howl of minerva's Reviews > The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

ugh.... how did you even....?

see warwick's review of paolo coelho's the alchemist. same deal.

howl of minerva wrote: "see warwick's review of paolo coelho's the alchemist. same deal."

I see. But even so. I mean, with that giant "Spiritual Enlightenment" hanging at the gate! And that green!

Someone recently pressed that Proof of Heaven book (NYT best) into my hands. I didn't make it past the cover.

I think it's good to have a feel for the Zeitgeist, even if it means reading things you hate.

We exist only in the present; our past and the future are mental constructs.

Not true. Not true.

howl of minerva wrote: "I think it's good to have a feel for the Zeitgeist, even if it means reading things you hate."

No here I'll put out my peacock=feathers of ignorance and strut proudly.

Are you saying the present is a construct too??

many weeks studying fridge-magnets.

are you turning into a surly anti-magnet hipster or something?

howl of minerva wrote: "Are you saying the present is a construct too??"

"Construct" is an obscurantist word. I don't think I can be accused of using it.

No, Dasein always ex=ists ; projecting in the future and recovering the past. Sein und Zeit is very important for this one. Only things exist only in a present-at-hand kind of way. Dasein is always beyond itself.

As I live in Montreal I feel more more like a surly hipster-magnet.

I was surprised you were reading this.

is it a useful prop in the seduction of wealthy nonagenerians, maybe?

It's worth a try. At some point he says if you are sufficiently in the now, you'll look and feel younger. Give it a go!

A challenge: write a 500 word story beginning with that epiphany.

Brilliant. I love your opening para.

I must use the pause symbol more. I didn't even know it could have that meaning.

Kalliope :) All flippancy aside I am genuinely curious about any book that many hundreds of thousands of people say has helped them deal with their lives. And more generally about what we're substituting for religion these days.

Warwick, thanks! Very much in the vein of your excellent Coelho review.

Manny, I definitely think you could adopt it in your reviews. Especially the ones about deep and grand themes like "Why are we here?", "Why is gravity so weak?" and possibly related, "Why am I not wearing anything?".

Ian, your challenge exceeds my very modest gifts. If anyone would like to have a go I'd love to see the result...

Thank you, howl. Next time I write about quantum nudity I will definitely use it.

I'm responding to your review as someone whose life was changed in a positive way by this book. (I'll be kind!) You say that you are glad to now have an understanding of the typical New Age feel-good self-help book, but it sounds like your reading of the book confirmed the expectations you had for the genre before you began. It also sounds like you didn't come away with an "understanding" of his teachings, and that's okay. Let's talk about it.

In my reading of the book, it seemed that the "now" was just the gateway into the rest of what Tolle was talking about, which is the real challenge, because everything on the other side of that door is nonverbal and impossible to convey in words. As he says, it must be felt. The fundamental drawback here is that the entire teaching medium is words. I had a good experience with this book in part because I listened to the audiobook recording, in which there were several speakers (Tolle narrating most if it, with various interlocutors to ask the dialectical questions, complete with the chiming of a bell at the end of each major section for good measure). I also came away grateful to the book because I entered it with open-minded skepticism--nothing he says can do me any harm, and the teachings are as good as my efforts to see if they're real or not. If I don't experience what he's talking about, fine--maybe later, maybe not for me, or maybe the teacher's wisdom is a crock of you-know-whatty.

My responses to your review:

1. We're all free to speak from our experience, so I forgive Tolle whatever triteness emerges from his story of awakening. I'm just glad to be reading a story of awakening in the contemporary world. I acknowledge that Tolle's female-directed suggestions for practicing presence before menstruation sound a bit out-of-line because he's a man, but it's plausible that his teachings are sound (try it for yourself) and came from his experience supporting women throughout his life...and his wife is a woman and spiritual teacher, and I doubt she'd let him put something asinine and sexist in his book.
2. I see your comment on his tone being scornful toward his interlocutors. Tolle's tone in the audiobook is anything but, if you'd listen to a moment of it (check YouTube). In fact, as an emerging audiobook narrator myself, I haven't thought of a way that another leading professional narrator would have done as good a job as Tolle did recording his own book. His tone, warm and firm and patient (to me), really carried his intent well.
3. Tolle uses his language fairly precisely. The pain-body is a piece of jargon that he explains in the book, and the comment you make about it here, in which you misrepresent Tolle by misrepresenting the pain-body to make Tolle sound ludicrous, comes across only as a derogation of Tolle rather than evidence of Tolle being false or out-of-touch. I grant you that many reluctant women will probably bristle at Tolle's attention to women's special needs in the book, but I see this attention as compassion. You lose nothing by welcoming his suggestions and rejecting them if they don't work.
4. In one of his books, Tolle says something like "Over the course of history, there has only ever been one spiritual teaching." Who knows if that's true? But I think it's significant that he's drawing together several major religious traditions, and being bold enough to say that they have been watered down over time in favor of dogma rather than personal experience, and telling us what he thinks the truthful similarities are among them. Also, I think if there's something in us that intuits the value of these questions, we have nothing to lose by being open-minded and humoring the author/teacher for the metaphors they use to convey their wisdom. Again, the mistake of the student (Tolle says) is to try to understand these teachings mentally. This is precisely the problem, he says ;)
5. Many people found his book to be very accessible and very powerful. That sounds like a good result to me, as alienated as we can feel from anything real. Do you think Tolle taught anything harmful? In contrast to the major bandwagon religious movements around the globe, I don't see any harmful side-effects of this book on human behavior. Can it do anything but increase the general level of consciousness among the masses who read it and benefit from it?
6. Just because you haven't yet experienced a certain phenomenon doesn't mean that other people won't or can't do it either. It's impossible to confirm the nature of another person's experience.
7. Consider the challenge Tolle faced in writing this book (if you can suspend your disbelief at his story). Dude was brave!

