by Eckhart Tolle
Please Note: Each book review is intended to provide an overview of the content and it’s main benefit to the reader. Though I recommend reading a book alongside following The Roadmap, I am in no way connected to the author or publisher or them to me or this website.
key elements
– Spiritual Enlightenment is found within the present moment, the Now
– All striving, all fear and all struggle comes from a perception of life reliant on our Ego.
– Living in the Now doesn’t mean living on a cloud. You are still part of the world.
– Enlightenment is “Presence.” You are part of the world while also feeling part of a never-ending larger reality
why this book is worth reading
There are many religious & philosophical books (ancient & New Age) devoted to the subject of finding spiritual awakening/enlightenment. There are also a great many texts about living in the present moment, generally through versions of mindfulness.
Ancient Eastern philosophical texts such as the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tze’s Inner Chapters in Taoism or The Upanishads in Hindu Vedanta or the Buddhist Sutras can be hard for a modern reader to connect to and Tolle essentially point us towards the same truth contained within those texts but in a way that is easier to grasp. New Age books are numerous and a real mixed bag, some feeling overly religious others too materialistic and a lot too fantastical and silly, making grandiose claims for the true nature of reality.
Tolle’s writing is rooted in our lives, now, in this world. His words are relatable even if repeated readings are required and recommended to take in the full message. You don’t need to go any further, or read any other book, if you can grasp the simple message of The Power Of Now.
The Limits of Words
Tolle covers a lot of ground in The Power Of Now and there are a lot of words here. Words though and language have a limit and Tolle often references this limit. He will say that “a word is nothing but a signpost” and, “Please don’t get attached to … these words or start believing in them” and, “don’t get attached to the words, and don’t make an effort to understand this.”
One of the aims of The Power Of Now and many spiritual teachings is to try and get across, with words, how words and thoughts get in the way of the direct experience of being present which can only really be experienced, not explained.
The Now
We think we are all familiar with the concept of living in the present moment with such common sayings as carpe diem – seize the day; live life to the fullest; you never know what could happen tomorrow. These sentiments are all true but they are often associated with achievements – getting somewhere, doing something (usually dramatic), living your best life! This is not Tolle’s Power of Now. As he explains, The Now, the present moment is every moment. Think on that, it is EVERY moment. The good, the bad, the ugly and the boring.
Of course we can understand living in the Good, Exciting Now, but how about the others? Written as a series of answers to questions, Tolle covers the major points of life – work, relationships, desires, fears, death, illness and yes, boredom. He directs us always to the present moment, the Now.
The power of The Now is accepting reality without this becoming either a masochistic exercise or an ego trip. The power of the Now is seeing that we are all part of a greater existence (like Thich Nhat Hanh’s Water and Wave) and the Now is the window to see this clearly. The Power of the Now is finding peace in all aspects of life.
the joy of being
In chapter three Tolle expands on how joy can be found through living in the present moment. This is something similar to mindfulness, with each action being honoured for what it is, rather than for what it will achieve. This echoes Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Buddhist views as well where a simple action such as walking can be a meditation, each step focused on with enjoyment. This state of joy is also because you can develop presence, a general awareness of the greater reality behind daily life which takes away the power from the usual striving of the ego.
For Tolle, “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present.” By psychological time he means the focus on past and present. Like Thich Nhat Hanh he sees the damage we do to ourselves by focusing on the past, either through regrets or wallowing in past glories. Likewise living in the future often leads to anxiety and worry or outright fantasy. The cure for this is always to stop and look around and be present. It is as simple as it sounds – look, listen, smell the world in front of you, without analysis.
Life's challenges & The Pain Body
Though The Power of Now is about pointing us towards a life free of negativity Tolle is clear that this doesn’t mean there will be no challenges in your life if you become spiritually aware. Living in the present is no cure for all you life problems. Though it does provide the way to transcend all problems by seeing that we are part of a wider existence beyond these problems and also by seeing that our problems survive mainly in our thoughts. When we are focused on the Now, we aren’t worrying about our problems either past or future. And, usually, when a problem is right in front of us, we deal with it without much thought at all.
