This book is not for anyone who is below a certain echelon of spiritual enlightenment, which is relatively high. It can induce a veiled apathy which is dangerous towards the true lessons learned in one's life.

It is almost nihilistic in its attitude towards reality, this guy is RATHER egotistical, and although I do not doubt his spiritual path, he fails to see the VAST variety of paths which one can choose towards enlightenment. Save your money.

I Love all his books- Mr. Tolle is So inspirational. This books speaks truths to my soul that are life changing.

In this life-changing book, Tolle explains how mankind lives primarily in the future or the past. We are always either looking toward to the future for fulfillment or are overwhelmed by the past. Tolle elucidates that the only moment we ever have is the present moment. In the presence, Tolle claims, lies the only true power and source of happiness and enlightenment. This book is extremely well-written and enjoyable.

Being in the moment - but so beautifully explained you'll get there are least once. All of his books are worth reading, and with all of the doing and striving we are involved in, it's nice to just "be" in a health way. Give it a try!

This exciting book is not for everyone. It requires an open mind and a fearless curiosity about our true natures as spiritual beings. Building on concepts of the spirituality traditions (Krishnamurti, Biblical texts, others), Tolle extends and explains them in plain English, providing through examples, sacred texts, and observations, the unique association we share with existence, the influence and traps of the mind, and ways to use our bodies as portals to our true essence, which is presence, peace, and joy.

This book has helped me beyond my belief! We all have emotions, and we cannot help how we feel. Now, imagine if you were able to take control of those emotions, and emerge as a strong and capable leader? We all know that leaders must manage and control their emotions. What do we do if we cannot? How can we learn to manage something that appears so difficult to control?

Its easy! Read this book! The Power of Now explains the "pain body" that exists within our cells. Past hurts stack up over time, and if they are not addressed, they will be expressed. What a relief to learn how to control those emotions that just do not serve us!

Everyone needs to read, understand and apply the concepts in this book!

Andrea Samadi, author of The Secret for Teens Revealed: How Parents, Teachers, and Teenagers Can Inspire Leadership and Transform Lives

How many times have you purchased a self help/growth book with high expectations? I would usually read the jacket and say, "that's me" or that those are the goals for myself I wish to achieve. I would eventually finish it, put it down and find nothing has changed. For myself, more times than I care to count. This is the first time I have found a book to actually work and show results.

The book is basically about being present. You wouldn't think that more than a few paragraphs would be needed to explain the benefits of being present and the consequences of not being present. However, every sentence in this book provides insight and clarity I wouldn't have thought possible to convey with words.

I find myself reading no more than a page or two at a time, reflecting on what was said, and then putting it into practice. If you read this book like a novel, I believe it would be difficult to fully grasp what the author is saying. My mind has become less busy, I am not as easily distracted, I worry less about the future and negative past events no longer effect me, or at least not as much.

This is the first time I have felt compelled to review a book because this is the first time I have had results. I hope you give it a chance.

Although this book may get a bit too far "out there" towards the end for some people, the essential tenets are so profoundly true and helpful, I'd say it is a must read for anyone. The power is all in the now.

After reading happiness books like Finding Happiness in a Frustrating World, I felt like I had a good handle on what science had uncovered about how to live a happy life and have to say that I am MUCH happier for having read them. But, while the field of positive psychology has made some great contributions to my happiness levels, it's books like The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment that come along and let you know there's STILL more you can learn.

A key concept of the book (if I'm explaining it right) is that you will start to experience a certain kind of enlightenment when you learn to leave your analytical mind behind. In other words, instead of "thinking" try just "observing your thinking." And when you do this, you also need to realize that all this "thinking noise" that goes on in your head all day long is not really who you are- an enlightening concept indeed!

To that end, the book is set up in a question and answer format to help you get to understand these kinds of concepts. While it might seem ridiculous to some, it really isn't. Case in point, we all talk to ourselves or have witnessed others talking to themselves at times (maybe during a sporting event perhaps). If you ask someone who they are talking to, they will usually say "I'm talking to myself." And this, by definition, means that there have to be two "selves", an "I" talking to "myself"- and so justifies the idea of two selves (a "you" and a "thinking you" in the book).

Well, if these seem to be the kind of concepts you're ready to explore, this is your book. It raises some good questions and certainly brings up one that you can't argue with: all we have is the here and now. As the book so astutely points out, "Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing ever happened in the future, it will happen in the Now." And learning to live in the now IS the point of the whole book.

