It's not Eckart Tolle's fault that this mega-influential book did not appeal to me. Any of you readers who aim to follow his path to Traditional Enlightenment, a path that requires losing your personal ego -- as if removing skunk fumes that seeped into your clothing -- go for it.

In my professional work I'm an Enlightenment Teacher who sees an alternative for those of us who love God but don't also despise our very humanity. For instance, we'd still like sex. Money. A good job. Friendships. Even feeling deep-down personal satisfaction after eating some fine pizza or chocolate!

I'm hardly the only Enlightenment Teacher who questions the "Ditch your ego" path to Spiritual Enlightenment. During the years when I worked for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, as one of his TM teachers, I attending many advanced courses with him: Often-and-memorably he'd mock this sort of path to Enlightenment.

Although I no longer teach in the TM style, I'm still passionate about helping you beautiful spiritual seekers to know that you have a choice. Whatever you ultimately decide, please know this:

Many a householder has made it to Enlightenment; no longer is renunciation a requirement. Just find a teacher who can get you there.

This book is a hateful dumpster fire. I do not merely think that it is "not for me"; I do not think it is for anybody. I think it should not have been written. It's bad.

Let me begin by saying that I was determined to get anything useful that I could from Tolle's work. Even miserable books, film, music, etc. often contain elements from which we can extract a lesson, or applaud the author for having executed upon this idea or that characterization well, or begrudgingly admit that though a song may not be good, it is at least catchy. This book was recommended to me by somebody whose opinion matters, and I sincerely wanted to be able to return to her and give it a good review. I went into this book with an open mind, ready to learn.

And there are a few things worth learning from this work. The idea that people should exist more in the present, practice mindfulness, learn acceptance of what is, be less concerned with the expectations of a role society pressures them to play, and generally be less perturbed by those things which we cannot or are unwilling to change, these are all good and valid ideas. Tolle is right about these things, but he is also not the first person to have them.

Unfortunately, those ideas could have been expressed in a pamphlet, and what Tolle elected to write, instead, is a massive, bloated tome full of hundreds of pages of nonsense, New Age bollocks, haphazard recontextualization of religious traditions, meaningless rambling that employs words that have completely new meetings to the author, condescending question and answer segments, and a lot of flat-out stupid woo.

Thoroughly dismantling this work is beyond the scope of a casual review. In broad strokes, I will say of the content that Tolle rehashes philosophical ideas that have existed a good deal longer than he has and dresses them up in a narrative framework about pain bodies, consciousness, egoic selves, energy, enlightenment, and a host of other terms that are not so much poorly defined as explicitly undefined, as according to the author, much of what he speaks of is ineffable, and beyond description. This is an awfully convenient tactic to employ when attempting to communicate the philosophical underpinnings of the path to enlightenment that you're selling people. Moreover, Tolle never offers us a single word in the way of substantiating his framework. He attempts to sell his view of the world by overselling -- by the end of the book, the expectation is that you are so wrapped up in Tolle's internal logic, so suffused in his view of reality, that you will not question what a marvelous lack of sense it all makes.

In terms of what few empirical claims he does make, here we have stupidity beyond what the popularity of this book should allow. In the first chapter, Tolle tells us that we are not our minds, and that instead, our minds are our enemies, as they compel us to dwell upon the past and future, causing in us anxiety, distress, and a lack of harmony with the now. Tolle seems to believe that the real us exists as some form of ephemeral spirit entity, a fragment of some universal whole of life, but never gets too clear on the details. Actual, legit medicine - the kind that actually, legitimately heals people - tells us that we are our minds. When someone receives a traumatic brain injury, they have not lost a fragment of their soul; the hunk of wet fat in their skull that in a very real sense is them has been damaged, and they have been lost. This is a disquieting thought, but it will not do to put our faith in magic and expect it will save us. Speaking of healing! Tolle makes a series of other ridiculous claims in this book concerning health, likewise stupid, likewise untestable, such as the idea that an enlightened person will halt the process of aging, and appear much healthier even into their old age. Another thing that he posits is that sickness is the result of not being present enough in the moment, and that if an individual is present in the moment, sickness will not be allowed in. He indicates that we can conquer illness by becoming enlightened. I look forward to seeing how these positions work out for him in the coming years.

