Book Discussion: The Power of Now
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Nov 01, 2010
New York Times best seller The Power of Now is Eckhart Tolle's first book. Since its publication in 1997 it has sold millions of copies and has been translated into many languages.
Join us here as we explore the powerful teachings in The Power of Now. Our format is flexible, moving through the sections of the book as discussion unfolds and dictates. Everyone is invited to post their comments and responses to other comments made.
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Anybody had Eckhart in a vivid dream come and speak to them? It happened to me, but I have always sort of known him, but then my friend,who is going very 5th dimensional - very psychic, has also had dreams where Eckhart has spoken to him - more then once....I guess he’s pretty easy to access in the matrix! Funny thing is though, I did almost walk into him about 1-2 weeks later, just a block away from where I was chatting with him in my dream... Just wanted to know if my friend and I are not the only ones?!?
I love this book! I am delving into it yet again, and I am amazed at the new insights that pop up for me. It seems that every time I read The Power of Now it takes to a deeper place, or maybe just a clearer place; and from this place I seem to have"new eyes" as I read.
For anyone else reading this book , whether for the first time or the second or third, I hope you too are experiencing these "aha" moments. Some people might find TPON easier to grasp after reading A New Earth. Whether this is your first time reading TPON or not, I invite you to use this discussion site to share your insights, ask others any questions about the book's content, or share your experience of TPON.
Happy reading!
Reading The Power of Now is probably been the most important book I have ever read. This year 2011 has been what many people call their annus horribilus. My once happy prefect life situation finally end ed in separation from my wife whom I still love. Love desn't keep a tally is what I was taught by my mother and I still believe this.
She has walked away, I won't list the rest as I don't want to be a victim. For years my mind and ego have been running my life. My mind was running riot, filling me with FEAR and my Ego being fulled by anger and frustration. The Ego still needing to be seen as someone of wealth and power. A clever guy who was always right. when i read " being wrong is death" I nearly cried with the power with which those words resonated with me.
I read The Power of Now and found my conciousness. It has freed me from my pain body (pain bodies). My mind has been running my life and it has ended in a kind of wreckage.
This is the first day since I was a child that I have lived in the NOW. I can clearly see where I have gone wrong. Infecting myself and others close to me with FEAR and constantly feeding my Ego.
All because I didnt realise where all the anxiety was coming from. Why do I feel as if I am dying several times a day. Well it was drugs prescribed by my GP. I didn't need them. They set my MIND into full speed ahead. It took over my life. Most days I was so anxious and in panic I couldnt do anything but sit at my desk thinking I was going to die and maybe I should kill myself to end the pain I was experiencing. But "I" must have been there, as suicide was always dismissed as rediculous. I just didn't recognise "me" the real real self as it was only shown for a few seconds. Suicide is a permanent solution to what is probably a temporary problem; I had read somewhere before.
That is all ending. I have found myself again. I thought the thinking me (THE MIND) and my Ego was me. What a revelation that I am not!
To find peace, quiet, beauty, happiness with myself. WOW. I am now looking forward to moving towards enlightenment and peace and happiness.
One powerful section for me (page 21) was when Eckhart was describing how people who are carrying a lot of anger can be attacked for no apparent reason by people who sublimally pick up on it and then vent their own latent anger. This was always happening to me. I never knew why, until I read it!
Giving time to our past and future is also so powerful. Without time, when we are concious, past and future can't exist.
Thanks Eckhart
Every once in a while, there's a phrase that comes into my mind that says: "It's all Good." I used to think people who said it were in some serious denial. Now I realize, yes, that is a possibility that they were in denial. Another possibility is that they have become awakened to the Oneness that exists in all of Life. In this awake state, even the ego is hugged to the chest, drowned in Love and thanked for doing it's best to take care of us until our time of awakening came to us.
Graham...thank you for your record of Love waking you. May 2012 bring an ever deepening beautiful stillness as you live ever-present to your Eternal Beloved. All praise to The One Love that Never Fails!
