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Synopsis: Tolle packs a lot of information and inspirational ideas into The Power of Now. (Topics include the source of Chi, enlightened relationships, creative use of the mind, impermanence and the cycle of life.) Thankfully, he’s added markers that symbolise “break time”. This is when readers should close the book and mull over what they just read. As a result, The Power of Now reads like the highly acclaimed A Course in Miracles–a spiritual guidebook that has the potential to inspire just as many study groups and change just as many lives for the better.
The idea of a “pain body” makes sense especially since we know the physical body does store resonant stored energy inside the brain and surrounding areas. My biggest takeaway from the book was the idea that thoughts aren’t necessarily GOOD and the constant replaying and projecting possible scenarios only serves to feed the pain body. The investment in the NOW allows us to engage with the breath and ultimately what truth we have agency over.
While I applaud Eckhart’s goal to isolate the mind on The Now, I believe that the NOW can be overwhelming too if you are not prepared. We developed FILTERS living in tribes/communities/cities over many generations to reduce the amount of information from the outside world. It’s these FILTERS that attempt to categorize, orientate, and eliminate the information that “we already know” and “what we want to know”. Ultimately, I believe the book helps to build awareness along with training our mind to focus on what is the process of knowing(present). However, this process can become like an overstimulated immune system, the disease of the past and messy creation of the future provide us with fertile opportunities to build defenses. These walls and defenses provide us with identity. I believe, Eckhart, based on what I have heard from his next book, New Earth, believes we have a shared identity and not an inherent separateness.
Thought Provoking Score = 90
Story Construction = 80
Entertainment Score = 80
Total Score: 83