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

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
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bookshelves: zen

I violently dislike this book for its New-Agey-ness. Every time the author talks about energy fields, or when he responds to "do you have any scientific evidence for this" with "try it and you will be your own evidence", or when he trots out the old "Modern Science is only now discovering X, which Buddhists have known thousands of years", I want to gag or maybe throw the book against the wall.

That said, it does contain the core Zen message (at least, as far as I understand it): no inherent separation between things, and paying attention to the present moment being a good thing. The first part of the last chapter (on Surrender) was kinda helpful because it tries to explain the old "How do you reconcile surrendering to the present moment with getting things done?" (I like this idea that passivity is just another form of resistance, i.e. not being present). It also helped me to make that finer distinction between doing something out of fear/resistance and doing it because it's what Needs Doing Now.

So, something things to hate, some things to like.
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Reading Progress

May 29, 2008 – Shelved
June 3, 2008 – Shelved as: zen
Started Reading
September 14, 2008 – Finished Reading

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