Speaking of his philosophy, again, there is little more to say about it other than that it is mindfulness with mountains of mystical garbage heaped on top of it. Not merely mystical garbage, in fact, but divisive mystical garbage. Tolle's enlightenment-seeking sounds an awful lot like cultishness, to me, taking it as granted that individuals not actively pursuing enlightenment will fall away from the lives of those that do. An entire chapter concerning relationships effectively says that if your significant other is not also striving towards enlightenment, the relationship will very probably fail. This logic is extended to all of the enlightenment-seeker's personal relationships. Tolle tells us that pain is not within us, but is a component of the "pain body", a semi-autonomous psychic entity that accumulates emotional pain that people carry in their energy field. If that sounds like an idiotic combination of New Age words to you, it is because that is precisely what it is.

I absorbed this book in an audio format, and it would be impossible not to comment on the fact that our author, Mr. Tolle, provides the narration. One would hope that the author's own words being read by the author would contribute a sense of gravitas or deeper meaning to the text; unfortunately, Tolle reads in an almost pedantic monotone that is somewhere between audible laudanam and Ben Stein. The narration actually detracts from an already miserable work.

If not for all of the above, this would still be a wretched excuse for a printed work, however. As a nonfiction work intended to communicate ideas, it underperforms here, as well. There is no layout or format that makes any sense of the topics that are addressed. Chapters bleed into another, fold back on each other, take forever to arrive, and never state the subject they wish to address. Instead, the entire book follows a curious format of the author discussing whatever it is he wants to discuss for a while, and then doing a question-and-answer-style exploration into certain components of what he just talked about. These Q&As are a blunt, unsophisticated tool used to add in detail what a better writer could have worked into the text without needing to interrupt it constantly. One of the chapters even begins with one of these Q&A sections, without announcing what it is about or even stating its thesis. These are choices, no doubt, but they are the choices of an unsophisticated, amateur author.

Why any editor allowed this book to go to publication in its current format, I cannot say. I presume they must have been imbibing the same snake oil that Tolle has been selling the credulous all over the world, ever since the apocryphal moment of enlightenment that saw him walking away from his life - but not away from his savings - and sparked his spiritual journey.

This is an amazing book. Try not making any of your religious beliefs the reason for not reading this book. Being a Buddhist myself, I can see how Buddhists might not give this book any chance due to the word 'Enlightenment' in its title. Give this book a try and it'll sure to be at least an eye-opener for you in ways one cannot imagine.

Though irrelevant for someone who has read the book already, others may be surprised to find how logically the author has presented these teachings while using many real life scenarios to help readers grasp the concepts fully. Few hours you spend on this book will give you a lesson that is life long.

Mr. Tolle spent two years sitting on park benches and simply "living in the moment" prior to writing this book. I doubt whether I will ever take the time in my life to do such a thing, however the suggestion he offers that we all spend a ridiculous amount of time either worrying about the future, or dwelling on the past has impacted me in a huge way. Until I read this book, I never noticed how in sane my mind can make me if I choose to let it. Tolle implores the reader to take the reigns of his own mind, focus on the beauty and love around him, just like we all did when we were children and the world was full of wonder. We are still in that same world, but our vision has been clouded by meetings, appointments, paperwork, debt, clocks ticking, deadlines approaching, past frustrations and dissapointments, the list goes on and on and on if you let it. Tolle suggest that we have the power to focus on this very moment, as it is the only one we really have. The past is past and the future is not here, and may not ever come. A very enlightening book. I highly recomdend it to anyone who would like to improve the quality of this moment of their life.

After having read this book, I think it qualifies to be read multiple times. It really provides good essential tips to relax and just let go. I never really understood what letting go of emotions and feelings, past and future and living the moment. It's a pure mind declutter along with the Holy Book of your belief.

The author is well researched and knowledgeable of the religions and beliefs, which made it so much easier to associate with what he was explaining throughout. It made so much sense to just read through it and think of the moment. I thought it was really good in the explanations of the roots of certain common behaviors and emotions as you lash them out or enjoy them along with their psychology.

Reading it multiple times would provide a cleanse and clearer perspective to certain aspects of daily life. Very informative and impactful.

First of all, I must say I'm very much into all kinds of self-help books as well as new age stuff. I'm a believer! I read avidly all about OBE, reincarnations, karma, mindfulness, meditation practices and I try to make use of what I read in my everyday life. So, of course, I was looking forward to this book, especially as it was recommended to me by people whose opinion I value.