Kate i keep reading about pain bodies and how to observe them and nuetralising them> but it keeps returning. My pain body is that i still love my wife and she has rejected me and i feel totally alone.
How do I defeat this pain body once and for all?
For what ever reason, I am being brought back to your post today. In reading it again, there streams through my Being deep waters of Love's compassion... circling. circling, circling right into your Center all the while your mind attempts to decipher the seeming destruction. Any time we think we capture one freeze-frame of our lives and live stuck in analyzing that frame - turning it over and over and over again - we must suffer, for we are separating ourselves from the Whole of Life which Love, Real Love Is.
Love has created a Permanent soft landing place for us all and it can be subtly found by allowing our focus to move from the mind down into the center of our chest. In the place that represents the True Heart, I AM here with you.
Hi Graham,
The best process I have come across to come to terms with what Tolle calls
the pain body is by using a book called The Presence Process. Michael
Brown's book takes one through the process of learning just how we can fully
embrace and see alchemized all the emotion the pain body brings to us. I
only suggest it because within your words I hear a readiness to work this through taking responsibility for yourself and the desire to walk away from the
draining energy of blame. What a gift this place is to be. This book is
sold here at the Namaste site and after using both the first and second
edition, if you are leaning toward buying it, I would choose the second.
Sending Love and My Peace, Kate
Wow, what jewels these quotes are! Picking out one from what you have chosen:
"The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of
your partner as he or she is, without needing to judge or change them in any
way. That immediately takes you beyond ego."
How blessed is the one who is taught to see through their loved one's ego construct and to behold the complete Perfect One Who is their True Being. Being taught patience through this process, the beholder holds up a new mirror to the one living in their egoic trance. No doubt, this is a testing ground for the beholder to see beyond outward appearances, words and behaviors! What an incredible training ground using the raw material of life.
I recently had an image in my mind of my loved one in the midst of a swirling tornado which represents the constant world thought trances that work to hypnotize us. As I was watching this tornado that was encapsulating the Real Essence of who he is, I was again being coached to not resist it (tornado/egoic trance) meaning don't try to change it or judge it...only see through it to Who Is in the midst of it.
My eye, and what I choose to behold through my eye is the quiet still place...the eye of the storm, where when I just rest in that spacious place myself, dissolves the tornado. The one who has been seen as he really is truly does come awake, like a child out of a bad dream. I am in awe of the power and wisdom that teaches us how to come out of our own trances and then also to then practice living lives beyond the trances of others who are yet imprisoned... to lift off judgment and condemnation that comes with believing they are their ego.
I would like to offer up a couple of quotes from The Power of Now regarding relationships. These statements, for me, stand on their own. They say so much in and of themselves. See if any of these stir a little "aha!" in you or in some way offer clarity for your your relationships.
You cannot love your partner one moment and attack him or her the next. True love has no opposite. If your "love" has an opposite, then it is not love but a strong ego-need for a more complete and deeper sense of self, a need that the other person temporarily meets. It is the ego's substitute for salvation, and for a short time it almost does feel like salvation.Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.
Whatever the substance you are addicted to - alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person - you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain. That is why after the initial euphoria has passed, there is so much unhappiness, so much pain in intimate relationships. They do not cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you. Every addiction does this.
To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.
The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your partner as he or she is, without needing to judge or change them in any way. That immediately takes you beyond ego.
Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never close it, and it cannot leave you.
As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.
Learn to give expression to what you feel without blaming. Learn to listen to your partner in an open, nondefensive way. Give your partner space for expressing himself or herself. Be present.
Being the knowing creates a clear space of loving presence that allows all things and all people to be as they are. No greater catalyst for transformation exists. If you practice this, your partner cannot stay with you and remain unconscious.
If you are consistently or at least predominantly present in your relationship, this will be the greatest challenge for your partner. They will not be able to tolerate your presence for very long and stay unconscious. If they are ready they will walk through the door that yo opened for them and join you in that state. If they are not, you will separate like oil and water. The light is too painful for someone who wants to remain in darkness.
