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The most helpful critical review
121 of 178 people found the following review helpful:
amazing clarity
This is possibly the most powerful and insightful book on spirituality ever written. The most amazing thing about it is its clarity - its account of the workings of the human minds is truly stunning. Like no other book I've read, it has an enlightening effect as you read it - you can feel the clarity and insight spreading to you. It has led me on to another amazing book...
Published 22 months ago by Janie
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Thought provoking and worth reading but there are drawbacks!
I really have enjoyed reading this book and no doubt it is has made me question my approach to life. I fully intend to put some of his theories into practice and I believe they will make a difference.
However, I am not religious and I found the last 30/40 pages a struggle with his bible quoting and references to Jesus and God and I think the content of what...
Published 4 months ago by M. Nettley
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121 of 178 people found the following review helpful:
amazing clarity , 28 Jan 2008
This is possibly the most powerful and insightful book on spirituality ever written. The most amazing thing about it is its clarity - its account of the workings of the human minds is truly stunning. Like no other book I've read, it has an enlightening effect as you read it - you can feel the clarity and insight spreading to you. It has led me on to another amazing book called the Fall by Steve Taylor, which is highly recommended by Eckhart on his website. The Fall provides a historical and cultural context to Eckhart's work, showing the ego's terrible effects throughout history and suggesting that, as a species, we are now transcending it. The Fall:the Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Thought provoking and worth reading but there are drawbacks!, 7 Jul 2009
I really have enjoyed reading this book and no doubt it is has made me question my approach to life. I fully intend to put some of his theories into practice and I believe they will make a difference.
However, I am not religious and I found the last 30/40 pages a struggle with his bible quoting and references to Jesus and God and I think the content of what he was saying was lost on me as I felt he was ramming religion down my throat.
His writing style is not very easy to follow, I ended up re-reading so much - which in part was good as it allowed me to reflect, however it became tiresome. It is also a shame as I think many people would have given up on the book. I also found his superior stance a little annoying, implying that he was of a higher level if you could not understand what he was saying or dared to disagree!
Overall a good book and I have gained some value from reading it.
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180 of 269 people found the following review helpful:
This book is the answer you have been looking for!, 23 Jan 2002
I have read many self-help books in my life, but not one has ever had the same impact on my life as the 'The Power of Now'.
Every word 'oozes' absolute truth and it can only have been inspired by the author first having had a life that made no sense. As a result, the author Eckhart Tolle had a total breakdown, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes and with more than a little help from The Buddha's teachings he analysed his life situation and
found that the basic problem was that his mind was 'all noise'from living in the past and thinking 'it will be alright in the future'. Recognise any similarities with yourself anybody?
Solution, get this book and start practicing with a conscious mind and living in the present moment.
Banish guilt, regret and grievences from your life. Learn to forgive and find peace. Recognise that the mind is basically all ego and that much of it is based on false characteristics, trying to be something that it is not, seeking power and influence that cannot be sustained. Where do you finish up? Often rejected by the world.
Living in the present moment does not mean withdrawing from modern society or even material possessions. What it does mean is living from a deeper perspective from within yourself, the 'inner being'and finding fulfilment well away from where you thought you would find it, somewhere on the outside.
The way Eckart Tolle describes the concept is not difficult to understand, but it will require consistent practice. Follow his clear directions and you will be able to experience relief immediately, even if only momentarily.
Buy this book, read it, re-read, practice its teachings and you will be on the road to a full, spiritually based (not religious), life that could only be dreamed of without it.
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19 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
The Power Of Now, 25 Feb 2005
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - at least the first 50 pages, as it does get a little repetitious. Whilst it is a book of wisdom I must voice some suspicions. Tolle's 'teaching' is not just similar to Barry Long's but very often the phrases are identical. I ask myself why Tolle claimed to need to define the word 'ego' when he uses it in a commonly understood way? It was almost as though he was distinguishing he use of ego from Long's which is that the ego is necessary for survival rather than part of a fabricated self that needs to be dissolved. Tolle leads us to believe he is coming from his own experience - something Long also insisted upon. So sincerity is a concern. Speaking as a meditator myself (on and off for some 30 years) intellectual clarity is a measure of the stillness of the mind and yet at times I wasn't altogether convinced of Tolle's message or even clear as to what it was. Why try to coin the word 'presence' when 'stillness' and 'awareness' need no introduction? It is almost as though Tolle wants to develop a teaching and an identity with it. Comments like, 'The pain body consists of trapped life-energy that has split off from your total energy body field and has temporarily become autonomous through the unnatural process of mind identification.' (p32) seem somehow affected. I wasn't convinced when he wrote, 'A strong unconscious emotional pattern may even manifest as an external event that appears to happen just for you' (p21) and 'Human beings have been in the grip of pain for eons, ever since they fell from grace....' (p25) How does he know it's eons? In fact, what tells him we were ever in grace in the first place? Nevertheless, I would heartily recommend this book, especially to a beginner. Apart from the whiff of platitude, it is largely written from experience but not from a Tathagata well gone - not yet anyway.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Ersatz Mysticism of the Very Worst Kind!, 10 Aug 2009
I wanted to enjoy this book ... really I did! I tried and tried but the more I read of it the more irritated and confused I became - so much so that I ended up throwing it across the room in frustration.
