Book Review - The Power Of Now By Eckhart Tolle

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The Power of Now is one of my absolute favorite books in my bookshelf. Eckhart Tolle takes us on a journey to explore ourselves, our focus in life and widens our understanding of present moment awareness. Find out why his second book 'The New Earth' has been on Oprah's book list and why this has brought this book into the bestseller's list and has found its way into millions of people's hearts.

Summary

Eckhart Tolle's book is a means to draw reader into a new consciousness of themselves and their reality, 'to give us a taste of enlightenment' as Eckhart himself puts it.

The book follows the format of questions and answers and Tolle encourages the reader to take a break from reading frequently to let the content settle and awareness to sink in.

The Power of Now was published in 1997, has reached the New York bestseller lists in 2000 and has sold over three million copies in English.

More in details

The book starts with Tolle describing his own journey of self-transformation that started when he was twenty-nine years old. His intense spiritual experience brought him into intense awareness of the present moment, the now.

He then goes into detail about the nature of the mind and the fact that virtually everyone hears a voice inside their head all the time, the involuntary and often repetitive thought-processes of the mind. For some people reading this book this might be the first time they become aware of the above-mentioned process occurring and for others it might be just a relief to know that they are not the only ones experiencing this voice!

Tolle explains how our minds are conditioned to think and focus on past and future, anything rather than being present in the here and now. He encourages and offers suggestions on how to become more aware of our experience in the moment, for example by simply listening to the inner voice, without judging. This 'witnessing' allows the observer to become aware of it simply being a voice and that we don't have to identify with it.

About the author

Eckhart Tolle was born in 1948 in Germany. He is a writer, public speaker and spiritual teacher and has written two bestsellers: The Power of Now and The New Earth. Nowadays, he lives in Vancouver in Canada.

Recommendation

This book is for you if you are searching for deeper answers about the self, if you want to engulf in spiritual teaching and reach a deeper understanding of the difference between thinking and awareness.

Want to know more? Have a look at my blog.

Nathalie Himmelrich is the founder of 'Reach for the Sky Therapy' on Sydney's Northern Beaches and specialises in 'relationship related issues'. She is working with individuals and couples using techniques ranging from Counselling, Neuro Linguistic Programming to Journey Therapy. She supports clients in their personal growth in a supportive and professional environment.

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Book Review: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Truly amazing! Excellent piece of intellectual fiction! This is what I have been looking for!

Sophie's World is a beautifully written tale (within a tale) (within a tale) that will take you to an inspirational journey through the history of philosophy. The dyed in colors of mystery with a tint of fantasy, soaked in intriguing lines that will spark imagination and thinking and inspire you for the rest of your life; This book will teach you the art of philosophy in a simple story-like manner.

This is a story of a 14-year old Norwegian girl named Sophie who begins her correspondence course of philosophical lessons via a dog under the guidance of an unknown tutor named Alberto who takes her to a philosophical time-travel from Ancient Mythology to Hellenism to Christianity and Natural Philosophy, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque and Romanticism, teaching her philosophical achievements of each period. The plot takes a mysterious twist when surreal characters are thrown in creating confusion and mystery in the novel. Add to this, the story takes a U-turn when a girl named Hilde receives a birthday gift from her father--a book written by him titled 'Sophie's World'... From here onwards the story switches to Hilde's perspective where Sophie Amundsen and Alberto Knox become a mere characters of a book that Hilde is reading... As the philosophy lessons progress so does the story which turns in to a story written within a story (within a story) and the reality and imagination overlaps so much that even the characters become suspicious of their own existence. Hilde believes in Sophie's existence in real world while Sophie becomes sure of her existence only as a character from a book and her presence in the mind of Hilde's father who is writing a book for her daughter.

The ending is enchanting and ("Yes, we too are star dust") philosophic... The book is filled with inspiring one-liners and thought-provoking dialogues that will rouse your imagination... With lots of twists and turns what keeps the novel moving is its continuous shift between reality and illusion captured in surreal fashion where Gaarder teaches history of philosophy in simple terms omitting too much detail and depth that he otherwise would have stolen the beauty of the story...

This Alice in Wonderland of philosophy is strongly recommended to all those who possess a philosophic mind, the eyes of a child and taste for intellectual readings. ("The path of Ultimate Truth lead inwards")

The author is a creative writer with interest in philosophy-knowing the whys and hows of life...

Black Swans and the Problem of Induction

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the author of the best-selling book The Black Swan. The book is concerned with randomness and uncertainty, and our chronic inability to accurately fathom and measure these phenomena. According to Taleb, a Black Swan event is one that is unpredictable yet has wide-spread ramifications. Not only are these events difficult to predict, but Taleb also argues that we human beings have certain psychological limitations and biases that prevent us from foreseeing these events, while also thinking that the events were perfectly predictable after they occur.

The name for Taleb's theory comes from history. Prior to 1697, a black swan had never been observed by anyone in Western civilization. Many people therefore believed that all swans were white. However, a black swan was finally observed in western Australia in 1697, and the fallacy that they didn't exist was proven wrong.

This idea illustrates the problem of induction, one of Taleb's primary arguments. Just because every swan observed in the west until 1697 was white does not allow you to conclude that every swan is white, or that other types of swans don't exist. However, this is a mistake that many people make.

Taleb also illustrates the problem of induction with the parable of the Thanksgiving turkey. Imagine that a turkey is born on a farm. Every day, it is fed regularly and has a shelter to sleep in. For 1,000 days, the turkey has a very happy and perfectly content existence. The turkey wakes up on the 1,001st day and expects more of the same. However, that day is Thanksgiving and the turkey finds himself on the chopping block. The turkey used inductive reasoning to conclude that because every day so far had been happy, the next day must be happy as well, and his conclusion was obviously false. Thanksgiving day is a Black Swan event for the turkey because he couldn't have predicted his fate, but it is a white swan event for the farmer. After all, he's the one doing the chopping.

As these examples illustrate, conclusions drawn from inductive reasoning are susceptible to falsification, where one instance can nullify a wide-ranging conclusion drawn from insufficient data.

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb is one of the most influential books of our time. Find out about this amazing, thought-provoking book at http://www.black-swans-explained.com/.