There are so many great quotes in this chapter by Eckhart!
Next time we'll move into chapter 9 and explore happiness and unhappiness and what lies beyond these.
Hi Natalia, and welcome!
I am so glad you are reading The Power of Now again, as I think Eckhart addresses what you are exploring. A great chapter for you to visit at this time is probably chapter 8, Enlightened Relationships. If you read this section with your questions in mind, I think you will gain a clearer sense about your relationship.
I think I understand what you are asking, but if I miss the mark please let me know. What I take from Eckhart's teachings is that we learn to master our ego, to move away from the egoic mind, in the present moment. As we do this from present moment to present moment we move closer and closer to enlightenment. Our goal is not to become enlightened, but to become so present in the moment, so in touch with our inner awareness, which will naturally move us toward enlightenment.
In chapter 8, Eckhart describes relationships and what often drives these in our lives, as well as what leads to their demise. When we hold expectations of our partner or question whether they are the right person for us and whether this relationship honors our path, often we are unconsciously needing something or getting too mental about it all. And yet your questions, for me, are valid, and I have no doubt most of us have pondered these questions.
So, I think if you go back to chapter 8 and spend some time with this, maybe even read it several times over the next couple of days or weeks and allow space in between for reflection and insight to emerge, I think you will find the answers that are right for you. And as Eckhart has said, don't seek the answers, don't try to find the explanations that make the best sense to you right now. Simply put your questions out there and allow the answers to emerge - and they will!
Does this help at all, Natalia? I hope so!
Good to have you in this book discussion!
Estimates
First of all sorry for my English so basic, I'm doing with the help of my dictionary, I have many things to say. Last year I read Tolle's book and now again. I am continuing for years with symptoms in my body, which causes me great distress, fear, panic and anxiety I drag a child and still could not drop. In one part of his book Tolle says that if we win the egoic mind and do not enter the war power, we can reach enlightenment, so if a couple next to us which is still under the commands of the mind will move away or more will join us. This is very true, but I wonder if we enter into that state of consciousness where nothing disturbs us as it is to discern whether that person is really the person you're going to be happy? If we like as a whole, or should we keep looking, because I imagine that you have an ideal of his beloved, or more affinity with some people than others. That is, as we can see if a relationship brings upset because we identified with the mind, or because that person may not fit with what we want. Greetings and love to participate from Argentina.
Hello, I am new to living in the Now, but am already experiencing paradise. I am rereading, The Power of The Now and enlightenment is flooding in or the enlightenment that has always been here, I have walked into paradise and am in awe of what I see and am experiencing. I so wanted to be a part of sharing with others who are walking in this paradise with me. Situations that used to cause fear and nervousness, have disappated and I am able to stay present and be in peace. I am seeing others in the light and am knowing their beings, not their outward person. I am grateful.
Welcome, Joan of Arc!
What always amazes me when people describe this "paradise," as well as when I experience it myself, is how incredible this place is, how close at hand, how quick and simple to access it, and how readily available it has always been to us, yet lays undiscovered by the majority of us for most of our lives.
I think of us as akin to a superhero who, once he puts on his special eyeglasses, suddenly gains incredible eyesight to see things he couldn't see before and acquires powers he didn't have before. When we become present, when we come from our true being, we come from a powerful place in all we do.
To add Eckhart's description to what you have shared, Joan of Arc: "To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment." :)
I second the Welcome to you Joan! Did you ever see the television series "Joan of Arcadia"? It was based on a teenage girl who God revealed Itself to through various people and then asked for her trust in only following It's instructions without knowing the full story of why.
I join in joy with you as you embody and deepen your relationship with this Inner Treasure! My prayer for you is what it is for all of us, that the continued Word that flows from Presence would fall on good ground within our hearts and bring forth fruit with patience.
