The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, is a masterpiece in spiritual writings. The main theme revolves around one core concept wrapped with other layers of meanings. There are also several good summaries of this book available online. I thought of presenting a short summary here in the form of a few sentences because this will definitely help the reader recall some of the most powerful concepts explained there.
– Enlightenment is the end of suffering
– God for most is a mental idle
– The main obstacle is identification with the mind which causes thought to become compulsive
– Not being able to stop thinking is a dreadful infliction
– Don’t define your identification with your mind
– All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, inner peace, joy, all arise from beyond the mind
– Watch the thinker (the mind)
– It makes us like mad men talking to themselves
– If we can’t stop thinking, mind is controlling and using us
– Mind likes to solve problems like dog chewing the bones
– There is no past and future. Only now
– Mind wants to escape the Now
– Be aware of clock time but not psychological time
– Present moment is all you have. There is never a moment other than now
– There are no problems, only situations to be dealt with