The Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle self-published this exploration of present-moment awareness in 1997 and it remained largely obscure until Oprah Winfrey recommended it in 2000, after which it sold over 2 million copies in North America alone and eventually over 10 million worldwide. Its influence on popular mindfulness culture, the wellness industry, and the mainstreaming of contemplative practice in the West is difficult to overstate — Tolle's framework of the "pain body" and the ego as a narrative construct entered mainstream psychological vocabulary almost entirely through this single book.