...the present moment is all you ever have. "There is never a time when your life is not this moment." This passage from the book, hit me like a ton of bricks. Why am I worrying about the past and the future? I'm just putting myself through a type of "hell" on earth. My problems are not occurring right now, they either already happened or I'm projecting a problem into the future, I can not change them now! Why bother worrying? Why not find peace and happiness in my own present moment.

This is an excellent book. I found it at the perfect time after reading a marriage self-help book that was based on self-differentiation. This book is helping me "hold onto my true self" not my mind made self, but the self that is underneath all emotional baggage.

I highly recommend this book!

This book is better than I thought it would be. I had read "A New Earth" previously so I expected this to not be much different. But it was different! And totally excellent. I want to sleep with this book!

I found this book to be beyond wordy. THe atempt to be profound seem to be the message not the words themslves. Many others have said the same without so much fluff.

If you are ready, this book can show a completely new and better way to look at life = your life.

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

This book sheds light on the subject of the overwhelming ego in Men and Women and how it controls us. It explains how to not only observe the unconscious programming, but how to train your mind to overcome it a discover who you are truly meant to be.

This is an excellent book which should unseat all our false modes of behaviour, reference and logic. We facilitate the finance houses in collaboating with them in cheating us out of our present. This book should rid us of all the fears we shore up about our lives. We should be able to undo the hold of the past & the tyranny of the future. What perfect timing for this book. For these thoughts & insights just as the western world especially is going through a very necessary correction process. We placed too much emphasis on the wrong things for too long & we completely allowed all of our commodies to be over-valued.

This book is amazing. I am a person who takes everything personally worries about the future and the past all the time and never has time to enjoy now. I am in a transition period in my life and can't stop thinking about the future. I am a college student who never thought that now mattered, I always thought about what will happen after I graduate. I have also been clinically depressed for at least five or six years. This book put it all into perspective. It put details into what I knew somewhere in my heart and explained that what has happened in the past is not who I am and my Ego is just something that gets in the way but is not truly me! I was always defining myself with events in my life and how I saw my future (which is sometimes a really scary thought). "The Power of Now" let me look into my soul and find my true spirit. Things that would have given me anxiety attacks and sent me to xanax and bed, now let me look inside and push myself to see who I truly am; not to look back, or forward but to NOW. This book alone will not give you perfect peace but if you use the book as a guide and work on it yourself you can achieve peace in most of your life; maybe one day in every aspect.

I gave this to my sister who's been struggling for about a year or so. She's already writing in plans for the new year. I highly recommend this as a gift for someone else or yourself.

I am a middle-aged professional with an academic background in philosophy.

As I grew older, I felt more strongly that there must be a spiritual realm to our existence. But I relegated myself to the belief that any understanding of this spiritual realm was not to be. That such things would remain a mystery. At times, I would have more spiritual feelings and sensations which reinforced this belief, but still felt that my belief of the spiritual realm would be faith-based and could never go beyond this.

As I entered into my forties, I entered into unrest and discontent with life. I felt spiritually, intellectually and even emotionally dead. Raising two great children and being married to a wonderful person was not enough. The routine of daily life was not fulfilling, materialism provided nothing of spirtual value, and I walked through life with a general feeling of discontentment.

About a year ago, I entered Barnes and Noble because my 11 year old daughter wanted to buy some new books. I dropped her off in her BN department and walked straight across the floor to this book which was sitting on a shelf -- the book not being singled out or advertised specially. It was the Power of Now. I picked it up, looked at the cover and decided to allow myself to impulsively purchase it (something that was out of the ordinary for me).

The next two weeks were incredibly intense for me. And what happened after that was even greater. Tolle's words rang truth to my core. For the first time in my life, my existiential views were married/bridged with a deep spirituality. It made sense. I couldn't put the book down. As I read it, I used the meditation practices that Tolle subtley infers. The inspiring energy of his words aided me immensely to get into a transcendental realm -- a switch. Not magic, not really enlightenment (as the term conjures up something unreachable and unrealistic). But I felt at peace and felt joy. I felt intensely transformed. The world came to me and I accepted what it gave me. I accepted the world existentially. My mind was finally much, much calmer. For the first time as an adult, my mind didn't control me. People and my environment vibrated with a vibrant energy. I knew (not believed, not faith) that there was a One Being that essentially came from stillness or silence and everything was one with that One Being. (Reminiscent of what I think Sartre's Being and Nothingness painfully attempted to point out). I felt this sense of peace on and off for a month or so. Admittedly this intense feeling declined somewhat as a result of some crisis life situations that proved too difficult to surrender to. I am still "working on it" with the joy of knowing that this spiritual realm exists.

