Book - The Power of Now

I picked up this book after it was suggested at the end of Energy Work by Robert Bruce.

I'm surprised there isn't a thread about this book already. I just finished it and it is a VERY enlightened book. The author had an experience where he was going through deep deppression and woke up one night and said to himself, "I can't live with myself anymore" when he said that he realized that there were two people, I, and myself. He felt like he fell through a vortex and fell asleep. He woke up the next day and felt at utter peace with himself and spent the next 5 months in a state of joy and peace.

The book is in a question and answer format and is VERY good, it has so much stuff in it that I feel like I am going to have to re-read it several times in order to understand it all. But the basic gest of the whole book is that he believes that we should live in the NOW, or in a constant state of meditation, emptying our brains and becoming aware of the fact that we exist in the future and the past and we don't live in the now. That little voice in our head which he calls our ego... By watching our thoughts, and observing that we have a greater Being then our thought, that our conciousness isn't thought, but a greater Being, that exists within us and that all external wants are just there to feed this Ego, we reach what he defines as enlightenment. A simple state of joy and peace, of acceptance, and submit to the fact that what is, is, and that we should first accept the isness of the Now. Before trying to commit change to the Now, to the current situation, that you shouldn't lay judgement and it allow it to effect you internally, that you should lay down iternal resistance.

Have any of you read this book? And how are you doing in trying to exist in the "Now"?

I enjoyed it's peaceful effects on my and I hope that anyone who doesn't own it buys it, as it is very good and potentially life changing if you can manage to exist fully in the now... As I believe I am already talking to partially enlightened people it is probably just the next step in your developmental process. :-)

Every time I've gone into the bookstore I end up picking it up off the shelf. I realize I've been guided to buy the book, but never did because of the format it is written in.

You are the 2nd person I know to recommed it. After the first, something really cool happened in my life. Maybe this will work out the same for me. :D Thanks.

I just got a very strong Deja vu while writing this post. I guess I will go buy this book when the next paycheck comes in. :wink:

I used to work in a bookstore and got it as a present for myself. I've read it more than once and always get something new out of it every time I read it. It is awesome.

Have you managed to fully live in the "Now" yet? I wish we could start a board about trying to live in the "Now" like the Energy Work Board... Because I think it is something that would be more effective when trying to work with a group...

Do you think that is a good idea/ plausible?

It does sound like a huge oversimplification to me.

Living in the "Now" without the mind disgressing into past or future is the result of meditation in the Insight/Awareness school. It does not happen by chance. There are reasons why our mind is constantly drifting from the present into the past - because the mind is not ready. It is subject to automatisms and unresolved problems.

It is not something you will yourself to. Living in the present is a state that can be gradually achieved through meditation. I'm currently listening to a meditation CD set that deals with the topic - "The Tao of Letting Go".

I do however wonder - we don't have a meditation sub-forum. I mean, it arises in so many topic - that could be worth a sub-forum, IMO.

Oliver

I've read it (in fact I'm waiting for a couple I know to give it back- they keep fighting over who's reading it, which is really funny if you think about it). I loved it so much I bought my sister a copy. She didn't get it. I guess it speaks to some people more than others.

I bought it after a friend lent me "A New Earth." I liked that one better but it may have been because I read it first.

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Originally Posted by Korpo

It does sound like a huge oversimplification to me.

Living in the "Now" without the mind disgressing into past or future is the result of meditation in the Insight/Awareness school. It does not happen by chance. There are reasons why our mind is constantly drifting from the present into the past - because the mind is not ready. It is subject to automatisms and unresolved problems.

It is not something you will yourself to. Living in the present is a state that can be gradually achieved through meditation. I'm currently listening to a meditation CD set that deals with the topic - "The Tao of Letting Go".

I do however wonder - we don't have a meditation sub-forum. I mean, it arises in so many topic - that could be worth a sub-forum, IMO.

Oliver

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IDK Oliver- Sometimes living in the Now becomes not so much a choice as necessity- and when that happens will has something to do with it.
No, I won't explain more than that.

I'm just saying, that it sounds like a very old idea newly shrink-wrapped and oversimplified, that's all. :)

Oliver

He doesn't over simplify it if you read what he is saying.

