48 pages • 1 hour read
Eckhart TolleThe Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “You Are Not Your Mind”
Tolle begins his first chapter by raising the question, “Enlightenment—what is that?” (11). He relates a parable about a low-income man who is sitting on a box, asking for money. Another man passes and tells him to look inside the box he is sitting on; when he does so, he is shocked to find he was sitting on a box of treasure. Tolle compares the reader to the man and their “true wealth” or “radiant joy of Being” to the treasure box (11). He claims that the ego likes to perceive enlightenment as a “superhuman accomplishment,” but it is actually a feeling of “oneness with Being” and “connectedness” with oneself and others (12). Without it, people feel separate from others, which makes them more fearful.
The Buddha’s version of enlightenment was simply existing without suffering, which Tolle explains prevents striving toward a false accomplishment. Tolle uses the word “Being” to mean the “One Life,” which is the “essence” that all life forms share that can only be experienced, not mentally understood (12). While Tolle sometimes uses the word God, he generally feels that the word’s meaning was lost through millennia of “misuse,” making it prone to be used in exclusive and divisive ways (14). He prefers the term “Being,” since it encourages people to think of what is within and does not prompt certain specific images, such of that of an elderly man as a God figure.
Tolle feels that the biggest challenge to experiencing reality is over-identifying with one’s own mind and its constant thinking, which Tolle argues can become a “disease” (16). He claims that the human mind can be a constructive tool, but only if people understand that they are not their minds. To do so, they must begin “watching the thinker” to avoid becoming dominated by uncontrollable thoughts (16). Paying close attention to one’s thoughts is the first step in liberation from involuntary thinking and intrusive thoughts. Tolle explains that it is important to do this without judging these thoughts as good or bad. He argues that witnessing these thoughts uses a part of the self that is “beyond the mind,” which helps reduce people’s sense of identification with these thoughts (19). This practice helps lead to the experience of “no-mind,” a peaceful mental state that can lead to “pure consciousness” and joy in simply feeling one’s own presence (20). Another way to create this “no-mind” state is to tap into the present moment with mindfulness. For example, while washing hands, pay close attention to every sensory part of the experience. Tolle explains that this kind of awareness is a form of meditation.
According to Tolle, thinking is a kind of “addiction,” since people feel compelled to think and get some short-term pleasure from it, even though it causes harm and pain in the long term. He clarifies that dependence on thinking is not the source for creative ideas, which he believes come from the “no-mind” state rather than from conscious thought. As such, enlightenment is “rising above thought, not falling back to a level below thought, the level of an animal or a plant” (23). Tolle calls the human mind a “survival machine” that is excellent at handling complex information but cannot generate creativity, which comes from “inner stillness” (24).
Tolle explains that emotional reactions can also be a part of the mind’s compulsive thinking, especially when people generate physical reactions to the mind’s emotions. For example, thinking a “hostile thought” prompts the body to produce the physical feeling of anger (25). Tolle argues that some people repress their emotions so much they experience them only as physical symptoms. When thoughts conflict with emotions, Tolle believes that emotions are a better indicator of one’s true state of mind. According to him, it is important for people to observe their own emotional reactions, which makes them identify as “the watcher” rather than being controlled by the emotions themselves (26). Tolle argues that all emotions originate from a “primordial, undifferentiated emotion” that he likens to fear or pain (28). Trying to escape this pain generates more pain, a vicious cycle that ends only when people stop identifying with their egos. Tolle distinguishes love, joy, and peace as separate from other emotions since they are a part of Being. He points out that joy is often conflated with pleasure, but while joy comes from the “true nature,” pleasure is a more superficial feeling. Tolle warns that it is easy to become trapped in patterns of experiencing pain and pleasure, even in relationships that people think are based on love. For example, a drug can give a “high” before making one feel low, and a relationship can have similar effects.
Next, Tolle addresses the Buddhist notion that in order to be enlightened, people have to stop having “cravings” (30). Tolle argues that cravings are the mind’s attempt to get pleasure in the absence of joy. He encourages the reader to simply be present rather than trying too hard to be enlightened, which can become another craving in itself.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Consciousness: The Way Out of Pain”
Tolle argues that pain is the result of “nonacceptance” of the present moment, and one must “accept the Now” to “be free of the egoic mind” (33). He claims that the ego and the concept of time are inherently connected since ego is preoccupied with the past and the future and is resistant to the “timeless Now” (33). Tolle instructs readers to always accept the present moment, even if it is painful, and behave as though they decided to have the present be the way it is, making it a “friend and ally” rather than an “enemy” (35).
