_The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
I think I’m on a bit of a self-help kick these days. Mostly, it’s to avoid doing my dissertation work, I think. However, after reading _A New Earth_ a few months ago, I decided that I wanted to keep exploring this idea of finding peace within oneself and controlling the self in the moment.
While not exactly the same as _A New Earth_, the themes are similar in _The Power of Now_. This one, though, focuses on keeping your mind in the present and not allowing the past or worries of the future affect your responses to the world around you. Tolle speaks about Being and suggests that our concept of God or the spiritual is not to be found in some external energy force, but rather that we are God within ourselves. Now, this is not like a cult following, but rather that we should embrace that we are all part of God’s creation and that our search for heaven/paradise can be found within ourselves when we acknowledge the Now and are present.
Some people might take this as seizing the moment, but that is not at all what the purpose and point is. Rather, if we acknowledge our feelings and responses in the moment, then we can also pause and reflect enough to see how these feelings and responses affect our identity, our relationships, our interactions with the world. Tolle makes an interesting point of how not everyone is willing to embrace this way and that it is okay. Those who do should remain patient and aware that others do not think or feel the same. This awareness can then cause a change in our interactions so that fights do not occur, but understanding can evolve.
I’m sure that I am not explaining it well enough, but I do feel as if this is the spiritual understanding I have always felt was missing in churches and those who are ‘religious’.
Anyway, I highly recommend this for those seeking enlightenment. There is one more in his series and I will probably read that over the summer holidays. 😉
-T 😀
