I have called the Power of Now the best self-help book ever and have listened to it over a hundred times. I always hear something new because my ego feels threatened and doesn't want me to learn this stuff.

My ego almost fooled me once again when I first listened to Stillness Speaks. It said to me "Eckhart is just rehashing stuff in aphorisms". But soon I found that there is much richness and wisdom to be mined here and if I can just take the principles to heart and start practicing them I might very well achieve inner peace in this lifetime. The deeper truth about this work is that it is divinely inspired and is of incredible depth and value.

What we do with this priceless gift is up to us.


Words that point beyond words   November 11, 2003
 51 out of 54 found this review helpful

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The fact that this book stirs up controversy speaks of its real power, and the power of any teaching that goes beyond the narrow range of our human expectations.

In the Introduction, Tolle says, "If you come to a spiritual teacher - or this book - looking for stimulating ideas, theories, beliefs, intellectual discussions, then you will be disappointed. In other words, if you are looking for food for thought, you won't find it, and you will miss the very essence of the teaching, the essence of this book, which is not in the words but within yourself."

And later, "Allow the book to do its work, to awaken you from the old grooves of your repetitive and conditioned thinking."

"This book, of course, uses words.... the thoughts within this book don't say 'Look at me.' but 'Look beyond me.' Because the thoughts came out of stillness, they have power -- the power to take you back into the same stillness from which they arose."

I have nothing to add to this clarity.


Very Disappointing   September 9, 2003
 49 out of 59 found this review helpful

Like many, I was eagerly awaiting this book. It wasn't worth the wait. If you have read The Power Of Now, read or listened to other materials by the author, or have even a passing familiarity with advaita/nonduality/awakening/presence, etc. etc. etc., then you've taken in everything that is in this book many times over. It has the feel of something that was quickly slapped together by the author and/or publisher to cash in on the success of The Power of Now. And as such, it lacks the very thing that made that book so fantastic (and an outright publishing phenomenon)..........the sense of Presence! You could feel it flowing from every page of T.P.O.N., but it is nowhere to be found in this small volume. And even taking into consideration the outrageous increase in the cost of books, 17 dollars for this one is way too much. I love Eckhart Tolle and feel that he is an absolutely incredible teacher/author. But you'd never know it by this book. I realize that this type of subject matter doesn't lend itself well to being expressed verbally or through the written word and this book certainly attests to that if nothing else. But Mr. Tolle did a terrific job of writing about this topic in his first book (as have many others), so we know it's possible. He doesn't pull off the same thing in Stillness Speaks. He repeatedly makes the point that stillness and silence are what are important, but unfortunately you end up paying 17 dollars to read a book that points out the fact that words aren't neccessary to this Understanding and can even stand in the way. He should've heeded his own advice and just remained silent this time. Maybe posting the short "reminders" in this book on his website would've been a nice gift to all the readers who bought The Power Of Now and made him a very wealthy man. I certainly don't mean to imply that he's in it for the money. In the world of "spirituality", the author is the real deal... which is rare in itself. But everyone who not only purchased his first book, but did their best to put his teachings into practice in their lives, deserved better than this as a follow up.