Best wishes for you in the Now,
Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your thoughtful and polite comment.

I am quite willing to admit that any misunderstandings stem from my failings as a reader rather than the failings of the book. Of course the book has won a large popular audience and anything that has helped people is great. I'm not denying anything about Tolle's experience or the experience of others who have read the book.

I can just say the tone and style didn't work for me. I am very interested in meditation and mindfulness and found, for example, Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind Beginner's Mind and Thich Nhat Han's (sp?) Miracle of Mindfulness useful and interesting.

Thanks for continuing the discussion on a by-now open-and-shut book. I'm glad you found other books you like better. I may give them a try myself.

Toodle-oo!

A while ago I thought I might read it since it's so frequently referred to around the Internet. Abandoned it, early and happily, to alight on much better authors. So in this respect it was a useful experience:)

I enjoyed your review! Spot on.

Dude reading your review cracked me up. Even the little pause § sign you put. I see what you did there. Well played man.. Well played. (cracked me up = i was laughing hehe)

You are super funny

A very amusing review, and almost certainly what I would have thought of it had I read it. But as you say, the primary thesis is a sensible one (and has been treated in many places as well as this one).

Thank you for this review, it was an immense pleasure to read it. As well it reflects my exact feeling about this book, only expressed without profanity in a beautiful language I'm trying to tame.

"The text is interspersed with brief analyses of quotations from various religious traditions, apparently garnered from many weeks studying fridge-magnets."

Yup, that pretty much sums it up. And in a better written way than the book itself...

Shelfed as “total-crap” made me lol. I wanted to like this book. And there were a couple passages that I found insightful. But mostly struggled through it. I’m happy to see I’m not the only one. Great review. Better writing than the book.

Meant to say. Thanks for the recommendations!

Thank for that fabulous review. Sitting here crying.

How depressing to reach out for guidance and have to weed though so much crap.

Best. Review. Ever

:) very kind, thanks!

Spot on review

This review made my day, and this summary has saved me time.

'The primary thesis of the book is quite sensible, if unshattering. We exist only in the present; our past and the future are mental constructs. It is a shame that our enjoyment of the present is so often ruined by regrets about the past and worries about the future. By being more intensely focused on the present, we can be more content and more fulfilled.'

Lala wrote: "This review made my day, and this summary has saved me time."

Glad to be of service :)

I always enjoy reading 1 star reviews for books I rate 5! They often help me see things I've missed, or was just ignorant to. Yours definitely helped me see it from a very different angle and lens, but from where I've acquired the message, I can't agree with you.

The book helped me immensely be more at peace and the entire "pain-body" bit; well that was a very simple way of describing the trauma I carried around and identified with as me, so much revolved around it.. if only I found this book sooner.

Glad you wrote your opinion though and I will check out your recommended books! :)

Thanks for your very even-handed comments Aleesha! I don't like to be snarky about a book that thousands (millions?) have read and found useful but it rubbed me the wrong way. I'm glad it was beneficial to you!

This review is not only brilliant, but also complete (references works that áre worth reading). I hope you have not triggered any pain-body reactions in Eckhart himself

Thanks! Eckhart's laughing all the way to the bank. Many a poor soul will find a copy of this under the tree I'm sure...

i have to advise you that in "liking" your review doesn't mean that I agree with it or actually "like" it, only that it has provided me with one of numerous perspectives in considering whether to read or not read the book.

Awesome, cheers!

Hahahaha, epic review! Read it 1/3 5 years ago, tried it again this year and came half way.. you’re review is spot on (i guess that’s why it’s the most viewed 😉) and discribes (in words at least) the best way how I felt laying off this book, that took very nice principle (respect the power of the now) but wrapped so much crap around it that it become useless. Thanks for the tips to read, Zen Mind is waiting to be read, so I’ll just invest my precious ‘now’ time and stop my painbody from enduring pain and be happy again 😂

Best of luck!

Thank you for this review! I’m debating whether or not to read it, just to have a reference frame for understanding my friends who love the book. Would you recommend reading it for this purpose?

I totally agree with you. For me the four chapters are ok at the beginning. It was useful, but after that... I only wanted to finish the book!

There is another book on similar topic. Book name is: "A Timeline of Wandering Thoughts" by Shakeel Ahmed Shah. I request you to read preview of that book on Amazon kdp and review.3

I'll add it to my to-do list.

Feel exactly the same way and I have read your recommendations previously and they do the topic of mindfulness way more justice.