He is saying that you can't just "let go" and he gives a laundry list of ways to start "moving into" the Now. The reason that it is simplified is because people are already so scared of anything spiritual that it is amazing that he sold as much as he did with what he has in there. If he made it anymore complicated and in "depth" then he would have turned off 95% of the population of the western world. He did what he had to do in order to get people to read his book and still be able to change then and help them. It's a good book and he gives good techniques to move into the now.

Most of them are basic meditative techniques ("observe your thoughts" "feel your body" etc.) but it's still a good book and he goes more in depth and explains what he wants to get well. There is a lot more depth to the book for people who are reading it and I think you should read it Korpo before you make judgements on it... :D

That being said it is a simplification, but I think that it is a very purposeful simplification.

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Originally Posted by Flash_hound

Most of them are basic meditative techniques ("observe your thoughts" "feel your body" etc.) but it's still a good book and he goes more in depth and explains what he wants to get well. There is a lot more depth to the book for people who are reading it and I think you should read it Korpo before you make judgements on it... :D

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Nah, that would spoil the fun of nagging! :lol:

Oliver

I'm reading a book right now "Quiet Your Mind" and I highly suggest you read it as a follow up to this book. He says the same things but not nearly as esoteric :D.

I've read the book and I can vouche for it. The masterful technique of the book is that reading it induces the interested reader into the state of mind he's talking about, like a Shakespeare work. The resulting effect is somewhat short lived but considering the format, it's an amazing achievement. It is worthy of merit because it is that fresh boost at just the right time for so many people that "already know that." I was mysteriously drawn to the book as well, as soon as I entered the store! Very mysterious feeling, it was. (hehe)

...

I had a full blown enlightenment experience this past summer, in which I became self-realized. Absolutely nothing existed (except for the Self which was me all this time!). And nothing in the universe happened for four days. I actually had to force myself to reincarnate back into my old self so to speak. I can vouch for the accuracy of this book in that the understanding is 100% spot on. I just went super-deep into the Now so to speak and stayed there for "four days".

The experience is so sacred, that this is the first time I am talking about it, except to my dad.

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Originally Posted by Flash_hound

I'm reading a book right now "Quiet Your Mind" and I highly suggest you read it as a follow up to this book. He says the same things but not nearly as esoteric :D.

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I started reading this great book by John Selby, and I can only second your judgement. I have a much better feeling about reading it. The author seems well-informed, pragmatic, modest and genuinely spiritual. I intend to read more of his works afterwards.

Thanks for the recommendation, I am very glad I followed it. :D

Oliver

Instead of reading books, just shoot for the enlightenment experience itself.

The best method is the Awareness watching Awareness method, which is essentially outlined in the Power of NOW, in different terms.

I can tell you from experience that the state you are all seeking is already FULLY DEVELOPED inside of you.

You just need to think differently.

Once you have seen this state, you dont need any books, the state itself becomes the teacher. And this state has nothing to do with information or the accumulation of knowledge. It has to with the opposite, the cessation of thinking by being intently focused on what you are doing at all times.

In retrospect I think eckhart tolle is somewhat egotistical and in that sense isn't a very good teacher. I feel like he has a good message but he isn't the person to present it in the way he is presenting it. He almost seems like an eyewitness to a terrible crime in the sense that he doesn't fully understand what has happened, he was just there, experiencing it. It's a nice first step to stuff, but it's not very practical and very esoteric.

I guess my opinion has changed since the beginning of this thread...

@Korpo

I am glad you liked the book, my grandma stole my copy (well I gave it to her since she needs it more than I do) but I plan to get another copy soon... I really love how he describes the brain and how the different parts interact, he is a very intelligent and I get the vibe, kind, person.

He doesn't seem to have an agenda. If you know what I mean.

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Originally Posted by Flash_hound

In retrospect I think eckhart tolle is somewhat egotistical and in that sense isn't a very good teacher. I feel like he has a good message but he isn't the person to present it in the way he is presenting it. He almost seems like an eyewitness to a terrible crime in the sense that he doesn't fully understand what has happened, he was just there, experiencing it. It's a nice first step to stuff, but it's not very practical and very esoteric.
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Honestly, you are only interpreting this through YOUR OWN EGO, if you think he is egotistical. People see the world in terms of their own ego's.

This is exactly why people cannot find the state I am talking about, their ego interferes.