This book is the greatest book I've ever read which -- to me -- says much considering I have read many of the great works of literature and most philosophers. No book has come close to this. Tolle's presentation (and what he calls "sign-posts") are succinct and clear. The only problem I have with this book -- and I say this with humor -- is how the book was marketed. Its title, "The Power of Now," and cover art is so sensationalistic that it looks like it should part of an info-commercial along with Ginsu knives and the Ronco fruit dehydrator. I fear that many in the academic world will dismiss the book as such without giving it a chance. I hope I am wrong. I also hope that if the world makes deeper into the future, that this book is mandatory reading for all students.

I hope you find the energy of my review helpful.


The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

When I saw Oprah mention this book on her show I ran out and got a copy right away. All I can say is THANK YOU VERY MUCH OPRAH. Excellent book teaching you how to live in the now. The best book I have ever read that exposes the false self (EGO) and how the primary job of the ego is to take your happiness away and create all kinds of problems every day.

Here's the ego's program that it is running to justify it's existance "Never Satisfied"

No matter how a situation turns out, the ego will find a way to be unhappy about it.

P.S. The book is so good, I ran out and bought extra copies for all my friends and family.

...and it's not even the "best of", sort of reference.
My thoughts are, that this guy is potentially a cult figure, with followers who are grabbing at straws. I can't imagine what Oprah was thinking. Her original spiritual strengths, were strong enough to take her, further than most people can imagine going.
2-stars is over-rating his books...in my book.
My concern:
Charlatans, exploiting those who may be needing real help.

Very useful for me. I was sure that this book will be what I want, before buying it. And it is. Many thanks to the author.

No matter if you're religious, spiritual, or neither, Tolle's gift to the world is this book and it should be read before one dies (sooner rather than later, if you really want to improve your life). Westerners are especially poor at living in the now...we have no examples or teachers of this in Western society -- or few, at best. Until one discovers how to live in the moment (this will take much practice and re-reading or re-listening to Tolle), life is either anxiety- or depression-ridden, or we are all trying to escape from our underlying fears. The only escape from this is to concentrate on the present. I recommend this to everyone. When the student is ready, the teacher appears and Tolle is an excellent guide in this regard. This book changed my life. I now experience more joy and less worry. If you want to be more fulfilled, read this book (or listen to the cd).

We can feel his spiritual touch!

à noter que: The 1st 100 pages are valuable, the rest is just a repeat.

Tolle takes you on the path to finding what's real in a simple, straight forward and yet challenging way. Excellent read.

I did not like this book at All ------thought it a waste of time ------it was recomended by a friend and I will not listen to her next time !!!! The book was like reading Zen in the 50's -----kept thinking you would find the meaning on the next page -----only to find there is no there there

This book is what I would call the other book of life. This books gives you the simple version of what religious entities have sought to do for thousands of years.

I lived with negativity in my life for years: grievances, fear, anxiety, panic, etc. I became a self-help junkie and immersed myself in a ton of self-help/personal growth material. I read one book after another. I listened to audio programs. It was a continous cycle that lasted almost four years. "The Power of Now" broke that cycle.

I was so identified with mind that I read the book once but it really didn't hit home with me. But it was as if a small seed was planted in me (as described in the book). I started practicing presence little by little and noticed profound positive changes. And then I decided to read the book a second time around. It was at that point that I really started getting amazing results.

Why was I a self-help junkie? I wanted to let go of negative energy and be at peace. Out the numerous books I read, "The Power of Now" was the only book that allowed me to FULLY let go of negative energy and experience peace for the first time in well over a decade.

Tolle points out that unless you're really fed up with suffering, you won't make that choice to become more present-oriented and thus be more at peace. I was a self-help junkie because I was fed up with the intense negativity in my life. I continued practicing presence and out of the blue, totally unexpected, I had what you may call an enlightenment experience. I read the book again for the third time due to the experience. I was so amazed. I had a deeper understanding of what Tolle was talking about, particularly in Chapter One. The first two times I read the book, I didn't understand what he was getting at because I never had the experience. But after having that experience, those words TOTALLY made sense. And I can't imagine any author expressing that any more crystal clear than Tolle.

