Book SummaryThe Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Power of Now

Many of us spend our lives searching for peace, joy, and fulfillment. We look for it in different ways: through accomplishments, relationships, experiences, and material possessions. The Power of Now proposes that the only way to find true peace and fulfillment is through being solely and intensely present in each moment. The more we live in the Now, the more we are able to connect with our true selves and experience life fully, without extraneous thoughts and speculations clouding our minds and altering our lens of the world.

The Problem: We Spend Much of Our Time Consumed in Thought

What will I make for dinner tonight? I should have spoken up during that meeting. I wonder if I’ll get that promotion. I really want that car. I have to remember to buy bread and eggs on the way home. All of these thoughts distract us from experiencing the present moment.

Our endless thoughts often focus on the past or the future. However, we have no control over either — the past is over and the future isn’t here yet — so we are in an endless cycle of wasting our mental and emotional energy on things we can’t control. The only moment we can impact is the present.

When you focus on the past, you feel guilt, regret, resentment, sadness, bitterness, and unforgiveness. You also carry old hurt from your pain-body, the invisible entity of cumulative pain you have experienced in your life. The pain body is like a parasite, feeding on negativity and driving us to think and act in negative ways.

• (Shortform example: Someone who has experienced abandonment is likely to be sensitive to comments or situations that trigger that pain. In response, her pain-body may push her to attack others by lashing out, or attack herself by blaming herself and feeling victimized. We’ll talk more about the pain-body and how to overcome it in the full summary.)

When you focus too much on the future, you create anxiety, tension, stress, and worry. In the full summary, we will explore how to plan for the future while remaining present.

• (Shortform example: You have a pile of bills due next week and are consumed with worry about how you will be able to make ends meet. Instead of dwelling in this future situation, make a plan for how to pay off the bills and then accept that there’s nothing more you can do in this moment. Even if your plan doesn’t solve the issue — as that may not always be possible — spending the meantime panicking creates extra negativity, exhausts your mental and emotional energy, and prevents you from being present. You are gaining nothing from the anxiety.)

Your Ego Causes Problems

Why are so many of us driving ourselves crazy thinking about things we can’t control, and distracting ourselves from the real moment we are experiencing right now? The inner voice in your head, called the ego, is responsible for this endless internal monologue. The ego is a part of your mind that tries to control your thinking, emotions, and behavior.

Your ego projects a false identity, made up of your membership in groups and communities (such as gender, nationality, profession, and religion) and your past pain and experiences. The ego tells you that your memories, experiences, religion, upbringing, education, career, gender, political beliefs, and nationality make you who you are.

All these aspects of the ego-created identity are based on external forces. If you believe that these external factors — like life experiences, profession, and political affiliation — make you you, then any new experiences, career changes, and challenges to your political beliefs have the potential to shake your identity.

In fact, your ego is distracting you from connecting with your true self or Being. Your Being is a...

The Power of Now Summary Shortform Introduction

In our fast-paced, high-stress world, nearly everyone is trying to find the source of true peace, joy, and fulfillment. We often look to religion, relationships, career accomplishments, and material possessions.

The Power of Now insists that we can’t find the peace and happiness we seek in anything outside ourselves. Instead, the only way to find true peace and fulfillment is through being present in each moment. The more you live in the Now, the more you are able to connect with your true self and experience life fully. The concept requires you to be solely and intensely present in each moment, by accepting external circumstances that you cannot change and resisting the temptation to dwell on the past and future.

The text is written largely in Q&A format, curated from questions Tolle fielded through years of teaching...

The Power of Now Summary Principle 1: Only the Present Is Real

What is the power of Now? The Now is the present moment — each individual moment in the innumerable sequence of moments that makes up our lives. The power of Now is in experiencing each of these moments with your full and undivided attention, without being distracted by your internal monologue (whether that includes thoughts of your to-do list, replaying an interaction from this morning, or running commentary and analysis of the present). By actively engaging in each moment, you can prevent much of your pain and stress and live in a consistent state of inner peace and fulfillment. We will explain how and why in later chapters.

Sounds easy? Set a timer for five minutes. Until the timer goes off, pay attention each time your thoughts drift to something besides what you are doing in that exact moment.