According to Tolle, inner pain, which he calls the “pain-body,” can build up over the course of one’s life as painful events are experienced (36). These pain-bodies may be dormant or active and can range from being “obnoxious but relatively harmless” to “vicious and destructive monsters” (37). Tolle encourages the reader to confront their pain-body by becoming more aware of it. He calls all pain an “illusion” that can be dispelled with “presence,” but trying to fight against it only feeds it with more negative thinking (38). He warns that identifying the self with one’s negative emotions, such as anger, and allowing the mind to think angry thoughts only strengthens the pain-body. He instructs the reader to identify their emotional or physical feeling and observe it without analysis, judgment, or identification with it. Tolle argues that one reason people remain in emotional pain is that they strongly identify with their pain-body and are scared to lose their identity. Instead, they compulsively think and talk about their pain, causing their identification with it to continue.
Tolle then addresses the role of fear in creating pain. He clarifies that he is not talking about the “instinctive shrinking back from danger” that all people instinctively have but about the “psychological condition of fear” that is not a response to any kind of immediate physical danger (43). When people feel anxiety or worry, they are fearful of what could happen in the future; because it is possible to cope only with the present and not with the future, this creates an “anxiety gap” (43). Tolle reiterates that fear is a function of the ego, which is always anxious to survive and dominate others. This “egoic mind” is inherently insecure and prompts people to crave different things such as money, possessions, or relationships—or, he adds, even connection with identifiers such as nationality, ethnicity, or religion—to try to feel “whole” (45).
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
In Tolle’s first chapters he establishes a question-and-answer format in which he explores different interwoven subjects including enlightenment, thinking, and the egoic mind. He forcefully argues against constant, compulsive thinking which he compares to a destructive addiction (22). In doing so, he establishes a theme of Thinking as a Function of the Ego by emphasizing the connection between this compulsive thinking and the “ego,” which gives people the “mental image of who [they] are” (22). The ego does not care about the present moment; it is occupied with remembering the past to maintain a certain identity and looking for validation and survival in the future. He claims that it is essential to experience the present moment, which people cannot do if they are controlled by their minds.
Unlike many theological systems, Tolle’s views do not put human thinking on a pedestal because of the brain’s complexity. Instead, he tries to temper the reader’s respect for thinking by underlining how the “miracle of life,” which he argues is itself a kind of intelligence, began without human thinking or intervention (24). Therefore, for Tolle, intelligence is “greater than the mind” and human thinking (24). Interestingly, Tolle creates a chasm between humans and other life forms as he discusses animals and plants as equals that live “below thought” (23). For humans, the only way to use the brain is by compulsive, egoic thinking or by becoming enlightened and conscious by observing these thoughts and not identifying with them. By making distinctions between his view on plant and animal consciousness and the different ways humans can use their brains, Tolle clarifies his perspective on the relationship between thinking and enlightenment.
Throughout these passages, Tolle reveals influences from different religious and philosophical traditions. Indeed, he considers the message of his book the same as the universal “essence of all religions” (9). In spite of this commonality, Tolle uses his own unique language, such as Being, essence, and pain-body, to avoid negative associations with mainstream religions that he says became “overlaid with extraneous matter” over the centuries and lost their spiritual meaning (9). He especially borrows from Buddhist beliefs about the mind and how to become enlightened. Tolle writes, “I love the Buddha’s simple definition of enlightenment as ‘the end of suffering.’ There is nothing superhuman in that, is there?” (12). He even gently disagrees with what he terms “the majority of Buddhists” by arguing that enlightenment is realistically attainable for everyone in this lifetime, not just for the Buddha (12). Tolle revisits his references to the Buddha in Chapter 2, encouraging people not just to admire Buddhist philosophy about mindfulness but to practice it themselves. He urges the reader, “Be there as the observer of the mind. Instead of quoting the Buddha, be the Buddha, be ‘the awakened one,’ which is what the word buddha means” (31). Tolle also references the ancient Christian Saint Paul while discussing the pain-body. He adopts Saint Paul’s analogy “Everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light” to persuade the reader that the best way to overcome the pain-body is to observe it, rather than fight it with more “darkness” (39). By acknowledging these connections, Tolle credits these spiritual and philosophical traditions with important teachings and hints at how different faiths can stray from their initial revelations and fail to impart their original “essence.”