As earlier reviewers pointed out the basics to this system are possibly even older than the hills themselves. Zen is a wonderfully liberating and exhilarating process but goodness me this book reflected none of this! I found the attitude of the writer wholly incompatible with that of anyone who truly understands the Buddhist Way - the first stage of which is the annihilation of the ego. This is where I fell out with this book from the opening Preface where the author eulogizers at tedious length on his over-inflated opinion of its importance in the evolution of the planet. From here on in it went downward fast with mind-numbingly banal questions and answer sessions. It smacks somewhat of a very lazy style of writing and I can only suggest that its success is merely down to its title.
If you are attracted to its title then I suggest that better purchases would be 'The Divine Matrix' by Gregg Braden as to an introduction to the metaphysics of the eternal space of now and 'F**k It' by John C. Parkin for a wonderful guide to how to dissolve your ego and enter into that same space in order to truly reclaim your power without the awful pseudo-Christian 'guilt hangover' complex that this book instills in you.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting but oddly depressing, 10 Aug 2009
An interesting read that I found oddly depressing. Like the advocates of neuro-linguistic progamming who claim to be able to rewire our heads to make us see the world and our lives in a more positive light, there is a sense here that we should be renouncing, evading or rising above our condition, emotions and consciousness. I can accept that the mind is a learning, habitual device which will accept programming from negative experiences and can be taught to evaluate situations more positively. I can understand that Christianity offers an alternative to our way of life, and even to our world, and that many of the evolved survivalist instincts we carry can actually hold us back from happiness, enlightenment or development. What I don't agree with is Tolle's refusal to engage with the emotional, bloody striving of human life. It does seem that Christ saw that there was more to life than what we can physically see and intellectually understand, but the impression one gets from his teaching is of searching for ways to describe ineffable truths about the Kingdom, and his actions appear to suggest that righteous anger, painful love, physical sacrifice and deep, wounding and exhilirating emotion are part of God's plan for us. The kind of detached floating serenity Tolle offers as an alternative is not familiar to me from the Bible. This wouldn't be a problem if Tolle didn't repeatedly quote from the Bible and other sources (without annotations showing chapter and verse), and claim that these snippets support his argument, when in fact they often don't. Tolle is fond of explaining that Jesus is referring to "the Now" when in fact reading the quotations in context doesn't confirm that he is. I'm not as familiar with Buddhism, but unless Tolle's grasp of it is firmer than his hold on the tenets of Christianity, this book is likely to be more a personal account of spirituality than a useful introduction to Zen. Any book which suggests that seek the spiritual realities beyond the petty frustrations and quarrels of everyday life is not without worth to many readers, but the most convincing point in this book is that we should not allow the present time, or our presence, or our essential selves, to be contained by guilt and an expectation of failure learned from our past, or fear of the future. This concept has been explained in more detail in books such as A Course In Miracles, which Tolle refers to as an inspiration. By all means try this book, ignore the jarring mismatch between the Oprah-touted idea that this book offers a bolt of instant peace and happiness and the difficult Zen concepts that it introduces, but do also consider looking at the wonderfully rich narratives and full emotional engagement of the Bible, the Koran, and centuries of spiritual, emotional and scientific struggle that have brought us where we are today.
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14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Mish-mash of different ideas and religions, 7 Jun 2009
I am rather disappointed with this book. One reviewer on Amazon was right when he said that halfway through the book, religion (in the form of Christianity) sneaks in and starts to pervade the entire content. That really really puts me off and undermines the credibility of what the author is trying to say.
Basically, this book is an introduction to Zen meditation, mixed with Christianity, Buddism and all sort of new-age psychobabble. It makes ample use of pseudoscience, talking about 'energy fields' and 'vibrational energy' and other stuff like that. I'm a very open-minded reader (currently learning about the chakras system) but even to me, the way this stuff is presented is hard to take seriously. Some of his ideas are also questionable, such as the idea that you should never think of the past, or day dream, but rather live in this state of blissful apathy. I really am not sure how this will give you happiness.
However on the plus side, the book does introduce you to meditation, in particular Zen. I just think there are better sources to learn that from, rather than this God/Jesus/Christianty infested variety. It also does give you snippets of advice that you will find useful.
But overall, another hyped up disappointment.
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45 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
power to change your life now, 29 Mar 2004
By A Customer
I am a typical 21st century individual who likes to complain about my life situation, who hopes that the future has better things in store, who can't stand my own company and who has to fill the week-end with activities and who has a nagging little voice in the head which keeps saying:"you are not good enough and your life is not very good and other people have it easier and I deserve better than what I get".
I picked this book by accident and oh boy did it answer my questions about life! I just could not believe that a book could be so spot on, on what my concerns were in March 2004.
I recommend this book to everyone who is depressed or unhappy about their life and generally everyone who thinks that our planet earth is worth saving before our madness/unconsciousness destroys it. Eckart Tolle does explain very well that this is due to your pain body and your egoic self trying to keep you down.
After having read this book, I felt instantly happier, more calm and more in peace with myself. What Tolle preaches is not easy to do but it makes a lot of sense.
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19 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
This is life, 2 Jan 2004
I think one should question their definition of mentally imbalanced! Living life moment by moment has to be better than constantly reliving the past and living in anticipation of the future. This book teaches you how to live life to the full and appreciate and aknowledge the present moment, because nothing else is real except for the present moment.
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19 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
Probably the best book I've read!, 1 Nov 2003
You really should get round to reading this. It hits the nail on the spot. Top marks for simplicity. You start feeling a permanent positive change in your life from the first few pages!It certainly is a brilliant guide to Enlightenment.
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