Staying completely focused on the present is a simple concept, but it is not necessarily easy; most of us have such a strong habit of getting carried away in our thoughts that it will take deliberate effort and practice to stay present.

Now Is the Only Time That Truly Exists

We give a lot of power and credence to the past and the future. We tend to think the past...

Shortform Exercise: How Are You Using Time?

It’s possible to learn from the past and plan goals for the future while staying present: The key is not to get so consumed in the past or future that it distracts you from the Now. Use this exercise to assess how you are using time, and how you can avoid dwelling on the past or future.

Describe a mid- to long-term goal you are currently working toward.

The Power of Now Summary Principle 2: The Ego Prohibits Inner Peace

Now that we know that there is power in being present, let’s examine what keeps pushing your thoughts away from the Now: It’s that voice inside your head. It can be characterized as the devil or angel on your shoulder. It is the voice that analyzes what’s going on around you, comments on your interactions, dwells on the past, speculates about the future, complains, likes or dislikes things, and makes you question yourself in moments of doubt. This internal voice is the ego.

What Is the Ego?

The ego is a part of your mind that tries to control your thinking and behavior. (Shortform note: This book personifies the ego as a thinking, feeling entity.)

The ego gives you an interpretation of the world, not a true reflection. The only true way to see the world is by being fully present and experiencing the Now, without judging or analyzing it.

(Shortform suggestion: Think of your mind as the screen in a movie theater — it can have rips, wrinkles, and other flaws that distort the movie being projected. Each one of us is watching the movie of life play on our own screens, which all have wear-and-tear from our past experiences, cultural conditioning, and other...

Shortform Exercise: Check Your Ego

Disconnecting from your ego is the only way to access presence, your true self, and inner peace. Use this exercise to practice being present.

For the next 10 minutes, try to stay entirely focused on being present in what you’re doing. When other thoughts arise, take note of them.

What were the thoughts that started popping in your head?

The Power of Now Summary Principle 3: Emotions Are a Roadblock

The ego’s power is not confined to our minds. The thoughts and fears the ego produces lead to outward reactions.

The ego creates thoughts and thought patterns. Those repeated thoughts produce emotions. Emotions are your body’s physical reactions to your thoughts.

(Shortform example: Your spouse or roommate didn’t wash the dishes, even though she said she would. You can’t help but notice that they are piling up in the sink and you’re out of clean forks. You think about how you’re about to make dinner, and how that will add even more dishes to the mound. You think about the unwashed dishes and her unkept promise, and you begin to get angry, causing your heart to beat faster and your muscles to tense up. Your anger then brings up thoughts about other chores she has neglected, and how it feels like you are always stuck doing dishes. This makes you even angrier, creating a vicious cycle.)

Research shows that strong emotions can affect your body’s biochemistry. (Shortform note: Scientific research shows that every cell in the body has receptors (or keyholes) for the neuropeptides (or keys), like...

Shortform Exercise: Recognizing Emotions In Your Body

Emotions are your body’s physical reactions to your thoughts, both positive and negative. Use this exercise to help recognize the causes and effects of your emotions.

Think of a recent situation when one external factor (e.g. work, a relationship, an event) caused you to have either a positive reaction that eventually became negative, or vice versa. Describe what happened and how it made you feel.

The Power of Now Summary Principle 4: The Pain-Body Creates More Pain

The emotional pain-body is the invisible entity of pain that accumulates through your life. This starts with painful experiences from childhood, and every experience that brings you emotional pain is added to the collection.

As an accumulation of emotions, the pain-body is ultimately a product of the ego that prevents you from being present and feeling inner peace.

The Pain-Body Is Like a Mind-Controlling Parasite

The pain-body is a mass of negative energy that can occupy your body and mind. It is like a parasite, living in you and feeding on you physically, mentally, and emotionally. But the pain-body only has as much power as you give it; the pain-body feeds on the negative energy that is created when you get swept up in the emotions it produces and identify with the pain-body.

Events, conversations, and thoughts can trigger the pain-body, especially if it hits a nerve with a familiar pain pattern from the past. When your pain-body is triggered, it can cause you to be irritated, impatient, somber, angry, depressed, or antagonistic.

• (Shortform example: Your pain-body includes many experiences of feeling like you could never live up to your older...