I've had conversations with many people about this book. It seems to me that this book will hit home most with those who have suffered big time. Whereas people who don't have it so bad will lack the motivation to look into this.

I received this book before the estimated date and in the condition stated. Thank you.

I find the parallels between The Power of Now, as well as, A New Earth with cognitive behavior therapy to be striking, encouraging and actually not all that surprising. If `as above so below,' `all is one,' then wouldn't it have to be so? I also like the fact that Tolle doesn't demand mindless faith, dogmatic second-hand belief, a cultish devotion to himself or anyone or anything else for that matter. Nor does he imply that one is an idiot or worse if one doesn't agree with him or do as he says.

As for the one-star critics I'd respectfully ask you to consider the following: Do you feel some proprietary sense to your theoretical Buddhism or similar? If your spirituality needs to be thus defended then what does that say about your spirituality? If it doesn't, then what does that say about you...? In addition, criticisms against Tolle of no bibliography or source reference materials are inappropriate here. Tolle teaches mysticism not pedantry. The former is meant to be first-hand spirituality. The latter at best is second-hand faith or mere belief. If mere books and second-hand faith were the source of enlightenment then all librarians and archivists of the world would have achieved transcendence long before us all. Tolle asserts that we can know spirituality directly independent of books, canon, teachers or intercessors. That's how we truly know all other phenomena. No one reads a book on guitar and then makes the claim that he or she can speak with authority about the subject let alone play the instrument. It seems reasonable that spirituality is no different.

And for orthodox dogmatists who have a problem with Tolle, I'd respectfully suggest that you first peruse my reader's guide entitled, "So you'd like to...explore alternative Christianity." Next, explore all the related guides and lists in the right-hand column that go into far more detail on the specifics. You made be in for a shock insofar as some of your assumptions about Christianity are concnered and thus the conclusions you've come to regarding Tolle and similar.

And lastly, for any genuine seekers who didn't find some relief/help via Tolle or similar, check out Dr. Martin Seligman and/or Dr. David Burns' many books such as "Feeling Good" and "Authentic Happiness" to name just two. And if those don't either don't give up. Or check out cognitive behavior therapy and also the new positive psychology. Don't give up. Even I eventually found what I sought that helped me. If I could, I tend to think that anyone can.

I will say that sometimes this book is a difficult read, but I do like Eckhart Tolle. I have read "Stillness", and a third of "The Power of Now". I've read enough of the latter book to come up with certain conclusions. Tolle derives his ideas from the New Testament, Krishnamurti, and a lot from Zen. Of course, Zen traces its thinking to Hinduism and Vedantic thought. Tolle's thinking is mostly Zen and touches onto the yogic concept that all people are connected through their thoughts and is for a sort of Cosmic union, one person at a time i.e. we need to be each other's salvation. I do agree with him that many people have misinterpreted Jesus (Yeshua) who grew up in Roman Palestine which had a lot of Hellenic philosophical influence which was also influenced by the East. Some have said that Tolle is Buddhism repackaged, but these people who are being indignant are not realizing that Buddhism in a sense is Hinduism or Vedanta repackaged, one could allege. Unlike mainstream Buddhism, Eckhart's writings are rather theistic. I am not sure what to think of Eckhart being labeled enlightened. I supposed that's done to have people read his works.
That's the only thing that sort of bothers me. I don't necessarily agree with all of his Biblical interpretations, but a lot of it makes sense.
Your mainstream Christian, Jew, or Muslim won't agree with much of Eckhart's thinking. All the religions connect in some way. Christians in Egypt used a rosary to venerate Mary. They used the same name Hindus use for their rosary which is a mala. Religions changed to be adapted to different locales, but they are all connected in a way. We all have one consciousness, but we get all trapped in the forms.

This book written by Eckhart Tolle is a beautiful and astounding read. That's it. There's nothing else more to say about it.

A very inspirational book, in fact, read it twice and bought 5 copies to give away....

I have so enjoyed these CDs. The material is fascinating to me. Easy to understand - but it takes practice to be able to do. I will listen to these over and over!

really, this is amazing. A little deep and maybe hard to grasp if you (or your ego) are not ready for the message but it is life changing. Really

This book changed the way I looked at life. I will recommend this book to anyone who are looking for answers. Keep an open mind and keep on reading even if the idea seems very strange.