Product Description

That chronic, nagging sense of discontent, that sneaky feeling that something is missing from life, that secret yearning for "something more" can all be healed. In Let Go and Live in the Now, best-selling author Guy Finley brings the great Wisdom Teachings of centuries past into our lives in an intimate, accessible way.

Each chapter of Let Go and Live in the Now tackles a hurt that keeps us from experiencing inner peace and happiness. Every chapter includes a brief essay and a contemporary teaching story followed by exercises to help readers incorporate the teaching into everyday life. Each chapter ends with "Ask the Masters," a question-and-answer format with such historical and modern-day spiritual masters as Buddha, St. Augustine, G.I. Gurdjieff, Henry David Thoreau, Peter Matthiessen, and Jeanne Guyon.

"It only seems as though there’s something more important for you to do than just quietly be yourself," writes Guy Finley. Imagined heavens never last, but eternal principles empower readers to live in "the now." From the first story of Katie, her broken heart, and the doctor who shows her how to heal it to the very last lesson of Paul who relocates himself from the city to the country and still can’t see "the forest for the trees," readers see themselves in these eloquent retellings of ancient spiritual principles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #261821 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 198 pages

Amazon.com Review
Fans of Guy Finley know he's a repository of "great wisdom" from philosophers, poets, and religious figures from throughout history. He thinks thinkers as diverse as Rumi, Emerson, Thoreau, Saint Augustine, and Krishnamurti all have ideas worth considering as one meanders along the path to happiness. Finley says that contentment comes when one learns how to "bridge the distance between who we are at present and what we may become." While this is certainly material he's covered in his many other titles, here he focuses on the importance of living in "the Now" (which he deems worthy of constant capitalization).

Finley's concept of the "Now" seems to borrow more than a bit from Buddhism's idea of mindfulness, as well as cognitive therapy. He claims those seeking to find internal peace must "[dare] to leave who we have been behind," consciously forgetting about unpleasant events and emotions in the past, lest they influence one's feelings--and undermine one's self-confidence and potential for happiness--in the present moment.

Finley's writing is rather rambling at times, and he relies heavily on italicizing to express his points as he covers topics ranging from heartbreak, the "False Self," self-fulfillment, and "the Light of the world." Each chapter includes an "Ask the Masters" section of hypothetical spiritual questions (example: "Why do we have so little true understanding of ourselves?"), which he answers with quotes from the likes of Plutarch and Thomas Carlyle. He also adds a "Key Lessons" summary at the end of each chapter, offering a Cliffs Notes-style translation of his often lengthy arguments. For all his lack of clarity, Finley does do a capable job of expressing one timeless truth, as he calls it: that one's inner nature determines one's experience of the outside world."--Erica Jorgensen

About the Author
Guy Finley is the founder and director of the Life of Learning Foundation. He has made it his life's work to show people how to find freedom, enduring fulfillment, and true purpose. He is the best-selling author of more than a dozen books and tapes, including The Secret of Letting Go, Design Your Destiny, The Intimate Enemy and Lost Secrets of Prayer. Finley has been featured on Larry King Live, Sally Jesse Raphael, Entertainment Tonight, CNN, PBS, and many more. He lives in Oregon.

Customer Reviews

Not Worth the Time to Read
Try Happiness Now; it's a much better book. Once I read Happiness Now, skimmed this one and realized it was not as well written as the others.

Truly Inspirational
I highly recommend this book Let Go and Live in the Now. All individuals walking the spiritual path and who truly seek to understand the Universal Principals that govern our daily life should read this book. This book is like nourishment for the hungry soul. As with all of Guy Finley's books I find it to be a true treasure. I have enjoyed reading this book and have read it several times, gaining a deeper understanding of truth each time. The style of Mr. Finley's writings in the form of parables allows the reader to discover for themselves these
spiritual truths.

Good try
I read this book two years ago and again this week. It actually made no difference at all to me and I read it with a open mind . It is as other reviewers have mentioned incredibly repetitive of the one idea and this was the hardest part. I kept waiting to get to the part where he gives the solution but it never came. It is however a book that is easy to read and advances Tolles book on the same idea the Power of now .