| The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment | 
 enlarge | Author: Eckhart Tolle
Publisher: New World Library
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  929 reviews
Sales Rank: 37
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1577314808
Dewey Decimal Number: 204.4
EAN: 9781577314806
ASIN: 1577314808
Publication Date: September 29, 2004
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lessons for Living August 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Eckhart Tolle's acclaimed book "The Power of Now" has many powerful lessons for living. It's a transformational tool to help us shift our consciousness and a signpost for awakening.
The life lessons that were the most helpful to me included:
The answer to the human dilemma cannot be found through the intellect but through consciousness (awareness) and our response to what happens.
Consciousness is the only lasting and meaningful aspect of who we are. It transcends our bodies, minds, emotions, possessions and events. Yet most of our energy and attention goes into doing, work, appointments, to-do lists, mind-clutter, possessions and commitments. The opposite of doing is being: stillness, spaciousness, awareness, silence and spontaneity. Doing is never enough if we neglect Being.
Recognizing that our ego, the unawakened self, is an imposter pretending to be us.
Making ourselves right or wrong is one to the principle mind egoic patterns. Nothing will satisfy us as long as the ego remains in place.
The power of allowing lies in noninterference, non-doing, in Presence, in the space between the clutter of thought and emotion. Wisdom, joy, love, creativity and aliveness are in the gap between the perception and the interpretation.
Being present is infinitely more powerful than anything we could say or do.
Surrender to pain it's not who we are. Pain is a doorway out of our ego prison. It's not the pain but the identification with the pain that forces us to relive the past again and again and keeps us in a state of unconsciousness.
To stop our egoistic body identification we should shift our attention from our external thought to the feeling of aliveness inside. The intensely alive energy field is our life energy, the bridge between the form and the formless.
What matters in not what we say and believe but how we act and react.
Whatever we think the world is withholding from us, we are withholding from the world. Just act as if we had it, and it will come. When we start giving we will receive.
The source of abundance is inside us. When we acknowledge the abundance around us it awakens to dormant abundance within.
Whatever we perceive, experience, do, think or feel is content. Content is what absorbs most people. Content is not essence. Essence is the formless inner space of consciousness. The universe is an indivisible whole in which all things are interconnected. The atoms that make up your body were once forged inside stars.
When we don't mind what happens we are aligned with what is. When we align with the present moment our actions become empowered by the intelligence of Life itself.
The ego can never be aligned with the present moment. The ego sees the present as a means to an end, an obstacle or an enemy. We become Present when we see our dysfunction and make friends with the Now. Presence is a state of inner spaciousness.
Life is always now. There is only this moment. The elimination of time from our consciousness is the elimination of ego.
When we say yes to the Now, the Now becomes a doorway into the formless and the separation between the world and God dissolves.
The joy of Being, which is our true happiness, cannot come to us through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event. It emanates from the formless dimension within us, from consciousness itself and thus is one with who we are. If we are content with being nobody in particular we align ourselves with the power of the universe.
Through us the universe is becoming aware of itself.
We are so consumed by time that we have forgotten eternity, which is our destiny. Eternity is the living reality of who we are.
Non-resistance, non-judgment and non-attachment give true freedom. Through acceptance, we become spacious inside.
Being aware of breathing for a year is more powerfully transformative than attending any courses. The more we are aware of the breath, the more its natural depth will reestablish itself. Conscious breathing stops the mind. Three conscious breaths stops compulsions. Discover inner space by creating gaps in our thinking. Awareness is Presence, consciousness without thought, and connection with universal intelligence. The mind of God is consciousness.
A belief in God is a poor substitute for the living reality of God manifesting every moment in our lives.
Give others full attention. The space of awareness is more important than what we are talking about.
Our entire life journey ultimately consists of the step we are taking at this moment.
Live with uncertainty, even enjoy it. There is ultimately no such thing as "my" life, since "my" and "life" are one.
All of the ancient religions point to two fundamental truths. The first is that humankind's "normal" state of mind is dysfunctional. Hinduism calls it maya the veil of delusion, Buddhism refers to it as dukka or suffering, Christianity calls it "original sin" meaning "to miss the point" to live unskillfully or blindly.
Although humankind is intelligent and our achievements are impressive in science, medicine, technology, architecture and the arts our intelligence is also tainted with insanity.
The second truth in all religions is that a radical transformation of human consciousness is possible. The Hindus called the transformation Enlightenment, the Buddhists Liberation, and the Christians Salvation.
Humanity's greatest achievement is not science and technology but the recognition of our individual and collective madness. The moment we recognize that "normal" human existence is a collective nightmare we begin a process of healing and transcendence.
Many religious teachings have become distorted, divisive and part of a collective insanity. Yet in spite of all the insanity in the name of religion, the Truth to which they all point still shines through. There have been individuals throughout history who experienced a shift in consciousness and realized within themselves the Truth to which all religions point. They discovered that being "spiritual" has nothing to do with what we believe and everything to do with our state of consciousness.
Our purpose is to awaken from the ego-created earth-drama. This is the new earth (the tiltle of his next book).
 Typical gibberish August 4, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
People will read into Tolle's gibberish whatever they want to hear. They will fool themselves into believing that his "teaching" is something new and critical. Yet, it's nothing more than the oldest lie in the Book.
You can be god. You can control your reality. You.... You.... YOU!
Sorry, but that it isn't true.
Wonderful Book August 2, 2008
I love this book so much I've bought several copies and give them as gifts.
A great spiritual book July 31, 2008
This is a great book for anyone on their spiritual journey. Very easy and fun to read, as it addresses many questions he have while reading it.....
A great book. Not much else to say but do a gut check. If it feels good right now, pick it up. I wasn't a big fan of A New Earth. Couldn't get into it.
Terrible July 31, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have been a student of the Tao for several years and have a general understanding of Eastern thought, but it seems that Mr. Tolle just skipped any actual study and went straight for the book.
Let me put it this way, anybody who says they have achieved enlightenment has not, and anybody who is enlightened would not publish a self help book.
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