| | Forum: Book Reviews
I recently had the opportunity to listen to The Power of Now, read unabridged by the author, Eckhart Tolle. The occasion came about because a psychiatric partial hospitalization program I am the medical director and attending psychiatrist for began recommending this book to the patients there (or at least one of the therapists did, anyway). Normally I might avoid literature with this kind of popular appeal, but I felt compelled to read it, as I was indirectly endorsing it, and also because the patients reported some benefit from reading it. As it turns out, there are some useful things in this book in terms of relieving emotional suffering, and expresses concepts that I've found difficult to express in a therapeutic context. Tolle makes __ main points: 1 One is not one's "mind" (the internal monologue or movie). 2. The mind is dependent on "psychological time" (sense of a "hard" past present and future) 3. The mind creates an illusion of separation that is seen through when one dis-identifies with it. 4. The mind can be transcended through non-judgmental observation and consciously present awareness - this amounts to a sort of constant mindfulness meditation on both one's present sensory experiences, mental activity, and "inner" body.
The book is short on practical techniques, maps of insight progress, and seems to draw some metaphysical conclusions regarding the ultimate state, which are open to debate. I think this book would be a disappointment to most hardcore meditators given this and the lack of rigorous style. Nevertheless, the ideas in this book might still benefit seekers by complementing their chosen practice. If I recall, Buddha was said to have practiced a kind of constant mindfulness in addition to meditation after giving up asceticism - perhaps these suggestions are a necessary component of any practice. |