Problems which Tolle more accurately calls challenges also help us learn to be present. If you find yourself raging at another driver on the road, or becoming overly angry at a spouse or child it’s a good indicator that you have some work to do on becoming more “conscious” as Tolle terms that state of being where you are both self aware and connected to a greater consciousness. It is not that your spouse or child or that other driver won’t do something unpredictable or foolish or dangerous, it is just that you will see this differently and feel it differently if living in a conscious way.
The Pain Body is an interesting concept Tolle raises in chapter two and relates to the feeling of being taken over by your emotions. Tolle talks as if it was an actual entity inside you, rising up and taking you over, directing your actions. It comes from past hurts and will be different for each of us, with different triggers to setting it off.
For me it is reminiscent of blending with strong protector parts in IFS therapy or fusing with emotions and thoughts in ACT therapy. Tolle’s antidote to it is to remain present but for me I feel it helps first to understand where your own particular Pain Body comes from and whatever triggers it is a great indicator on this.
Ego
Tolle uses the term Ego in a general sense to refer to the human mind. He is not singling Ego out in a Freudian way from the Id or Superego but instead the Ego is all human desires, fears, striving, running, fighting, loving, hating whether done through childish Id-like lack of self-control or for higher minded Superego purposes or for purely rational self-interest.
Ego/mind for Tolle does have negative connotations in that this is the part of being human that has caused so much destruction and pain throughout human history and continues to do so. That said, Tolle doesn’t promote denial of the Ego as some Buddhist traditions do, but more an acceptance similar to Thich Nhat Hanh, ACT & IFS. We must accept our Ego’s wants and fears so as to not become subservient to or enamored by them. In this mode we can start to see that the Ego is not all of who we are.
Ego is also the reason for fear. As Tolle says in chapter two, “Fear seems to have many causes. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego’s fear of death, of annihilation.” Again this links in with Thich Nhat Hanhs view on our mental focus on survival, as if a wave could go on forever.
Consciousness
This term is used by Tolle in a very specific way. Consciousness is not the standard human consciousness that suggests we have thoughts and are self aware, rather it refers to a greater reality that is the creation of all that exists while being the forms that exist at the same time. It is essentially indescribable and is the same as what spiritual traditions have called Tao, Source, Oneness, God etc.
In chapter five of The Power Of Now, Tolle describes becoming aware of this deeper level of reality by being in the state of presence as “consciousness becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness.” This is a breathtaking concept. It is completely agnostic and without purpose while also being spiritual and bursting with meaning.
Presence
To be present or conscious then for Tolle is to be awakened to the fact that we are part of this greater reality which he calls consciousness beyond and yet still part of our human lives. Tolle uses other words for this state as well such as enlightened, free, awakened, aware. Presence as I understand it is the term that describes holding the feeling of this awakening as a human.
And yet, though it feels infinite and gradiose at times it is firmly rooted in the everyday, in your body, in the present moment, in the Now. But this is a present moment without thoughts of past and future, of what could have been or was and what should be or might happen.
And Tolle is no hermit and doesn’t espouse such a lifestyle or any lifestyle as being any more or less enlightened. He leads numerous retreats, has appeared on Oprah & has a vast collection of online material on his website, particularly videos, most of which are free. These are worth exploring and help give clarity to many of his teachings.
acceptance
The Power Of Now is wide ranging and Tolle has views on many subjects but his take on acceptance I found particularly interesting and helpful. We have already seen acceptance discussed in the context of accepting ones’s emotions and thoughts by Sarno, Rediger, Mate and Thich Nhat Hanh as well as in ACT & IFS therapeutic approaches where the value of acceptance is always made clear. To push away or bury the thoughts and feelings we don’t like only makes things worse and potentially affects our health.