I can tell you from independent verification, he is absolutely right in everything he says. And you may think I am egotistical for saying that, but truth is truth.

When I was in the nondual state, I experienced life changing joy of noself. I saw through the maya of the world and how it operated. It was exactly as the ancient texts describe. It was more actually. I realized the mercy of life, in that there is only one life, with people deluded into thinking they are separate entities. I also knew for certain that my enlightenment experience was correct, because logically there was absolutley no other way for enlightenment to be.

MOST IMPORTANTLY I KNEW EXACTLY WHY NOONE FINDS THIS STATE!!!
It is VERY tricky lol....

If you want a description of how it is like to take the nondual a little more extreme, I would recommend "Silence of the Heart." But I would suggest that self-inquiry as recommended by this book is not the best path towards self-realization. However, I know exactly why Ramana and Robert Adams recommended that approach, because I know where they are coming from;)

Once you have experienced the nondual, it is easier and easier to get to.

The "Power of NOW" was written for the mass audience. If you want to experience the hardcore nondual, just take his techniques and go a little more extreme with them...

Isn't your judgment of my egotism about his egotism a representation of your ego as well? And isn't that in itself sort of a cop out ? I am not saying that he is writing crap that isn't true, I just feel like the way it comes across he doesn't' seem modest to me, he seems like he is saying, "This is the only way!! Do as I do!!!" and I feel like he makes it somewhat dogmatic. That being said I enjoyed what he had to say I am just saying he came across not as someone who was genuinely trying to enlighten people but as someone who was trying to force an idea down your throat. I didn't like how he said to a few things, "You will know when you get there."

He said good things, he made great points, I just feel that in some senses he is somewhat egotistical and I don't like that. Maybe I am wrong, but that is just the sense I got, I have no issue re-reading and seeing if I am wrong.

I actually have a bad feeling about the book. This guy gives me the creeps, actually. Like when he said in the intro that he spent two years dropping out, sitting on a park bench mostly, doing nothing but staring into the landscape, seems more like escapism than doing anything to evolve himself in any way with the gift he was given.

I don't like the style of the book either - it's like shouting "Me, me, me!"... Bit counter the stated purpose. :?

I had an extremely good feeling about "Quiet Your Mind" by John Selby and still have. It is a book along similar lines, but it seems to me to be much better a book, and I got now guided towards it for the second time. Perhaps it has to do a lot with your preferences in an author, but the "Power of Now" guy seems to be constantly appraising himself and his methods like being perfect, sounds like marketing and self-appraisal to me. *shrugs*

Oliver

Exactly what I think Korpo!

Also John Selby has EXPERIENCE he teaches people how to do those things and I just get a generally warm, almost motherly feeling from him (I thought he was a women when I first read his stuff.) He is also a lot less self appraising and you get the feeling he actually wants to HELP the reader. He says almost the exact same thing, just in a much less self appraising way...

Flash_hound,

I agree. Of course everyone has different preferences, but I feel very at home with Selby. I also think his other books sound very interesting - the guy seems to have good priorities.

It's not that "The Power of Now" is a book people should avoid, but I get a strange gut feeling about it all the time and about the author, too. Since everybody must find the messages for her- or himself in a way that suits your personality, I'm sure other people have other points of view on him and the book.

It's not like I'm not gonna read it to finish, I just changed priorities after getting both. ;)

Oliver

I have another author for you.


http://www.amazon.com/DIRECT-RAPID-MEAN ... 931&sr=8-1


I have this book, and it points very much to the truth.

Reading "The Power of Now" from a perspective that has changed over time, I think it does contain the right clues, but in a way not everyone might find helpful. On the other hand, what book does?

The problem most people seem to have is finding the entry point to the experience of presence, emptiness and stillness, and I think it is a bit different for everyone, the way there that is, hence the multitude of techniques, of schools. But beyond a certain point, the technique doesn't really matter anymore, and the message of "The Power Of Now" is a very good and valid one. It is helpful for improving different approaches of mindfulness meditation and training, another way to drive the point home. It also has some good hints for how to get there.

There are rather painstakingly accurate, almost mechanical ways to go there. That make it inevitable to not get lost, but take longer. Some people need this, at least to free enough capacity to actually watch and listen. Others are more direct. All have merit, and I guess everyone finds their match.

Oliver