Book Summary: The Power of Now
A Guide to SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Author: Eckhart Tolle
Book Size: 145 pages
Book available: Amazon, For free pdf you can contact me through my profile
Moral and Introduction:
Eckhart Tolle had a rough and turbulent existence, punctuated by several episodes of profound despair, yet he achieved serenity overnight, literally.
He began to wonder what it was that made his existence so terrible, and he discovered the solution in his “I” — the self-generated from the force of his ideas in his head. He awoke the next morning feeling at ease since he’d learned to let go of his worrier-self and live totally in the now, the present moment.
After a few years of doing nothing but enjoying his newfound tranquility, people began to ask him questions, which he gladly answered. Eckhart began lecturing in 1997, and in 2000, he released The Power of Now, which became a New York Times bestseller when Oprah Winfrey fell in love with it and recommended it.
Here are three things you may take away from it to help you worry and regret less:
- Life is nothing more than a collection of present moments.
- All suffering stems from your inability to alter the things you can’t.
- By continually studying your mind and not criticizing your ideas, you may release yourself from pain.
#1 Your Mind and Body Are Two Different Things
The major source of suffering is your thinking. As a result, allowing your ego to take control will cause you to suffer far more. Because it regularly brings up memories, your mind is related to suffering. Putting your attention on your memories might lead to regrets about the past and increased concern about the future. In general, our minds are preoccupied with bad recollections. As a result, we are unable to live in the moment. The fact that we have no control over these occurrences adds to the agony connected with memories. We only have power over the now, according to Eckhart Tolle. We do not influence our recollections or the events that will occur in the future.
Due to the anguish linked with your mind, Tolle recommends that you strive to detach yourself from it. Concentrate on your body. Your body has a good sense of what is ideal for you. As a result, focusing on your body may teach you a lot about the important aspects of your life. Nobody has ever achieved nirvana by focusing just on their thoughts and disregarding their body, according to Tolle.
The Buddha was a firm believer in separating one’s thoughts from one’s body. After six years of abstinence and intermittent fasting, the Buddha realized that separating his body from his mind would not lead to enlightenment. Instead, he discovered that the only techniques that allowed him to feel connected to his body were the most successful.
#2 Examine how you interact with your mind.
You must be completely aware of your mind’s power if you want to remove yourself from it. This awareness should enable you to see the subtle ways in which your mind brings you suffering. This anguish may manifest itself in the form of behavior or ideas. Simply monitoring your interaction with your mind will cause a pause in your thought process. Consider the following scenario: you ask yourself what your next thought will be. There will most likely be some time between your next clear thought and your following clear idea. Using questions like these regularly can help you become more aware of how you’ve gotten used to your mind’s flow. Breaking up your ideas, on the other hand, will assist you in isolating and separating yourself from your mind. Accept these ideas as they come up. However, do not always follow the advice of these ideas.
#3 Keep your attention on the Now (at Present).
You probably spend the majority of your time reflecting on the past and the future. According to Tolle, you may be overlooking the only accessible time in your life: the now. There are no occurrences in the past or future. Life is simply a series of present moments that unfold through time. The past is a collection of moments that were once existent but have since passed. Various present moments in the future has yet to occur.
There’s no use in worrying about the past or the future since they’re just different versions of the present. If you can only concentrate on the now, you’ll only have to deal with little issues when they come. A difficult endeavor may be broken down into multiple smaller difficulties.
#4 Accept Your Life’s Miseries
Tolle conveys the notion of pain-body to his audience. Pain-body, he claims, is the result of a collection of terrible life experiences that were not completely confronted and accepted at the time they occurred. They leave a trace of emotional suffering in the form of energy. They combine with other energy forms from past instances, resulting in a pain-body: an energy entity made up of old emotion after a few years. It’s a great load for us to bear, and it’s just becoming heavier as we add more suffering. We must learn to cope with the remaining anguish since it might overwhelm us.
Living in the moment does not imply that you should yield to it. To deal with any bad sentiments that arise as a result of coping with the present, you should use mental methods. We cannot control all sorrow, and we all face difficult times such as the death of loved ones. You must accept these horrific situations for what they are, though. As a result, the amount of discomfort and the length of this unpleasant phase will be reduced. Understanding that there is nothing that can be done today can save you from unneeded anguish. Detaching yourself from your thoughts will give you the inner courage you need to endure difficult events.