Tolle has no disagreement here but challenges us to look at whether we are turning “acceptance” into another ego trip. He says, “When you have been practicing acceptance for a while… there comes a point when you need to go on to the next stage, where those negative emotions are not created anymore.”
It is passages such as these that make the Power Of Now such a special book. Learn acceptance but don’t make it another crutch for your Ego. Learn to go beyond acceptance and find joy in your life as Tolle puts it eloquently in chapter eight, “True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness. It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence.”
Beyond Happiness & Unhappiness
And if you learn to live in a state of presence, simultaneously aware of your greater existence which Tolle calls your Life and of your everyday reality which Tolle calls your Life Situation again echoing for me Thich Nhat Hnah’s, Wave & Water, what then? Chapter nine, Beyond Happiness & Unhappiness, answers this question by pointing us towards the Buddhist concepts of impermanence and non-attachment, though elucidating these in Tolle’s own way.
Seeing the impermanence of the material world helps us understand that all we ever have or will have is right here in this moment. The rest (past & future) is really in your imagination, a thought construction – we can’t physically go there and in the case of the future, when we do get there, it is the present moment.
Seeing the impermanence of your life situation could lead to despair if not coupled with the sense of your connection to the greater reality of Life which is eternal. Here is where Tolle brings in non-attachment – by not staking our happiness on our life situation by not attaching to the outcomes of our actions, we move beyond happiness and unhappiness. Though we may still experience both states at an emotional level, during bereavement for example, and Tolle tells of the death of his parents in the book, we are not defined by our emotions whether trying to chase them away in the case of unhappiness or chase after them in the case of happiness.
surrender
Moving beyond happiness and unhappiness leads naturally to the final chapter of The Power Of Now and the question of whether this leaves us in a place of relativistic indifference and inaction. If happiness and unhappiness are simply concepts and emotions we attach to briefly, while living aware of a greater spaciousness of consciousness, what do we do on a day to day level? Do we do anything?
Here Tolle introduces the concept of surrender. This surrender doesn’t mean giving up, allowing people to walk over you. Neither does it mean not taking action to set goals and achieve them in your life situation. Tolle says, “surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservations.”
This means not trying to have life any other way than it is right now. If right now is a challenge, then be present in that challenge, respond and then see where to go next. Act, but not in a way that expects your actions to invoke some kind of greater meaning, but simply in a way that accepts life as it is, including your feelings and views as they are. Then move forward. Tolle gives three options for this – 1) accept the situation and stick with it; 2) change the situation to improve it; 3) remove yourself from the situation completely.
Tolle is clear to point out that surrender is not resignation. It is more akin to listening to yourself honestly and aligning yourself with what you value then taking action. This is always in the present moment, meaning though you can make plans for the future, you don’t have to attach to those plans, meaning you can let go of the outcomes. This takes an immense pressure of your shoulders, bringing joy and energy to the both the process of creating and of meeting challenges.
where I see this book in the roadmap
Like Thich Nhat Hanh’s Fear, this one stretches across all the stages of The Roadmap, however, it is mostly in Stage Seven that this book really makes sense. For myself, until I read this book, I was firmly in Stage Five with the occasional swim in Stage six and not even aware there was a Seventh Stage.
That all sounds very linear but there are no rules in The Roadmap. If you come to this book, and fully grasp what it is teaching, you need never read any of the others. That said, the complete simplicity of living in the present moment does seem decidedly hard to grasp!
What I call World Identity (Tolle’s “Ego”) takes over and wants to make a quest of this, with the present moment at the end as some prize. Understand there is no quest. There is no prize. Rather you are the quest and you are the prize.
The Now is really all that it seems, it is the present moment, without thoughts of the past or future. The Power of Now is about appreciating Life in the fullest sense and fully connected to what I call Universal Consciousness. This is Infinite Existence. It is the end of The Roadmap, it is stopping searching because the answer is already here right now in yourself and all around you and will always be this way.