The Power of Now by Echkhart Tolle

IF YOU want to read just one book this year - this is it!
But first, you must be in the proper frame of mind. There are people who can pick up this book and promptly fall asleep, and there are others who are mesmerised by the words and the book changes their lives.

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Publisher: New World Library

F you are just one of the six billion inhabitants on earth who on
occasion question the purpose of your existence, then welcome to the human
race. Countless people through the ages have asked this question, many
went to their graves still in the dark.
A great number have an inkling of what life is about, sometimes. A few
lifted the veil of eternity and went on to become great teachers. Their
words and teachings live on centuries after their death.
Today, in this time and age, there is a window through which you may
catch a glimpse of your purpose in life. If you have doubts and probably
lots of questions, you are probably soul-searching.
It is a popular term used on people who are spiritually under-nourished.
Five years ago, Cambridge University scholar Eckhart Tolle wrote this
book. It has blazed a trail of enlightenment among members of the inner
circle who were on a spiritual quest, searching for answers to their own
lives, and things beyond the Milky Way.
When Tolle was 29 years old, he suffered like many others did, from
regular bouts of depression. The dread of living lingered in him.
He really did not know what to do with the rest of his life. Tolle
contemplated suicide. Then one morning, he woke up and felt as if he was
sucked into "a vortex of energy". He thought he heard the words, "resist
nothing".
As quickly as the feeling came, it vanished. And then, there was no
fear. There has been none in him ever since. For the next five months, he
wandered through the city as if he were on a high, but not on drugs.
Friends noticed the dramatic change in his personality and started
asking questions. This book is the essence of all that he has experienced
and all that was given to him to learn and cherish.
If words can explain enlightenment, then Tolle has come pretty close to
it in The Power of Now. The writer says: "You are not your mind," in the
first chapter and leads you down the same path that Buddha had probably
taken millennia ago.
You are asked to accept the present whether it is unpleasant or awful to
you. Holding that thought, you are advised to work with the situation.
Of course, it is much more than that simple line of advice. What then is
the power of Now? According to Tolle, it is "none other than the power of
your presence, your consciousness liberated from thought forms".
In reality, the past is beyond your control. The future has not taken
place. Only the present is in your hands and you can perform wonderful
deeds with it.
Dwell on the present. Feel it. Taste it. Revel in it. Enjoy the present.
Relish in it, NOW. There is no other time.
Tolle, who was born in Germany but now resides in Vancouver, Canada,
tells the world about portals opening into the unmanifested.
Some of the Tolle's words may leave you groping in the dark but he
assures his readers that in the silence of space, where mind ceases, the
soul thrives. And it is here, in "nothing", the Truth awaits you.
Two thousand years ago, a teacher came forth and proclaimed: "And the
Truth will set you free." This truth awaits all who are on a quest for
that truth.
Tolle has put up all the necessary sign-posts, pointing towards the
right direction.
One of the answers that sparks everlasting peace and constant joy is as
simple as it is profound. It is forgiveness. Know that you can dissolve
pain, heal hurts and create happiness by merely practising forgiveness.
It is the bridge that takes you to the gates of heaven and love is the
key that lets you in.
Marc Allen, the author of A Visionary Life, described Tolle's book as a
book that comes along perhaps once every generation. Indeed it is.
The simplicity of its explanations reveals its profundity of thought.
For many who have entered mid-life without a clear vision of their
life's path in the next 20 or 30 years, The Power of NOW is that single
candle of light in total darkness.
If you have made a resolution for this year to read just one book, this
should be it. It is for you to read it again and again until there is
nothing but light in front of you, at the back of you and at your sides.
Finally, it envelopes you. That's when you know the book has served its
purpose.