The Power of Now? Maybe Later.

I've been reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle on my Mom's recommendation. It is the sequel to The Power of Now, which inspires the post title. A few thoughts at the half-way point, which seem unlikely to change by the end:

1. This guy is 2 parts on to something 1 part full of it.
2. For fans of Stargate like myself, this book is basically intended to be a guide to Ascension.
3. Outside the world of religious zealots who hold tightly to the literal interpretations of their preferred religious literature, the book is written in a way that makes it virtually impossible to disagree with its points. It is as if every statement is written to apply to everyone and yet accompanied with a way out for everyone. For example, you should not identify yourself with what you consume because it feeds the ego. It's not that consuming goods is itself bad, but identification with it as a part of who you are is. At the same time, those who redefine themselves as part of the anti-consumer movement are just substituting the consumption of actual goods for their identity for a movement that they make part of their identity, and this is equally bad.
   
4. His points on economics are unsurprisingly off. He takes economists to task for referring to recessions as "periods of negative growth." I know this sounds like an oxymoron, but it is not. Also he refers to the nature of firms to exploit and destroy everything in its presence (employees, nature, etc) for the purpose of profit growth. Simply not true.