The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

This is a book review that could be a column. Like many people my age, the blur of decades past and the acceleration of each passing year breeds a sense of urgency, if not panic. Jack Nicholson in "About Schmidt" looks up one day in astonishment, asking "what the hell happened." We're not paying attention. That's what happens. Then suddenly we realize the cliff is getting closer and we're like the Road Runner trying to flip on the brakes and backpedal those last few yards. Stop and smell the roses....now.

Hence, the reason I picked up this book. Mindfulness and being 'present' has become a fashionable personal discipline, like strength training, mobility and yoga. And like those practices, you'd think there would be techniques or strategies to train and improve our ability to slow our minds, free us from distractions and appreciate our lives more fully.

That's what I was expecting from Eckhart Tolle. Unfortunately, he addresses this question wrapped up in pseudo-spiritual gobbledygook that offers little of practical value. He repeats, ad nauseum, that there is only 'the present' and that looking forward or backward in any way, shape or form is to wallow in 'unconsciousness' and to mask our 'authentic selves.' He seems to think we should all stumble around like a bunch of zombies, 'in the moment.' There's no room for thoughtful planning, gaming out creative projects or deliberating on difficult personal or professional dramas. Just meet the moment when it comes and deal with it, he suggests. Imagine the chaos if that were true.

His writing plods along in a contrived dialectic filled with repetitive stream-of-consciousness themes. Variations on a thought. It's like he walked away from his desk, came back with another way to say it, then added it as a new paragraph. He tries to weave religious examples into his rationale, from the Judeo-Christian and Hindu traditions. He must think he's Socrates. But these references are ham-handed and manipulated.

Then there is the utter nonsense, as in 'rocks have consciousness' and 'there is no good modern art, music or architecture. It's all rubbish.' Well. A culture critic as well as a philosopher.

It's New Age nonsense cloaked in the self-important pondering of a pop philosophy guru without any structure or discipline. To my empirical, atheistic and material mind, it's also disqualifying.

I had hoped for some valuable insights and tactics - like the impact of routine on the perception of time, the virtue of novelty and how to manage them. But, no. At least I never found it. Full disclosure, I gave up halfway through. I wanted exercises to improve my sense of balance and he suggests communing with a rock.