Lucinda, I love your super hero analogy. There's a good reason why little kids are drawn to them...something inside them resonates and knows that they too have been given a Gift of Power, Love and a Sound Mind that can change their world.
Thanks again Joan for sharing your joy and being here to explore it further.
Peace.
Kate
Kate, you are so right about children! They know their power, their unlimitedness, and so much more that we grown-ups have forgotten along the path to adulthood. We can learn so much from children - maybe even begin to "remember."
You are demonstrating such an important truth about how true forgiveness just flows when we see through the outer appearance/pain body of the one who is temporarily being imprisoned by their own ego. Forgiveness flows more easily and more often after we have seen how easily we can be fooled and blind-sighted by our own personal struggles with it. I see this unfoldment as the essence of loving others as ourselves.
Next time you won't react as quickly although ego will be right there telling you you are. Each time it becomes less and less personal and we do catch it more and more quickly even though it may "feel" exactly the same depth of emotion that gets triggered. Your example here is full of such good rich learning. Thanks again so much for sharing it with us.
The following post came in from martineztinam@aol.com. Thank you for sharing, T!
Hi Kate, On the topic of the ego. I am witnessing first hand how powerful the ego is as I struggle with it at this moment. Last evening I was verbally attacked by someone close and it took me by such suprise. It sickened me. All evening I felt horrible and I tried so hard to let it go. l kept going over and over in my head what I would have said if this person hadn't hung up on me. Even through all I have learned about the ego. Even today its going strong. I so want to call this person and let them have it right back. But I won't. I know this person is wrong but I don't have to prove it to them for my ego. I see how much work I have ahead of me . At least I can acknowledge that it is the ego in me. I just don't want to feel that bad anymore. T
T,
Isn't it something to watch the ego? Each situation given us like this helps us distance our Real Selves from it more and more. For you to be able to give this example is proof that you are getting some separation from it and that is exactly how we all work this through as the Spirit gives us our education using the people we have in our lives for our practice. Though you don't feel very thankful right now for this person who is bringing this particular lesson to you, we start to come awake to understanding this is what we have been asking for when we pray to realize Who we really are vs. believing we are our ego. It's called the school of life.
Let me point out one of the tricky aspects I am seeing with what ego feeds on in these kinds of situations like you describe. The ego went into its "How could they do that TO ME!!!" circular discussion it likes to go on and on and on with as you have so well described. That rant is not you, but your ego. Now watch what it does from there...this is the tricky part. Today, it WANTS to call back and let 'em have it because it (the ego, not the Stillness underneath all of this which is the Real You) KNOWS they're WRONG and it is RIGHT. See how the ego wants to tell you how good and righteous you are for being the better person? I know this particular ego script/story really well...the one that can feed on self-righteousness. It stands upon it's throne and looks down it's nose to those losers, ignorant fools. It's just another age old story of the ego.
STILLNESS (who You are) does not walk into the boxing ring, but just stands and watches all of the "hats" that the ego puts on and wears to try to tempt us to believe we are it's thoughts and imaginations. It's work is to try to pull us off our Still Present Moment to take action on it's behalf. This is how it feeds itself and continues to live through our bodies/minds. Once we go through more initiations into practicing Who we really are, we aren't as easily fooled by the many many "hats" or "masks" that the ego uses to get us to forget Who we really are.
I can't tell you how happy I am to hear what you are seeing and learning! You are learning to live what you believe instead of reading books and just telling others they should read them, too. As we live witnessing the truth in our own lives, we become that model without using words that others who are seeking truth will be drawn to. They will begin to question...what is it they know that I don't? Bravo, T!! Bravo!
Hi Kate: You are right about the tricky aspect of the ego. It was telling me that I am the better person for not stooping to their level. That those people are not worth my time and I don't need them in my life anymore. And I did go along with it at first. But today I feel I am healing and finding peace. Forgiving them and acknowledging that it wasn't their true self that attacked me but it was their terribly unhappy painbody. Hopefully next time this happens I will not react so quickly or take it so personally. I would really like to skip that step !! LOL.
