3 Highlights from The Power of Now By Eckhart Tolle
Until the age of 30, author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle lived in a constant state anxiety, mixed in with periodic episodes of suicidal depression, until he had a spiritual awakening. One day when he was 29, he woke up with one of the most intense feelings of dread that he had ever felt. Everything in the world seemed meaningless and he disliked his own existence. His desire for non-existence became stronger than his want to live.
Tolle’s awakening came from the realization that if he couldn’t live with himself, then there must be two of him, the ‘I’ and the ‘self’.
In his classic book first published in 1997, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Tolle gives a blueprint for distinguishing between one’s essence and their egoic mind. While the book requires practice and action, it later details thoughts that we all face in our journey of life.
Below are a few of the points that struck me as the most impactful. With some of these, I’ve already begun to feel a change in my daily interactions with myself and relationships with my wife, friends, and anyone that I come in contact with throughout the day.
🌅Focus on the Present: If one only focuses on the Now, and gets intensely present with their surroundings, they will realize a deep inner peace. Their egoic mind will stop thinking about the past or the future, things that distract what one should be doing at a given moment.
This is also similar to one of the common cognitive biases, hindsight bias. That is, the tendency, after an outcome is known, to see the outcome as having been inevitable.
Focusing on the Now instead also applies to the future. How many of you, unhappy with your current situation have thought, if I just get this new job then I will have everything I need? Or for the single crowed, if I just meet the right girl or guy then my life will be complete? Tolle reminds us that if we focus on the Now, then we already have everything that we need. Focusing on the now will help you determine what you could be doing that very moment to get to where you want to be in the future.
🐒Reducing Mental Chatter (from the monkey brain): If one has the awareness of the egoic minds thoughts and intensely focuses on the now, then their mind will not be taken over by unnecessary thoughts.
Imagine you are a puppet with strings attached at several places of your body and then suddenly, the puppeteer moves your body in multiple directions at once. As a result, you are unable to move in a coordinated way. That is mental chatter. If one stops and thinks about what thoughts are racing through their head, they will realize all of the unnecessary thoughts in their daily lives.
We all have inner thoughts that are constantly trying to take our attention to other things. I.e. our monkey brain.
Just having the awareness of the unconscious thoughts that enter your mind every day is a win. This takes practice, but is very achievable.
“Many people are addicted to all kinds of things. Substances. One of the greatest addictions, you’ll never read about it in the papers because many people don’t know it, it is the addiction to thinking.”
-Eckhart Tolle
😊Eliminate Negativity: Near the end of the book, Tolle points out how negativity is poisonous to the body. I found this section to be the most impactful.
Why is negativity bad?
It is a psychic pollutant.
Negativity can produce harmful physiological responses in the body such as anger and depression. Further, the ego believes that through negativity, that it can manipulate reality to get what it wants. Negativity is resistance, to denying reality of what exists. How many of you have gossiped about a friend before, or even a close family member? Perhaps a boss? I am guilty. While negativity may feel good in the moment, it doesn’t lead to positive change.
While these are just some highlights from this book, what are other similar authors that you’ve read for finding inner peace?
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