#5 Always be on the guard (Alert)
The ideal condition of the present, according to Eckhart Tolle, is “permanent attentiveness.” You should also use an active waiting approach in addition to detaching yourself from your thoughts. Active waiting is defined by the awareness that something significant might occur at any time. So, while you’re in this condition, you’re completely focused on the current moment.
Active waiting prevents you from daydreaming, planning for the future, or remembering the past. It’s difficult to be taken away from the current moment. Active waiting has the advantage of allowing you to pay attention to your body for future happenings. Zen masters, according to Tolle, creep up on their pupils when their eyes are closed. After that, they try to strike the pupil. This method required its trainees to practice active waiting, which allowed them to focus entirely on their bodies.
#6 Your Ego is a toxic influence in your life.
Tolle goes into great detail regarding the harmful effects of your ego. Your ego is a component of your mind that is in charge of your ideas and actions. Importantly, your ego is a component of your ‘inner body,’ which frequently exerts power over you without your understanding. Tolle emphasizes that your ego’s survival is dependent on your sorrow. Because your ego thrives on pain, it obstructs your ability to be happy.
When you consider that no one likes to suffer, the influence of egos on humans is clear. Despite this, many people are the architects of their demise. They ruin their pleasure or stay in unhealthy relationships on purpose. The ego is a portion of the human mind that is detrimental. It aspires to be an integral part of you and has no boundaries. If you allow it to take control, it will cause you a great deal of pain.
#7 Manifest Your Energy Flow
Tolle advises readers to connect with the unseen presence of the present, which we all carry with us at all times. So, for 10–15 minutes at a time, we must practice being attentive to inner energy. Breaking free from your body’s attention will help you become more conscious of this energy. You want to move this energy into the manifested form once you’ve recognized unmanifested energy. This is what Tolle refers to as Chi.
Sleep is a time when you will be more aware of the unseen. However, unless you enter it deliberately, you will not be able to unleash the energy linked with the event. As a result, your major doorway is the conscious knowledge of the present moment. Silence can help you strengthen your awareness of the present moment. All of our realized experiences are shaped by the interaction of sound and quiet. Space is also the void between the world’s atoms, and it is analogous to quiet. It’s nearly hard to be fully conscious of distance or stillness in most situations. If you can become aware of space, you will also be aware of the unmanifested.
An example of an involuntary portal is sleep. Death is an involuntary doorway, as well. It briefly opens up at the moment of bodily death. Assume you’ve passed up all other possibilities for spiritual growth throughout your life. In this situation, even after the corpse has died, you will have one last doorway open up for you.
#8 Relationships can pull you away from the present moment.
Because society believes we are entitled to wonderful relationships, partnerships are regularly connected with misery. Tolle, on the other hand, argues that connections frequently lead us away from the present moment. This happens frequently because our connections lead us to see future events as saviors. Because they establish a love-hate cycle, relationships are intrinsically addicting. These cycles give us a sense of being alive. However, we are frequently drawn to others romantically as a result of our scars. When our love partners are unable to heal these scars, we become disillusioned.
Your spiritual development should never be reliant on the actions of others. This is very essential to note because when we are disillusioned with a relationship, it might activate the pain-body. To heal, we must disconnect from the mind and reconnect with the present moment.
Tolle believes that because women are inherently closer to their bodies, they are naturally closer to enlightenment. Men are far too preoccupied with their thoughts. Because women are oppressed in society, they have a collective pain-body. As a result, women must consider how much they fight to let go of their suffering.
#9: Remove yourself from the situation to find peace.
Accepting things for what they are is the first step toward serenity. Tolle proposes that you transcend the duality of good and bad by seeing every experience as having the capacity to lead you to serenity. The ego’s craving for control is responsible for the worst aspects of existence. When we fight with other egos, we may generate a lot of drama. We may also manufacture our drama by battling our egos. According to Tolle, humans are the only living thing on the planet that has experienced negativity. Fight back by cultivating detachment to be free of expectations and attain true compassion.
#10 Rather Than Resign, Surrender
Resignation is not the same as surrender. One can accept the truth of a situation while taking measures to forge a new route. Surrendered acts entail letting go of preconceived notions of right and wrong while pursuing change. When you submit, Tolle says, you might feel more effective motivation. Recognize and comprehend how your mind attempts to name and assess your resistance before surrendering it. Understanding your resistance will free you from reacting and empower you to take control of your actions.
Another method to find serenity is to surrender. Tolle recommends that you yield to each moment with awareness. Say yes to both the good and the bad. We are trading potential calm for possible agony if we do not yield. When you no longer have to ask yourself whether you have surrendered, you have effectively surrendered.
