Book Review: The Power of Now (1999)

A guide to spiritual enlightenment… by Eckhart Tolle
Review by Brian Wright
Major insights with transformative potential
1999,
New World Library, 191 pages

It’s an enchanting thought, isn’t it?  In the middle of a society whose centers of political power are emanating stale rot to the accompaniment of bugles, we’re beginning to see a vibrant coalescence of awareness (COA) among ordinary people.  Extraordinary ordinary people that is. Spiritual enlightenment has become sort of a preoccupation of mine, not to say I’ve made stellar progress on my own but I like to see it and comment on it in others.  For example, I reviewed The Celestine Prophecy, a personally liberating book that gathered numerous devotees through the 1990s and beyond.  A fair amount of my other work on my site has had a theme of self-improvement or self-discovery or both, e.g.

book reviews of:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Think and Grow Rich
Building a Bridge to the 18th Century
The Secret behind Secret Societies
The Secret

movie reviews of:
The Matrix
Ulee’s Gold
V for Vendetta (revenge-oriented but still spiritually gratifying)
The Da Vinci Code

and articles or columns of:
The Sacred Nonaggression Principle
The 15-Minute Spirit Charge

Brew Pub Nation (beer is proof God wants us to be happy)
Reflections on a Noble Soul (loss of my brother) Continue reading

Brian’s Column: The Micro Spiritual Magic Move

Godwithin9More recently, the author-Prophet found a briefer way to apply the ‘Move’ in the middle of an active day, a process that could be completed in about a minute and have the beneficial effect of quieting the mind, while bringing the practitioner to a fair degree of the joy, ease, and lightness available at source contact with the Deep Calm and Stillness. He calls it the Spiritual Micro Move, and it is described on this page.

The Micro Move

… basically incorporates the ‘you’ centering step into the initial breathing step and uses a minimal number of deep breaths, namely three per each step. [You can possibly gain some benefit from a single-breath step, but such a minimal time severely abridges any fluid transition from step to step.] Thus the three-breath micro is, IMHO, the practical lower limit for the following:

  1. Breathe-Center—deeply into your diaphragm, taking five-second inhales and exhales, three times. Feel each breath filling your center, and your center of awareness, your ‘you,’ shifting into your body’s center at the same time.
  2. Watch-Dispel—For the next three breaths, ‘let Mind go’ where it will in a rapid sequence of ‘thoughts,’ discharge its nervous energy. Unlike normal narrative, do not let Mind dwell on any thought more than an instant.
  3. Watch-Relax—Start from full-centered awareness of your head and direct it to completely relax (one breath), then relax your trunk and upper extremities (one breath), then relax your abdomen and lower extremities (one breath).
  4. Be (Still)—Now let your whole ‘you’-centered inner body simply ‘be,’ with each breath. Feel your complete stillness at the core of the universe—the Deep Quiet or Infinite Eternal—for three full breaths. Reside there until you have to go.

Continue reading

Brian’s Column: Spiritual Magic Move

Potentially useful cosmic shortcut I stumbled upon in writing The Truman Prophecy

Godwithin7This shortcut cultivation method I discovered during writing of the Prophecy. Regular performance brings inner peace and, by enabling inner flow, produces great energy and imagination.

Prophet’s Spiritual ‘Magic Move’

[The term ‘magic move’ comes from one of the great teachers in the game of golf, Harvey Penick. It’s a term for a simple move that anyone can perform to enable the proper and effective swing of the club.]

The process takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes in the midst of one’s day, 10-15 minutes before night’s sleep or before rising for the day, or 25-30 minutes for full meditation. I call it Breathe, Center, Watch, Be, Flow. Continue reading

Book Review: Voluntary Simplicity (1993)

Toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich
by Duane Elgin
1993 (First edition 1981), William Morrow, 221 pages

ElginThis is another one of those books my mom told me about, then I dawdled and kept putting off reading.  But when I finally got around to it, the work turned out to be an eye-opening experience with great relevance, I feel, to moving the bus of the general human condition in a forward direction.

Some of the other books that have come my way via the Mama Knows Best circuit: Building a Bridge to the 18th Century by Neil Postman, State of Denial by Bob Woodward, The End of Oil by Paul Roberts, Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick, The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter, and the Deep Blue Good-By by John D. MacDonald.  All except The End of Oil, I’ve reviewed… and I’ll get around to that one before we run out. Continue reading

Book Review: A New Earth (2006)

NewEarthAwakening to your life’s purpose
by Eckhart Tolle
2006, Penguin Group, 309 pages

A few weeks ago I became excited about a book that was referred to inadvertently via an alternative-money Website’s newsletter.  The money guru is Thomas H. Greco, Jr., who mentioned in his newsletter, paraphrasing, “Eckhart Tolle would say ‘nonresistance enables one to transcend ephemeral circumstances and tap into a higher power.”

So I became curious about Eckhart Tolle and acquired his breakout book, The Power of Now (1999). I reviewed The Power of Now, and the following passages from that review are what I took from it: Continue reading

Brian’s Column: The FLOW Fellowship

Practical spiritual transformation for everyone
by Brian Wright


FLOW Emblem… well, almost everyone. From comments of my friends and a still-growing number of fans of Coffee Coaster commentary and reviews, it seems that the proprietor dwells excessively on the Horrifying Looming Threat. Like a broken record of gloom and doom. Unfortunately, that is the risk any whistleblower faces, especially a general whistleblower on ubiquitous government-cartelocracy evil—like Alex Jones. “Why can’t you just be happy? Quit bringing up that a bunch of psychopaths are ruling the world and intent on putting us all in chains. You sound ungrateful.” In the Coffee Coaster proprietor’s case, however, I am happy to report the principles of a widespread spiritual movement of inner peace, outer peace, and abundance have been discovered… and it’s but a few more months to general distribution. This column is a transcription of my FLOW Fellowship brochure, complete with several worthwhile Weblinks. Continue reading

Human Interest: Liberty Forum, Winter 2009

FSP Liberty Forum underscores steady progress

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
— Marcus Aurelius

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This year I’m going to try to stay as current as possible with day-to-day activities, so no one has to wait for a few weeks to get the news. And news it is, at least in the Live Free Before You Die crowd, the Free State Project minions now well established in New Hampshire and planning to make their stands here come hell or high water. Things can always go our way, too, even with the advent of the Obamanon. Continue reading