An interesting read - I found it most useful for thinking points. It was a good starter book and had led to me checking out several other (and I'm finding better) books on the topic.

He makes several good points, but at times he's very patronizing and I got more that a little riled by the sections on women and homosexuals.

Check out from your library - I wouldn't recommend buying. Me, I'll be passing my copy along to the used book store. ( )

I didn't like his style, plus it was so repetitive... ( )

Great Book for Achieving Enlightenment ( )

The only moment we have is the present, and staying in the now brings peace and happiness. Dwelling in the past and future is illusionary. Lots of tangents emmenating from this premise. ( )

Eckhart Tolle is touted as one of today’s most enlightened teachers for penning two of the most groundbreaking spiritual bestselling books of recent times not to mention for his pioneering A New Earth online class which Tolle is currently teaching to the masses with Oprah. The latter is based on his latest bestselling book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose which is making every Christian blogger aflutter with dismay and indignation.

In my case, I wanted to embrace Tolle’s The Power of Now mostly because it seemed that I could benefit from his teachings in order to live more in the present. During most of my adult years, I have found myself significantly melancholic about the past and always dreaming of the future. In other words, I scarcely live in the moment. At the outset, The Power of Now proved to be slightly uninviting and interwoven with too much techno-spiritual jargon. . . for the five times that I attempted to read it. Nevertheless, I picked it up once again on the week-end and found myself identifying with Tolle’s enthusiastic and succint prose which can be a bit off-putting to the uninitiated. Unlike most self-help gurus, Tolle has a humbling presence and his self-deprecating mannerisms speak well to me.

In particular, The Power of Now does not preach to the masses regardless of what the blogosphere seems to conjecture. In my humble opinion, Tolle provides the spiritual, psychological, and quasi-academic tools to enable everyone to see the truth that already lies within us. Indeed, my keen observation and analytical skills were interlaced with Tolle’s teachings. As a young girl, I was quite introspective and over the course of my reading, I was struck how in tune I was to the concepts Tolle was prothelizing because they were echoes of my own thoughts and observations which have lay dormant recently.

In The Power of Now, Tolle is resolute to wake us up from our collective stupor and emotional numbness with a particular focus on our intrinsic psyche and problems. Indeed, in this society where personal responsibility is a dead concept it is a lesson well-learned for all of us. In fact, Tolle’s teachings are reminiscent of the late Father de Mello’s spiritual blatherings in the posthumously published Awareness. Both teachers set out to remind us to be truly present and mindful in our lives which is the most beautiful lesson that we should heed in these tenuous times that we live in. ( )