I have been exploring chapter eight recently of The Power of Now. This section emphasizes much of what Eckhart has shared in previous chapters, only here it is put within the context of relationships. If we took the time to really explore our intimate relationships we would discover how revelatory they are in showing us aspects of ourselves we are more often than not unconscious of.
How many of us seek a relationship with someone to make us happy, to fill a void, to take away our loneliness or our fear, or in some way to validate us - in other words, to obtain salvation of some sort?
However, Eckhart explains, “True salvation is a state of freedom - from fear, from suffering, from a perceived state of lack and insufficiency and therefore from all wanting, needing, grasping, and clinging. It is freedom from compulsive thinking, from negativity, and above all from past and future as a psychological need.”
These don’t go away when we enter a relationship. They may seem to, as we find ourselves distracted by feeling loved, being wanted, having someone to be with us so we don’t have to face our fears. The list goes on. Yet we face a rude awakening when our significant other no longer fulfills our needs in quite the same way as before. In truth, though . . . did they ever really fulfill our needs? Where is the salvation we thought they brought us?
Many of us chase after physical pleasures or psychological gratifications and distractions as a means of suppressing our fear or lack. Eckhart points out that this is seeking salvation from a state of unsatisfactoriness or insufficiency, and thus it is always short-lived.
He concludes, “You “get” there by realizing that you are there already. You find God the moment you realize that you don’t need to seek God.” You do away with ‘If only,’ and ‘When I have,’ and ‘Once I get.’
“There is only one point of access: the Now,” says Eckhart.
Editorial Director David Ord has posted a blog today further expanding on Eckhart’s teachings on relationships from Stillness Speaks, another powerful E. T. book. I invite you to visit The Compassionate Eye blog.
Lucinda,
Last night I was watching The Flowering of Human Consciousness dvd of Eckhart's and he is so wonderful in being able to unmask this ego/false sense of self that has that nasty habit of collecting people, places and things to prop itself up...to give it an identity and some sense of importance. For anyone still really struggling with wondering who they are outside of this false self and for those who have awakened into their True Still Essence, it is worth the watch. Netflix has it to order for those wanting to rent it.
Thanks for this great suggestion, Kate!
"When I obtain this or am free of that - then I will be okay. This is the unconscious mind-set that creates the illusion of salvation in the future." I can identify with this so well. How many times my mind told me I would be complete after I went to this party, after I bought that pair of shoes to show off, after Friday's work week was over. Why did I let my thoughts coerce my essence of being? " You think that you can't get there from where and who you are at this moment because you are not yet complete or good enough, but the truth is that here and now is the only point from where you can get there. You get there by realizing you are there already. You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God." Looking for completeness of yourself in others, in experiences or in certain locations does not cut it. We have to go within ourselves here and now. Identify with the source that is one and all.
Diane, Your post describes that struggle to let go of what I call the world-mind consciousness...and there's a secret that I have found to ease that struggle. In one word - it is depersonalization. As we sit in stillness, the temptation is to allow the thought streams of the world-mind consciousness to claim us as their identity. From our flesh birth up until now, we have been fooled to take on certain mind patterns from this stream of world consciousness and now believe that they are our true identity. When we allow those streams to sit in our awareness, they calcify and become "personalities" of which we try to set ourselves free from. We have made personal what is not.
So as we now go into the stillness, we view of these thought streams differently as we depersonalize them...having no desire to need to change them as they go by...they have nothing whatsoever to do with us. If we are fooled into trying to fight them or try to make them go away, we still believe they are our identity. As we continue to be patient with our learning we are guided into realizing more and more of who we are in our True Essence as It unfolds underneath our noses...as you have said, "You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God."
I have to add something I just read this morning that also re-states so well what Diane is bringing up. Here it is:
"Right there is where thousands of individuals become stuck. Everything else makes sense, but still the tendency is to sit waiting, thinking that the needed good hasn't yet come forth from the invisible, to be visible, and that therefore we have to wait longer for it... wait while it takes its time coming forth.
