Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now review by Brian Ó Broin

I really did not like this book, despite its positive message. I'd give it one star out of five. It gets that single star for its basic message, which is "Live in the Now, for you can do little or nothing about the past or the future."

I disliked this book for several reasons:

1) The prose is clunky and full of New Age jargon (e.g. "Your main task as a woman now is to transmute the pain-body so that it no longer comes between you and your true self, the essence of who you are.")

2) Tolle's tone is often disdainful. He frequently accuses his imaginary interlocutor (a stand-in for the reader) of not understanding him. How can he know this? And surely the fault of not being understandable lies with the author? He asks rhetorical questions that are often intended to make the reader feel foolish.

3) The message is too short for a book, so the book is dreadfully padded. By the end, it's become a slog, and you have learned little or nothing new that wasn't explained in chapter one or two.

Tolle seems to be repackaging Zen Buddhism (with a side order of superficial Christian quotables) but is doing so with that classic hippie-dippie new age jargon that is so off-putting. He keeps quoting from the bible, but rarely gives chapter and verse, and the reason for that is that most of his quotes are taken out of context or rephrased to suit his message.

One message that resonated, but that Tolle had clearly dug up from elsewhere, is that most human beings act out of fear and other basic emotions, and that their behaviour is therefore foolish, ill-considered, and illogical. Once you can distance yourself from those toxic emotions (and perhaps from those humans) you are free to view the world --the now-- as you want to. 

In the end, I wanted to learn more about how Tolle himself had put his philosophy into practice, but there's precious little about that, making me wonder how much of this book's message is "do as I say, not as I do." I understand his books and lectures and recordings and merchandise have made him a multi-millionaire, yet I see no evidence of his having redistributed that wealth in any meaningful way, and I see no personal anecdotes in this book that would persuade me that he actually practices what he preaches.

I came away from this book actually feeling a little bit anxious. What have I missed? Why haven't I experienced the revelation? Why am I not seeing the tree glow? Am I one of the unconscious human morons he disparages?

But fear not - he'll be speaking (or sitting on a stage) in Calgary next April, and front row seats are only $2000! Makes me wonder what Jesus charged for the Sermon on the Mount.