Practising the Power of Now

Religion and spirituality

First published: 1999
Print length: 143 pagesNew World Library, 2001

Description

Practising the Power of Now distills Eckhart Tolle's teachings on presence into short readings, meditations, and exercises intended for repeated use. The book asks readers to notice the mind's constant movement between remembered pain and anticipated problems, then return attention to immediate experience. Practices involving silence, observation of thought, awareness of the inner body, acceptance, and surrender aim to loosen identification with the mental narratives that sustain fear and conflict. Tolle presents the present moment not as a productivity technique but as the only point at which life is directly encountered. Designed as a practical companion rather than a continuous argument, the book offers a contemplative framework for meeting emotion, relationships, and ordinary activity with less resistance.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Direct · Essayistic

Pace

Measured

Tone

Earnest · Hopeful · Philosophical · Reflective

Structure

Episodic · Reference

Focus

Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

2 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Knowledge and truthMental healthMoralityTransformation

About Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle is a German spiritual teacher and self-help author whose work turns a small set of ideas about attention, thought, and identity into practical contemplative instruction. Drawing from Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism, Sufism, and Hinduism without affiliating himself with one religion, he writes in direct, conversational prose and repeatedly returns to the present moment as a means of loosening mental habits that sustain distress. The Power of Now develops this argument through personal experience, philosophical explanation, questions and answers, and simple exercises in observing thought and bodily awareness. A New Earth broadens the inquiry from private suffering to collective dysfunction, using anecdotes and concepts such as the “pain-body” to describe how emotional history can perpetuate anger, anxiety, and conflict. His shorter books alter the pace rather than the underlying method. Stillness Speaks arranges spare reflections around silence, acceptance, relationships, and death, while Practising the Power of Now distills the teaching into brief readings, meditations, and exercises designed for repetition rather than continuous argument.