Meditations on Eckhart Tolle's 'The Power of Now' (ONLINE)

In this 6 week-long online study and meditation course we immerse ourselves in Eckhart Tolle's seminal book ‘The Power of Now’ (first print published in 1997. The book has been translated into 33 languages. As of 2025, the book has sold 16 million copies worldwide). During each evening, we meditate together before we are reading short excerpts from ‘The Power of Now’ (if you own the book, that’s great. If you don’t, reading material will be provided). After the reading follows time for reflection and group discussion. Everybody is gently encouraged to participate but nobody is required to speak. Your facilitator has been studying the work of Eckhart Tolle for many years and has completed the ‘Teacher of Presence’ course with the Eckhart Tolle Foundation recently. She holds a PhD from UCD in philosophy and has been facilitating mindful yoga courses and workshops at the Sanctuary since 2009. Experience is not necessary to participate in the course. 

Planned Course Outline (might be slightly adjusted according to the group's preferences) 

Week 1 Introduction to Eckhart Tolle's work and to 'The Power of Now'. Reading the Introduction: 'The Truth that is within You'. We reflect on the question: What constitutes the work of the spiritual seeker?  

Week 2 Chapter 1: 'You are not your mind'. Trying to distinguish the conditioned conceptual mind from the timeless 'Deeper Self'. 

Week 3 continuing Chapter 1: Freeing ourselves from our minds. Rising Above Thought (as opposed to 'falling beneath thought') The problem of prioritising thinking and of other distractions. 

Week 4 continuing Chapter 1: Emotion: 'The Body's Reaction to Your Thought'. A closer examination of the emotional dimension, as explained by Eckhart Tolle and as experienced by us. 

Week 5 Starting Chapter 2: Consciousness. Examining Tolle's understanding of consciousness, and how his teachings may help us to step out of conditioned, habitual discomfort that our ego keeps creating for us.

Week 6 continuing Chapter 2: How are we to understand (and to overcome) Tolle’s conception of the ‘Pain Body’, that is keeping us tied to pains and disappointments of the past, and effectively distracting us from the pure presence of being?