The Power of Now

The Power of Now is a book by spiritual author Eckhart Tolle.

Initially published in 1997 as Tolle's first book, has been on the NY Times best seller list after Oprah Winfrey highly recommended it on her show. The book is a self-help and/or spiritually focused book that is of no specific religious denomination. The book starts out with Eckhart's recalling his initial transformative experience in 1980. The book covers topics including personal and collective forms of: the ego and the emotional 'pain body'.

The book teaches that while our use of time has a practical aspect for survival purposes, that most people are lost in time and only peripherally aware of the present moment, the Now. In doing so, we make the Now primarily a means to an end in the future and then we become what Tolle calls unconscious. In this unconscious mind-state, we are easily controlled, live in fear, and manifest other egoic behaviors. He explains that to the ego, this future is going to save us (retirement, graduation, job promotion, etc), and also we think that the future is going to kill us in our inevitable death. This paradox of our use of time adds to our anxieties and fears.

Tolle also talks about how our ego also over-amplifies the past as 'my story.' The ego identifies with its story so it can have a sense of self. It does not matter to the ego if this story is happy or sad. In the book he says that primarily our unhappiness is our own creation as a rejection of the present moment.

In the book Tolle also talks about the emotional 'pain body' explaining that it is emotional pain from the past that builds in the body. He gives advice on how to free ourselves from the pain body as well. He explains that the ego and pain body help to feed each other in a cycle of torment that we inflict upon ourselves.

Publication History

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment,
Namaste Publishing: 1997, ISBN 0968236405
New World Library: 1999, ISBN 1577313119
New World Library: October 1999; 2004, ISBN 1-57731-152-3 (HC) ISBN 1-57731-480-8 (PB)
G.K. Hall: 2000, ISBN 0783891954
Hodder Headline, Australia: 2000, ISBN 0733613764
Hodder and Stoughton: 2001, ISBN 0340733500
Hodder & Stoughton: 2005, ISBN 0340898917
Hachette Livre Australia: 2005, ISBN 0733620442

External Links

• Summary of the Power of Now Chapter by chapter summary of the first 3 chapters of the book.
• Eckhart Tolle's bibliography