And my oh my, wasn't it total deception. I made it until about half of the book when I realized I really could take no more of this rubbish. Mr Tolle preaches his "wisdom" (which is not actually his at all) with a condescending, "I-know-it-all" attitude. He is the only one enlightened (of course). We are all only to listen to his truths and follow on a "as is" basis. No thinking of your own is allowed. Actually, thinking is bad for you, so should be used sparingly anyway. If you disagree with any of his points, he just haughtily replies that "you don't understand", "this cannot be accessed with your mind" etc etc. He regularly reminds you that you are the one belonging to the horrible human species that kill millions of others. I agree with that - but I wonder why he thinks of himself as someone who is above those ugly humans? What, is he so much of a "Being" now that his ancestor's sins don't concern him? The next step will be to call him God and bring him your money because it's too materialistic for you anyway :) And actually it's not a joke - when you see how many people aggressively defend his "great teachings" and attack anyone who does not agree about the "incredible spiritual value" of this book... well, does that remind you of something?

The basic ideas of this book - being in the now, not dwelling too much on your past and future, not giving too much power to your thoughts - are of course all highly relevant. But there are plenty of other books delivering the same message in much better style. Tolle is repeating the same things over and over again, mixing them up with bits and pieces of various religions and teachings. All that he had to say could be said in a couple of pages. But then again, writing a whole book is much better because you get to sell it to a lot of people. And although time may be an illusion, money for sure isn't ;)

Do yourself a favour and read something else if you want to learn the power of now. A collection of simple meditations made me feel much more present and at peace than this boring mumbo-jumbo.

Zu Recht, eines der meist genannten Bücher wenn es um Spiritualität & das Leben im Hier&Jetzt geht. Großartig! Werde ich definitiv noch mehrmals in meinem Leben lesen

Guzila sam ju preduugoo.. Zaboravljala na nju ispod hrpe knjiga.. Citkala..
Morat cu joj se opet vratiti jer je moj mozak jos uvijek premali za neke njezine dijelove. :/

I like Echkart Tolle. I recommend this book if you are into new age spirituality or not. Even if you aren't into spirituality at all, check it out. I mean, jeez, spiritual enlightenment for less than $20, how could you go wrong?

I sometimes struggle with doubts about him, but I do this with all spiritual teachers. Another reviewer described him as a "pompous fraud" who "steals the classic works of Eastern cultures and repackages them in a poorly-written and impossibly stupid manner." My consciousness isn't evolved enough to know absolutely for sure one way or the other.

There are some very useful concepts in this book for me, presented in a very useful way. None of them are new, and E. Tolle says as much. The more I learn about the great wisdom teachings the more they seem to me to be the same, harmonious with each other. So, he is just adding his voice to the harmony.

The way Tolle presents the teachings make intuitive sense to me and helps me make use of them. Your mind wants you to think it is in charge, don't be fooled. Be aware of your emotions, they provide interesting guidance and input. There is no reality but the present moment, everything else is either a memory about the past or a fantasy about the future.

I would hang out with Eckhart Tolle, and reading his books might be as close as I'll ever get. I think hanging out with the little sprite is cool.

This book is an excellent guide to shutting of your brain noise. We let our brains run us mad most of the time, and never really stop to enjoy the space we are in. Always dwelling over the past, or fretting about the future. This book points out that the future is 100% unpredictable (so stop making up stories about what is going to happen when you have absolutely NO IDEA) and to stop worrying about the past because no amount of energy devoted to the past will change it. Instead, be in the now; be present - enjoy what you have right in front of you. Experience it, because in one second it is gone, and you will never have the chance to enjoy it again.

This book changed my life. I have never read anything that gave me such a direct contact with essential being and peace. It's also lasted, although I have to say it fades when I am not actively practising it. I feel that reading it is like a mediation and takes you there. I often read it daily like a bible. Especially when I am stuck or upset - it can act like a medicine for my mind and emotions. He speaks the truth.

I have noticed that when I have recommended this book to others they either love it or hate it. I wonder if that is to do with their willingness to confront their ego which at certain times in our lives seems impossible and a bad idea so I have learnt to have a light touch with this book. There are many paths to peace. some walk, some talk, some knit, some read Power of Now.

I have found though, that anyone who doesn't get 'The power of Now' often really likes "A new Earth' which I also like, but it didn't have quite impact on me that PON had.
It is probably my all-time number 1 book that changed my life.

I've read a few books with similar messages about living in the present, being mindful, and grateful--it's a very zen-like message--but this book was different. Tolle explains that we are not our thoughts.

"The very fact that we can objectively observe our thinking, he reasoned, suggests that the constant and often negative dialogue in our heads is separate from who we are."

That's a quote I took from the interview between Tolle and Oprah from the May article in O magazine since I think it sums up the powerful message of this book the best. I liked his explanation of being still, and the question and answer form of the book, where he explains how it helps people refocus on what matters.