After the great popularity of this book the author got sucked in to the whole new age guru trip, which is best ignored, imho. I'm sure that wouldn't interest you, it doesn't interest me either. The Ram Dass guru trip also doesn't interest me.
However, the author is still a good writer, and The Power Of Now is still a good book. As I recall the language used is pretty straightforward, and the argument made is pretty clear.
Ekhart Tolle!! I’ve seen his name for decades but I’d never read anything he’d written. That just changed. Finally. Thanks for the recommendation.
After reading the free Kindle sample, I’m certain that you & Tolle are the same person Take the test: Is the following quote from Eckhart Tolle or Phil Tanny? “Thinking has become a disease.”
I don’t pretend to understand it all, but I totally get the noise & mind chatter problem. It’s a real thing.
I do wonder about stuff like: “The predominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of consciousness. We need to go on to the next stage now as a matter of urgency; otherwise, we will be destroyed by the mind, which has grown into a monster.” If the mind is really that dangerous, then why should society allow this ”Monster” to run loose? It doesn’t take a lot of imagination where that “crisis” will lead.
Now I gotta see if my library has a complete copy.
No, I am not Ekhardt Tolle. I am His Most Eminent Flatulence Sri Baba Bozo. I am by far the bigger sage, as you can clearly see by comparing my hair to Tolle's.
"Thinking has become a disease" in the same sense that overeating has become a disease. Eating is healthy. Eating all day long is not. It's not a question of either/or, good or bad, but a question of balance.
There are various lenses one can look at this subject through.
For a down to Earth practical lens we can consider thinking to be just another mechanical function of the human body. As with all other functions, some is necessary, more without limit isn't healthy. Seen this way, thinking requires management to remain healthy just like sleeping or eating.
Through a religious lens we could ask, if God is real, shouldn't we focus some of our attention on the real world where a real God would presumably be found? The actual real world, not just symbols which point to the real world.
The New Age lens (generally speaking) tends to glamorize the subject, which is appealing to some, and off putting to others.
Tolle will tend to speak through the New Age lens, even more so as his career proceeded. But that doesn't make this a New Age topic. New Age culture doesn't own this subject. New Age is the just the lens through which Tolle and his readers find this topic most accessible.
Some people approach this topic in a manner which is not at all intellectual. I'm thinking here of a fisherman who stands in one place on the banks of a river all day long, barely moving for hours on end. He just does it, and doesn't bother labeling what he's doing.
„Here and now is all we´ve got“ seems to me as a ‚true‘, or understandable sentence, true in the way that what we experience or are aware of or ‚have‘ now, is truly happening, no one can take this away even if from one second to another it can all split up, be devastated and be ‚over‘ - like for many on 'October 7‘ -, so enjoy it, but without making more of it than it is or seems.
While “Here and now is all there is“ I cannot perceive or feel as reflecting the recognizable reality, it is a pure, unprovable assertion.
Even more: it seems very unlikely to me that there was "nothing" apart from what "is" or seems to "be" at the moment.
The connection to the past or the future, even if it is only an assumption, binds me to what was and led to what is today, and prevents me from ruling out that I have responsibility and connection to what might come.
Even if nothing of what I imagine, hope or fear, really or actually should be true, this imagined feeling of responsibility or commitment can therefore also make the present, "what is", something better.
Alan, if you were interested in exploring this further, you might consider a book called The Power Of Now. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808
After the great popularity of this book the author got sucked in to the whole new age guru trip, which is best ignored, imho. I'm sure that wouldn't interest you, it doesn't interest me either. The Ram Dass guru trip also doesn't interest me.
However, the author is still a good writer, and The Power Of Now is still a good book. As I recall the language used is pretty straightforward, and the argument made is pretty clear.
Ekhart Tolle!! I’ve seen his name for decades but I’d never read anything he’d written. That just changed. Finally. Thanks for the recommendation.
After reading the free Kindle sample, I’m certain that you & Tolle are the same person Take the test: Is the following quote from Eckhart Tolle or Phil Tanny? “Thinking has become a disease.”
I don’t pretend to understand it all, but I totally get the noise & mind chatter problem. It’s a real thing.
I do wonder about stuff like: “The predominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of consciousness. We need to go on to the next stage now as a matter of urgency; otherwise, we will be destroyed by the mind, which has grown into a monster.” If the mind is really that dangerous, then why should society allow this ”Monster” to run loose? It doesn’t take a lot of imagination where that “crisis” will lead.
Now I gotta see if my library has a complete copy.
No, I am not Ekhardt Tolle. I am His Most Eminent Flatulence Sri Baba Bozo. I am by far the bigger sage, as you can clearly see by comparing my hair to Tolle's.
"Thinking has become a disease" in the same sense that overeating has become a disease. Eating is healthy. Eating all day long is not. It's not a question of either/or, good or bad, but a question of balance.
There are various lenses one can look at this subject through.
For a down to Earth practical lens we can consider thinking to be just another mechanical function of the human body. As with all other functions, some is necessary, more without limit isn't healthy. Seen this way, thinking requires management to remain healthy just like sleeping or eating.
Through a religious lens we could ask, if God is real, shouldn't we focus some of our attention on the real world where a real God would presumably be found? The actual real world, not just symbols which point to the real world.
The New Age lens (generally speaking) tends to glamorize the subject, which is appealing to some, and off putting to others.
Tolle will tend to speak through the New Age lens, even more so as his career proceeded. But that doesn't make this a New Age topic. New Age culture doesn't own this subject. New Age is the just the lens through which Tolle and his readers find this topic most accessible.
Some people approach this topic in a manner which is not at all intellectual. I'm thinking here of a fisherman who stands in one place on the banks of a river all day long, barely moving for hours on end. He just does it, and doesn't bother labeling what he's doing.
„Here and now is all we´ve got“ seems to me as a ‚true‘, or understandable sentence, true in the way that what we experience or are aware of or ‚have‘ now, is truly happening, no one can take this away even if from one second to another it can all split up, be devastated and be ‚over‘ - like for many on 'October 7‘ -, so enjoy it, but without making more of it than it is or seems.
While “Here and now is all there is“ I cannot perceive or feel as reflecting the recognizable reality, it is a pure, unprovable assertion.
Even more: it seems very unlikely to me that there was "nothing" apart from what "is" or seems to "be" at the moment.
The connection to the past or the future, even if it is only an assumption, binds me to what was and led to what is today, and prevents me from ruling out that I have responsibility and connection to what might come.
Even if nothing of what I imagine, hope or fear, really or actually should be true, this imagined feeling of responsibility or commitment can therefore also make the present, "what is", something better.