The Power of Now Book Review

The Power of Now

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.

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.

No matter who or where you are, you are shown how to free yourself from enslavement to the mind, enter into this enlightened state of consciousness, and sustain it in everyday life.

Don't read with the mind only. Watch out for any “feeling-response” as you read and a sense of recognition from deep within.

The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind.

So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought.

For example, every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totally present. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sense perceptions associated with the activity.

Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down.

Observe your mind and you will see that your mind looks at the event through the eyes of the past. Or it reduces the present to a means to an end—an end that always lies in the mind-projected future.

Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.

The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information—this is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative.

I would say that the simple reason why the majority of scientists are not creative is not because they don’t know how to think but because they don’t know how to stop thinking!

Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. You could say that an emotion is the mind’s reflection in the body. But sometimes there is a conflict between the two: the mind says “no” while the emotion says “yes,” or the other way around.

The more you are identified with your thinking—your likes and dislikes, judgments and interpretations—which is to say the less present you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be, whether you are aware of it or not.

You no longer are the emotion; you are the watcher, the observing presence. If you practice this, all that is unconscious in you will be brought into the light of consciousness.

So, observing our emotions is as important as observing our thoughts.

Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance.

“Why are you always anxious?” Jesus asked his disciples. “Can anxious thought add a single day to your life?”

Buddha taught that the root of suffering is to be found in our constant wanting and craving.

The more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering—and free of the egoic mind.

Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited only by plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future?

The present moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant, or awful. It is as it is. Observe how the mind labels it and how this labeling process—this continuous sitting in judgment—creates pain and unhappiness.

Don't let the feeling turn into thinking. Don't judge or analyze. Don’t make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you.

You mentioned fear as being part of our basic underlying emotional pain. How does fear arise, and why is there so much of it in people’s lives? And isn’t a certain amount of fear just healthy self-protection? If I didn’t have a fear of fire, I might put my hand in it and get burned. ⇒ Try to have a fear of fire but understand that fire could burn you.

So once you recognize the root of unconsciousness as identification with the mind—which of course includes the emotions—you step out of it. You become present. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is not dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek yourself in it and mistake it for who you are. It then becomes the egoic mind and takes over your whole life.

Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.

After all, the past determines who we are, as well as how we perceive and behave in the present. And our future goals determine which actions we take in the present. And it is not what really the true is.

If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future—which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now.

Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now.

Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.

You will observe that the future is usually imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined future is better, it gives you hope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it.

How does this mind pattern operate in your life? Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are? Is most of your doing just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasure, such as sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining—or alternatively, chasing some new thrills or pleasure? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled, good enough, or psychologically complete? Are you waiting for a man or woman to give meaning to your life?

Definitions:

Anxiety, stress, worry… All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry—all forms of fear—are caused by too much future and not enough presence.

Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past and not enough presence.

Use your senses fully. Be where you are. Look around. Just look—don’t interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be. Listen to the sounds; don’t judge them. Listen to the silence underneath the sounds. Touch something—anything—and feel and acknowledge its being. Observe the rhythm of your breathing; feel the air flowing in and out, feel the life energy inside your body. Allow everything to be, within and without. Allow the “isness” of all things. Move more deeply into the Now.

You become so overwhelmed by your life situation that you lose your sense of life, of Being. Or you are carrying in your mind the insane burden of a hundred things that you will or may have to do in the future instead of focusing your attention on the one thing that you can do now.

In the absence of psychological time, your sense of self is derived from Being, not from your personal past. Therefore, the psychological need to become anything other than who you are already is no longer there. In the world, on the level of your life situation, you may indeed become wealthy, knowledgeable, successful, free of this or that—but in the deeper dimension of Being you are complete and whole now.

Everything is honored, but nothing matters. Forms are born and die, yet you are aware of the eternal underneath the forms. You know that “nothing real can be threatened.”

The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come.

But if you call some emotions negative, aren’t you really saying that they shouldn’t be there, that it’s not okay to have those emotions? My understanding is that we should give ourselves permission to have whatever feelings come up, rather than judge them as bad or say that we shouldn’t have them. It's okay to feel resentful; it’s okay to be angry, irritated, moody, or whatever—otherwise, we get into repression, inner conflict, or denial. Everything is okay as it is.

Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So, change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible.

If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time.

Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there,” or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.

“Large-scale waiting” is waiting for the next vacation, for a better job, for the children to grow up, for a truly meaningful relationship, for success, to make money, to be important, to become enlightened. Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present.

So next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” you can reply, “That’s all right, I wasn’t waiting. I was just standing here enjoying myself—enjoying myself.”

Your life’s journey has an outer purpose and an inner purpose:

Outer purpose is to arrive at your goal or destination, to accomplish what you set out to do, to achieve this or that—which, of course, implies future. After all, the outer purpose is just a game that you may continue to play simply because you enjoy it.

Inner purpose has nothing to do with future but everything to do with the quality of your consciousness at this moment. The inner purpose concerns a deepening of your being in the vertical dimension of the timeless NOW.

Egoic mind has become like a sinking ship. If you don’t get off, you will go down with it.

God said: “I AM THAT I AM.” No time here, just presence.

If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now. You won’t lose yourself in the external world, and you won’t lose yourself in your mind. Thoughts and emotions, fears and desires, may still be there to some extent, but they won’t take you over.

If at any time you are finding it hard to get in touch with the inner body, it is usually easier to focus on your breathing first. Conscious breathing, which is a powerful meditation in its own right, will gradually put you in touch with the body.

“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!” Whenever you feel lost or insignificant, remember: the universe wouldn’t be complete without you.

Most people pursue physical pleasures or various forms of psychological gratification because they believe that those things will make them happy or free them from a feeling of fear or lack.

The relationship has two sides:

Negative side: it can manifest in many forms—possessiveness, jealousy, control, withdrawal, and unspoken resentment…
Positive side: you feel intensely alive. Your existence has suddenly become meaningful because someone needs you, wants you, and makes you feel special, and you do the same for him or her. Also, sexual union is the closest you can get to this state on the physical level.

Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not. (Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative?)

As long as a condition is judged as “good” by your mind—whether it be a relationship, a possession, a social role, a place, or your physical body—the mind attaches itself to it and identifies with it. It makes you happy, makes you feel good about yourself, and it may become part of who you are or think you are. But nothing lasts in this dimension where moth and rust consume.

Your happiness and unhappiness are in fact one. Only the illusion of time separates them.

Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they will also give you pain. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the PEACE OF GOD.

All those things, of course, will still pass away; cycles will come and go. But with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.

You may not be happy, but you will be at peace.

Surrender is simple but profound wisdom of yielding to—rather than opposing—the flow of life. The only place where you can experience the flow of life is the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation.

For example, if you were stuck in the mud somewhere, you wouldn’t say: “Okay, I resign myself to being stuck in the mud.” No. You recognize fully that you want to get out of it or it will threaten your life. You then narrow your attention down to the present moment without mentally labeling it in any way. Then you take action and do all that you can to get out of the mud.

Then look at the specifics of the situation. Ask yourself, “Is there anything I can do to change the situation, improve it, or remove myself from it?” If so, you take appropriate action and don’t put any label on it.

If you cannot surrender, take action immediately: speak up or do something to bring about a change in the situation—or remove yourself from it. Take responsibility for your life. Do not pollute your beautiful, radiant inner Being nor the Earth with negativity.

Strictly speaking, they did not find God through their suffering, because suffering implies resistance. They found God through surrender—through total acceptance of what is—into which they were forced by their intense suffering. They must have realized on some level that their pain was self-created.

Book Review: The Power of Now

by Eckhart Tolle