In the introduction of "The Power of Now" he describes that after an excruciating spiritual transformation, he decided to let go of his egoic self as he realized it was an illusion. The next morning, he woke up in a state of complete inner joy, bliss and peace. Nothing he could do or get could add to it. He sat on the park bench for two years with no job, no money, no relationships, and no socially defined identity, yet he was in a state of pure joy and ecstasy.
Soon he attracted people around him who were wondering what he had, and they knew he had something. They helped him by feeding him, clothing him, housing him, and giving him what he needed, in exchange for his spiritual teachings. The universe was helping him out, as he was following his destiny and calling.
After a few years, his students suggested that he put together a book of his teachings, and that's how the book "The Power of Now" came to be. His book has sold millions of copies all around the world.
I have seen his teachings on video, and he talks in a very selfless and egoless tone, much like Kwai Chang Kane did in the "Kung Fu" TV series with David Carradine.
Here it is in his own words from the introduction of his book. I copied and pasted it below from a PDF version of his book.
The Power of Now
INTRODUCTION
The Origin Of This Book
I have little use for the past and rarely think about it; however, I would briefly like to
tell you how I came to be a spiritual teacher and how this book came into existence.
Until my thirtieth year, I lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety interspersed
with periods of suicidal depression. It feels now as if I am talking about some past
lifetime or somebody else's life.
One night not long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with
a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such a feeling many times before,
but this time it was more intense than it had ever been. The silence of the night, the
vague outlines of the furniture in the dark room, the distant noise of a passing train -
everything felt so alien, so hostile, and so utterly meaningless that it created in me a
deep loathing of the world. The most loathsome thing of all, however, was my own
existence. What was the point in continuing to live with this burden of misery? Why
carry on with this continuous struggle? I could feel that a deep longing for
annihilation, for nonexistence, was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive
desire to continue to live.
"I cannot live with myself any longer." This was the thought that kept repeating itself
in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. `Am I
one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the `I' and the `self'
that `I' cannot live with." "Maybe," I thought, "only one of them is real."
I was so stunned by this strange realization that my mind stopped. I was fully
conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like
a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was
gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words "resist
nothing," as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It
felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more
fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after
that.
I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such
a sound before. My eyes were still closed, and I saw the image of a precious
diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like. I
8
opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without
any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That
soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my
eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew
that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just
come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the
beauty and aliveness of it all.
That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth,
as if I had just been born into this world.
For the next five months, I lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss.
After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it
became my natural state. I could still function in the world, although I realized that
nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.
I knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to me, but I
didn't understand it at all. It wasn't until several years later, after I had read spiritual
texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that I realized that what everybody was
looking for had already happened to me. I understood that the intense pressure of
suffering that night must have forced my consciousness to withdraw from its
identification with the unhappy and deeply fearful self, which is ultimately a fiction
of the mind. This withdrawal must have been so complete that this false, suffering
self immediately collapsed, just as if a plug had been pulled out of an inflatable toy.
What was left then was my true nature as the ever-present I am: consciousness in its
pure state prior to identification with form. Later I also learned to go into that inner
timeless and deathless realm that I had originally perceived as a void and remain fully
conscious. I dwelt in states of such indescribable bliss and sacredness that even the
original experience I just described pales in comparison. A time came when, for a
while, I was left with nothing on the physical plane. 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.
But even the most beautiful experiences come and go. More fundamental, perhaps,
than any experience is the undercurrent of peace that has never left me since then.
Sometimes it is very strong, almost palpable, and others can feel it too. At other
times, it is somewhere in the background, like a distant melody.
Later, people would occasionally come up to me and say: "I want what you have. Can
you give it to me, or show me how to get it?" And I would say: "You have it already.
You just can't feel it because your mind is malting too much noise." That answer later
grew into the book that you are holding in your hands.
9
Before I knew it, I had an external identity again. I had become a spiritual teacher.