it's basically about reining in your thoughts into the present; right here, right now. Not taking out the trash and thinking about the bills that are due; but doing one thing at a time.

It's kinda like meditating on the move; and neuroscience think meditation helps with mindfulness; it conditions the brain into being more present, rather than ruminating in the past, or worrying about the future.

It's a practise though, not easy. If you could remember to do 20 short periods of mindfulness per day, that'd be pretty good going. I try, for example, to use red traffic lights while I'm driving as 'bells of mindfulness'. So when I'm driving and a light changes to red, it's a reminder to rein in my thoughts into the present and really just try to feel what's going on with my body and senses without the cognitive dialogue that's always going round my head. It kinda changes something unpleasant, into something a little more pleasant.

Hope that helps. And there is science (google) to back both mindfulness and meditation up (they really go hand-in-hand I think).

soberlicious

I haven't read The Power of Now, but I love A New Earth. Tosh, I noticed immediately the overlapping of Buddhist principles with Tolle's work. Both have a heavy emphasis on ego/self not seen as a separate entity.

I used to always be rushing round, exasperated in traffic, impatient in line at the grocery store. Now The red lights, lines at the grocery store, drive through are all opportunities for yogic practice. A friend of mine always says "take it to your breath" lol I love that. Simple but oh so powerful.

soberlicious

and by "simple", I mean a simple concept...not always easy to practice in today's world though...