Editor's entry
~1 min readThe Power of Now is Eckhart Tolle’s first major book and the work that defined the modern presence/mindfulness genre. Written in question-and-answer form, the ten chapters move from a diagnosis of the thinking mind (“You Are Not Your Mind”) through the inner body, the pain-body, the unmanifested, relationships, and the meaning of surrender. The central instruction is consistent throughout: drop identification with thought, place attention on the felt sense of the present moment, recognise the awareness in which both come and go.
Initially overlooked at release in 1997, the book gained traction through the late 1990s and became a global bestseller after Oprah Winfrey championed it in 2000. It has since sold more than 16 million copies in 33+ languages and is widely cited as the gateway text of the modern presence/mindfulness genre. Critics note that Tolle’s prose can feel repetitive and that his synthesis borrows heavily from Zen, Advaita and Christian mysticism without always crediting them; the concept of the “pain body” is sometimes described as more poetic than psychologically rigorous. Few books in this space have aged as well commercially, even if some readers find the second half thinner than the first.
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First lines
opening of the bookI have little use for the past and rarely think about it; however, I would briefly like to tell you how I came to be a spiritual teacher and how this book came into existence.
Contents
10 chapters- You Are Not Your Mind
- Consciousness: The Way Out of Pain
- Moving Deeply into the Now
- Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now
- The State of Presence
- The Inner Body
- Portals into the Unmanifested
- Enlightened Relationships
- Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There Is Peace
- The Meaning of Surrender
Reception
editor-collectedA #1 New York Times bestseller that took nearly three years to reach a mass audience: little promoted at its 1997 Namaste Publishing release, it was picked up by New World Library in 1999 and broke through after Oprah Winfrey recommended it in 2000. By the mid-2020s it had sold more than 16 million copies and been translated into 33+ languages. Within contemplative traditions reception is mixed: practitioners with backgrounds in Zen, Vipassana, and Advaita Vedanta often note that the core instructions (attention to the present moment, disidentification from thought, the felt sense of the inner body) are clean and useful, while the metaphysical framing is loose. Academic readers in religious studies have criticised the lack of citations and the syncretic borrowing from Buddhist, Christian, and Advaita sources without attribution. The book’s reputation as the modern gateway to nondual teaching, however, is essentially uncontested.
Index reception note
Frequently asked
3 questions- What is The Power of Now about?
- It is Eckhart Tolle’s case for inhabiting the present moment as the only doorway out of suffering. The ten chapters move from a diagnosis of the thinking mind through the inner body, the pain-body, relationships, and the meaning of surrender, with the central instruction to drop identification with thought and rest in present-moment awareness.
- When was The Power of Now published and why did it take so long to become a bestseller?
- Tolle published it in 1997 with the small Canadian press Namaste Publishing; the New World Library edition followed in 1999. It only reached a global audience after Oprah Winfrey recommended it in 2000, and has since sold more than 16 million copies in 33+ languages.
- How does The Power of Now relate to A New Earth?
- The Power of Now (1997) lays out the central instruction — attention to the present moment, freedom from compulsive thinking. A New Earth (2005) re-presents the same teaching at greater length and in more diagnostic terms, framing human suffering as identification with the ego and the pain-body. A New Earth is generally the more accessible second book.
Catalogue record
- Author
- Eckhart Tolle
- Title
- The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- Publisher
- New World Library
- Year
- 27 September 1999
- Pages
- 208
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781577311522
- Shelf
- Now · Presence · Consciousness
Availability
By the same author
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