Book Number 7 on my Book-a-Week list for 2011 – The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
I started reading this book in 2010, took it a few pages at a time, and finished reading it two weeks ago. To give you an idea about how impactful it has been for me, I’ve started reading it again, a few pages at a time. Reading those few pages is how I begin most of my days. The words help to ground me, and remind me of the beauty of the present moment.
Tolle begins the book with the story of his own personal enlightenment, when he realized he could observe the miserable person he thought he was, become keenly aware of his thoughts and feelings, then change them to “become” something else entirely. This realization that he is not his thoughts or his emotions opened up a whole world for him, which he began talking about, then teaching about. He has become one of the most renowned spiritual teachers of our time. He does not espouse any particular religious doctrine, but he does reference and quote teachings of Jesus, Buddha, and other great spiritual leaders. I especially appreciate how accessible his teachings are to people of all religious and spiritual beliefs.
The book is a series of questions – often very skeptical and challenging ones — and answers that are amazingly simple and easy to understand on one level, and quite complex on another. It’s not the kind of book to read in one sitting, but rather, a few pages at a time, as part of a meditation or the precursor to meditation perhaps. I’m sure this second read through won’t be my last. Like all great books, you find something new each time you read them. What I’m finding is a more “present” me, who is becoming increasingly aware that now is all I ever really have.