Andrea James's Reviews > The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

I know a lot of people like this book but for me the author's certainty just didn't quite gel with me. I wasn't as put off as some of the other reviewers by the question and answer format and at times even found the format useful in answering some obvious questions that I had as well.

The concept of simply focusing on *my* present moment is already very difficult for me. How does one not think about other people's experience in this moment? My life, relatively speaking, is pretty good. I have food, shelter and love but the mere awareness that other people around the world are going through war, hardship, pain, illness and hunger makes it feel very indulgent to just focus on what's happening in my slice of now.

I guess I, perhaps foolishly, believe that by thinking and being aware of the problems around me, I'm working consciously and unconsciously on ways that I can positively contribute to the world. Maybe that is facile and futile notion and in reality focusing on "now" will be more beneficial. It's even possible that the book addressed this issue but the author's tone of certainty when interpreting the messages and meanings of various (often religious) texts made me so uncomfortable that I found it difficult to learn the power of the present moment from this book.

My mind kept wondering how the author could be so sure that for instance Jesus was talking about the value of the present moment in his parables (maybe it was just a random anecdote that was passed through the generations!). I think everything is up for interpretation and I don't dismiss deriving lessons from our observations and stories but to be certain of that you have the correct message the speaker/writer meant seems rather egotistical. (But then being certain about anything somewhat uncomfortable).

So all in all, despite the numerous great reviews, this book just wasn't quite for me.