The layout and the design of the book are simple and straightforward. The book is written very simply and to the point that it helps the reader understand the book on the first read. The illustrations in the book further help the reader to understand what the author wants to explain.

To recognize one's own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.” I think this book should be required reading for everyone; the problem is, many people will read this book and see others in it, but not themselves. Today, more than ever, we are plagued by a culture where everyone is obsessed with being "right" and in the processing making everybody else "wrong." The level of hate that has become epidemic in modern society, particularly in politics, is a clear result of out-of-control egos clashing to reign supreme in self-righteous glory.

Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of well­being and inner peace, the source of true happiness.” All in all, I saved more notes from this book than any other book I’ve ever read—over 16,000 words of notes. Editing my notes is like reading the book a second and third time through, and I still feel like I’m learning new things each time. I believe I’ve started the irreversible awakening process. All in all, the more I’ve learned about spirituality, the more I realize that Tolle doesn’t say anything new. These ideas have been around for thousands of years. If you want to explore further, I’d recommend the following posts: When you are angry or frustrated with people because you believe they are withholding praise or appreciation from you--try giving love and appreciation to them. You cannot receive what you do not give. Outflow determines inflow. Until the new consciousness, which is awareness-based, grows and becomes more firmly established in the human psyche, temporary regression to the egoic state of consciousness (or rather unconsciousness) can easily occur. I have noticed with concern, for example, that not only certain politicians, but also some commentators in respectable publications are increasingly portraying Russia and/or China as the “enemy.” Thoughts can spread like a virus, and if thoughts proliferate in the collective psyche, they distort our perceptions and cause us to act as if they were true, and so subsequently they manifest as our reality.

I want to know the mind of God,’ Einstein said. ‘The rest are details.’ What is the mind of God? Consciousness. What does it mean to know the mind of God? To be aware. What are the details? Your outer purpose, and whatever happens outwardly.” Unhappiness or negativity is a disease on our planet. What pollution is on the outer level is negativity on the inner. It is everywhere, not just in places where people don’t have enough, but even more so where they have more than enough. Is that surprising? No. The affluent world is even more deeply identified with form, more lost in content, more trapped in ego.“ Non­-resistance, non­-judgment, and non­-attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.”You become most powerful in whatever you do if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance, or conform to your role identity.” If the egoic earth drama has any purpose at all, it is an indirect one: It creates more and more suffering on the planet, and suffering, although largely ego-­created, is in the end also ego­-destructive. It is the fire in which the ego burns itself up.” Time, that is to say, past and future, is what the false mind­-made self, the ego, lives on, and time is in your mind. It isn’t something that has an objective existence ‘out there.’ It is a mind structure needed for sensory perception, indispensable for practical purposes, but the greatest hindrance to knowing yourself. Time is the horizontal dimension of life, the surface layer of reality. Then there is the vertical dimension of depth, accessible to you only through the portal of the present moment.“ Most ancient religions and spiritual traditions share the common insight – that our ‘normal’ state of mind is marred by a fundamental defect. However, out of this insight into the nature of the human condition – we may call it the bad news – arises a second insight: the good news of the possibility of a radical transformation of human consciousness. In Hindu teachings (and sometimes in Buddhism also), this transformation is called enlightenment. In the teachings of Jesus, it is salvation, and in Buddhism, it is the end of suffering. Liberation and awakening are other terms used to describe this transformation.”