The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Our review

Tolle’s modern spiritual classic offers a freeing central insight, even if its delivery tests skeptical readers.

Tolle’s core teaching is simple and, for many readers, life-changing: you are not your thoughts, and most anxiety lives in a past or future that exists only in the mind. The question-and-answer format anticipates the objections a reader is likely to have, and some of his exercises, such as watching the thinker or noticing the pain-body, are practical ways into mindfulness. It’s a book many people return to during hard periods, and that loyalty says something.

Tolle can come across as vague and grandiose in equal measure. Big claims about consciousness and enlightenment arrive without much argument, and the repetition is considerable. Readers who prefer secular mindfulness or a grounding in research may find more traction with other writers. Still, the best pages capture something real about the restless mind, and they put it more plainly than most spiritual books manage.