The Power of Now
Eckhart Tolle has emerged as one of today's most inspiring teachers. In The Power of Now, already a worldwide bestseller, the author describes his transition from despair to self-realization soon after his 29th birthday. Tolle took another ten years to understand this transformation, during which time he evolved a philosophy that has parallels in Buddhism, relaxation techniques, and meditation theory but is also eminently practical. In The Power of Now he shows readers how to recognize themselves as the creators of their own pain, and how to have a pain-free existence by living fully in the present. Accessing the deepest self, the true self, can be learned, he says, by freeing ourselves from the conflicting, unreasonable demands of the mind and living "present, fully, and intensely, in the Now."
Themes & atmosphere
Books in conversation with The Power of Now
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
Where The Power of Now keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about The Power of Now
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Drawing on his own breakdown and recovery in his late twenties, German-born teacher Eckhart Tolle argues that most suffering comes from identification with the noisy mind and the time-bound self. He walks readers through short practices for staying inside the present moment.
The Power of Now draws on Buddhist, Christian, and other spiritual traditions but is not tied to a specific religion. Eckhart Tolle's framing of present-moment awareness is accessible to readers from many traditions.
The Power of Now (1997) is the foundational book; A New Earth (2005) extends the framework. Most readers start with The Power of Now to ground the core concepts before reading A New Earth.
The Power of Now was written by Eckhart Tolle, published in 1997 by New World Library.
The Power of Now is 224 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Power of Now takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
The Power of Now is a standalone novel by Eckhart Tolle, not part of a series.
The Power of Now is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.