I’ve known of The Power of Now for a while, and at one point, I even read a few pages. However, this book seems to resonate only when you are truly ready to receive its message. This time I found myself so captivated by it that I finished it within a span of a few days. I saved many quotes, but truthfully, every sentence was quote worthy. Eckhart Tolle is gifted with words and he writes in a way that is clear, impactful, and meaningful. The concept of being present isn’t new to me as it’s one of the main concepts in Buddhism, but I love how Tolle gave it importance by expanding on all of its purposes.
To share some fascinating insights and in an attempt to retain the things I’ve read, I will talk a bit about some excerpts from the book.
“The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity – the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity.”
The core concept of The Power of Now is to recognize that you are not your mind, that you are the essence underneath – the Being (aka Source or God). This realization will allow you to free yourself from all the problems that the mind create by disassociating with it and observing it without judgment. And this is done through being intensely present.
“The voice of the thinker belongs to the conditioned mind, which is the result of all your past history as well as of the collective culture mindset you inherited. So you see the present through the eyes of the past and get a totally distorted view of it.”
Reality as we know it is often shaped by our worldview, history, biases and not as it truly is. Only when we are present and conscious of this fact can we bring awareness and objectivity to our perception.
“You can allow the emotion tone there without being controlled by it. You no longer are the emotions 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.”
Being present allows you to not be overly consumed by your thoughts and the emotions associated with those thoughts. You become an observer of your experiences, and it is through this witnessing that you can recognize and eliminate the unconscious aspects within you. Unconscious, as referred to in The Power of Now, can be summarized as anything that is not your true essence – which is beauty, love, joy, and inner peace.
“For so many people, a large part of their sense of self is intimately connected with their problems. Once this has happened, the last thing they want is to be free of them. That would mean loss of self. There can be a great deal of ego investments in pain and suffering.”
This is an interesting part of the book where Tolle talks about how some people have identified with their pain for so long that it becomes a part of who they are, so much that without it they are lost. This reminds me of people I’ve met who are almost always critical or angry, they tend to victimize themselves so much that they approach everything in life through that lens. It’s become a habit that is very hard to break. Only when we don’t strongly identify with our suffering and are present do we begin to heal and let them go.
“The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such as mountain climbing, car racing, and so on, although they may not be aware of it, is that it forces them into the Now – that intensely alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of thinking, free of the burden of the personality.”
This is another interesting point that Tolle brought up. The personality or egoic mind/state is often burdened with thoughts of the past or the future. In an intense situation that calls for total surrender and focused presence, we are most conscious therefore free of problems. Tolle said this also applies in dire situations of life and death when we don’t have time to think – many people are actually awakened during these times.
“If you create no more pain for yourself then you create no more pain for others. You also no longer contaminate the beautiful Earth, your inner space, and the collective human psyche with the negativity of problem-making.”
Here Tolle touches on the interconnections of our energies. When we heal ourselves we also heal others by not further contributing to the negativity brought about by ridicule, blame, shame, judgment that are associated with the mind. Therefore, we improve on the quality of life for others and the planet.
“Being free of psychological time, you no longer pursue your goals with grim determination driven by fear, anger, discontent or the need to become someone. Nor will you remain inactive through fear of failure, which to the ego is loss of self. When your deeper sense of self is derived from Being, when you are free of “becoming” as a psychological need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self depends on the outcome, and so there is freedom from fear. You don’t see permanency in the world of form, of gain and loss, birth and death. You don’t demand that situations, conditions, places, or people should make you happy. And then suffer when they don’t live up to your expectations.”
This is an important passage in the book as it clarifies that being present doesn’t necessary mean you no longer have goals or desires. It simply means that your approach to them are no longer coming from a place of need, and you no longer place your identity in conditions which are impermanent.
“Everything is honored, but nothing matters.”
So simple yet encapsulates so much. You honor and become the witness to everything that comes into your existence, and yet you don’t attach, dwell, or suffer because nothing outside of you really matters.
“The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious.”
How well we apply the teachings correlates to how well we approach life’s challenges. When a situation that triggers strong emotions come up, do we get lost in those emotions and react or do we become a conscious witness to our emotions? From experience, I think this could be much easier said than done, but with enough practice, everything will be much easier. From the beginning though, we will probably go back and forth between being unconscious and conscious.
“Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.”
When we are present it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are happy. As described in the book, in a devastating situation we might not be able to be able to be happy, but we can still navigate peace when we anchor ourselves in the presence. This is what is meant by peace not being dependent on conditions.
“You can still be active and enjoy manifesting and creating new forms and circumstances, but you won’t be identified with them. You do not need them to give you a sense of self. They are not your life — only your life situation.”
This passage complements with the teachings behind the Law of Attraction. He even used the word manifesting. In manifesting, detachment is one of the key steps. When we want but are detached from our desires, that is when we can easily manifest them. They add to our experience but don’t define who we are because we don’t derive our sense of self from them.