All is emptiness, according to practitioners of Zen Buddhism, and you don’t need to read many news stories about the hotel heiress and inexplicable celebrity Paris Hilton before conceding that they’ve probably got a point. Now, though, as Hilton prepares for a 45-day jail sentence, she has been photographed holding (along with a Bible) a copy of the bestselling book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, which is a New Age-ified reworking of Zen. This raises the possibility that she will, behind bars, achieve a state of perfect wisdom and enlightenment. Well, stranger things have happened, although admittedly none could be identified at the time of going to press.
The elfin, German-born Tolle claims to have undergone a ‘profound spiritual transformation†at age 29, when his constant anxiety and occasional suicidal depression became so acute that, one night, his sense of self shattered.
‘I could feel myself being sucked into a void,†he writes. ‘It felt as if the void was inside myself, rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into the void.†Afterwards, he says, ‘I had no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity. I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.†And after that, he wrote this book, which has sold more than two million copies in 30 languages so far.
Tolle’s philosophy isn’t new — quite the opposite — but the book is surprisingly powerful and silliness-free. (Regrettably, publishing convention means it is usually shelved under mind/body/spirit, along with execrable nonsense about crystals, astrology and witchcraft, which means it is most likely to be bought by simpletons.) The essence of its argument is that the source of all our emotional problems is our habit of identifying with our minds.
‘You believe that you are your mind,†writes Tolle. In fact, ‘you are the awareness behind the thoughtsâ€. The past and the future are creations of thought; only the present moment is real. Knowing this frees you from much pointless suffering.
The Power of Now, in short, is standard Buddhism, with a dash of mysticism and a sprinkling of references to Jesus for flavour. So Richard Dawkins wouldn’t approve. But for the celebrity in search of spirituality, it’s a choice several million times more level-headed than, say, Scientology, or Madonna’s version of Kabbalah. Anyway, think about it: Buddhists, as is well known, seek the state of ‘no mindâ€; Hilton may already be halfway there. —