Shortform Exercise: Recognizing Your Pain-Body

Pain is part of the human experience, and every person has a pain-body; it can be triggered by thoughts or actions, and then both spews and feeds on negative energy. In this exercise, you will reflect on your individual pain-body.

What’s a painful experience from your past that is part of your pain-body? This is an emotional scar that gets triggered easily by other events, and then consumes your thoughts and emotions.

The Power of Now Summary Solution Part 1: Facing Problems Through Presence

The power of Now is the power of being present. Presence is the only way to feel peace and true fulfillment. We’ve explored how not being present makes us unhappy and unfulfilled, and how our ego uses thoughts and emotions to prevent us from being present. Now that we’ve identified the problem, we’re going to talk about how you can become more present, and how it will impact your life.

Resisting the Now Creates Pain

Being present does not change your external circumstances. In fact, life consists of cycles of success and failure; each one is a necessary precedent of the other. These cycles can last from a few hours to years, and are part of the inevitable impermanence of everything in life. (There are also cycles of highs and lows when it comes to your physical energy, productivity, and creativity.)

When you are present, you must accept the lows as much as the highs as part of the reality of the Now. Why fight a cycle that is inevitable?

Much of the pain you experience is self-inflicted because you’re not accepting the reality of the present moment. The circumstances of your life — your “life situation” — can be unpleasant, but begrudging them does nothing...

Shortform Exercise: Accepting the Unpleasant

Highs and lows are inevitable in life, and you must accept both to remain present and be at peace. Use this exercise to work toward accepting something undesirable in your life.

Describe something in your current life situation that you are unhappy or dissatisfied with.

The Power of Now Summary Solution Part 2: Be Aware of Your Mind and Body

We have discussed how important and beneficial it is to be present — but easier said than done. Presence will inevitably take practice (this is why meditation is called a practice), and it will be like a muscle you can strengthen over time. The keys to this practice will be maintaining awareness of both your mind and body.

Use Your Mind; Don’t Let It Use You

Presence does not mean never using your mind, but rather using it deliberately. Your mind is a tool; use it productively for specific tasks, then put it to rest.

Pay attention to your thoughts: How often do you think about the past, future, or something that is not helping you with the task at hand? Are you in control of your thoughts, or are they taking you on a ride?

Many of us spend unnecessary time and energy in repetitive and unproductive thoughts that can actually do more harm than good. The mind becomes dangerous when it stops being a tool that we use, and instead has control over us, as we discussed earlier.

When you use your mind only for practical purposes, instead of leaving it running all day, it will be sharper and more focused when you need it.

• (Shortform note: Research reveals that...

The Power of Now Summary Solution Part 3: Be Present with Other People

Being present impacts your inner state first and foremost. That affects your behavior and, inevitably, how you interact with people around you.

If you are acting on your ego’s influence — largely based on fear and the impulses of your pain-body — you are not reacting to the world as it actually is, but rather to your ego’s perception of it. When you are present and connected with your true self, you can be free of these influences and react genuinely to a clear-eyed view of the world and people around you.

True Compassion Comes Only Through Presence

You can only truly see and connect with other people through being present. When you are not present, you will make judgments of other people and confuse their words and behaviors with who they are. This creates a dynamic in which your ego is only seeing and responding to other egos, not their true selves. When you are present, you will be able to recognize that what you see is only a screen (the ego), behind which lies the person’s true Being.

The nature of the ego will often cause you to then perceive people as potential threats — not necessarily to your safety, but to your sense of supposed identity. **Compassion...

The Power of Now Summary Solution Part 4: Enlightenment is Perpetual Presence

As you practice being present, you will become present throughout a greater part of the day. Eventually, you may near enlightenment, which is being perpetually present. When you are enlightened you can rise above thought, using your mind in a focused and effective way, without being controlled by it or addicted to it.

Enlightenment is not something you strive to achieve: You do not reach enlightenment by gaining anything, only by stripping away the ego’s unnecessary thoughts and negative energy. Enlightenment comes only through being in the Now and keeping the ego at bay.

Presence and enlightenment bring inner peace — which is unaffected by external factors — even when it cannot bring happiness. You can be unhappy but still at peace.

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