This is not true. All Good is present NOW, manifest NOW, tangible NOW, experience-able NOW for there is no element of God that is NOT present, NOT fully manifest, NOT tangible NOW."
Quote by Paul Gorman
I am going to move ahead to Chapter Eight in TPON, as something is nudging me to share some of Eckhart's insights from this section. We haven't really covered much in Chapter Seven, which addresses space and time. I welcome any of you to initiate discussion of that chapter if you would like, or we will perhaps cover it at a later time.
I love the subhead at the beginning of Chapter Eight, " Enter the Now from wherever you are." How simple! And yet what a profound shift we can feel when we do this. I am not yet at the place where my mind no longer hijacks me to some wild chase of an illusion, propelled by fear, perceived needs, or longing. Yet I am better these days at quickly recognizing these moments and bringing myself back to center, back to presence. And when I do this, all charge disappears, all fear fades away, effortlessness rises, and a sense of peace and joy return. There is balance once again in my world.
On the second page of Chapter Eight Eckhart writes, "True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness. It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence."
In the next paragraph Eckhart goes on to say, "True salvation is a state of freedom - from fear, from suffering, from a perceived state of lack and insufficiency and therefore from compulsive thinking, from negativity, and above all from past and future as a psychological need." In essence, all those things we truly desire - peace, freedom, salvation, a fulness of life, and so much more - are already there waiting for us. We don't have to go chasing after them, longing and hoping for them. "The instant we enter the Now we are there. And amazingly, we see things aligning in our life, situations ceasing to be "situations," harmony rising, right outcomes appearing.
"to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence."
To put on my own words for this, I call it "taking back my birthright." From before time, I was One with the Creator and this is the truth that got lost when I took on form in this world. This world has no consciousness of knowing we are given this relationship of abiding as One with the Spirit and laughs at the thought that anyone could ever think that there is such a thing as this invisible realm existing. If we are slaves to believing that only what we see with our physical eyes and hear with our physical ears is available to us to live by, we become the most miserable of people.
This "Good that has no opposite" is our Creator and we get to discover our gift of union that we have with this Source of All. Our bouts of fear and longings are all about not really knowing by experience what living in this relationship means. In the stillness and quiet, as we rest from trying to get this perfect relationship out of anything from this visible life, we do find that this Someone, this Source, this Creator of us all is really Real.
To You Who causes the sun to rise each and every morning, reveal Yourself to us today...reveal our Oneness with You, I pray.
As you say, Lucinda..."what a profound shift we feel" when this comes into our realization.
Absolutely, Kate. "Birthright;" "original self;" "true being," real essence;" - all wonderful terms that point to our authentic selves, who we are at our core underneath the layers of labels, criticism, and identifications we have unconsciously chosen to take on and be distracted by.
Thank you, T! Glad to have you here. Thank you, Kate and Diane, for your insights on Truth.
In essence, we are where we are. If for some people that means being fully immersed in a spiritual exploration, that's wonderful. If for others it doesn't mean that at all, that's okay too. We can't go somewhere unless we're ready to go there, right?
It's easy for me to get excited about things that have a positive impact on my life, such as spiritual teachings, and thus want to share them with others. What I have come to learn, however, is that the best way to do this is simply to live it, to demonstrate it authentically through my own being rather than talk about it, point to it, or push it on others. Essentially, it is allowing things to emerge from within, as T. mentions.
Blessings, everyone!
Hi T, Diane, and Kate. I have so enjoyed following your posts here and find myself moved by so much of the exchange. For a long time it seemed Kate and I were carrying this book discussion (Thank you, Kate!!) when we first started it, with hopes that in time others would join and share their thoughts. The dialoguing has come and I have stepped aside just a bit to give space for this to develop further. This book discussion is for you, for however TPON is playing out in your life, whatever thoughts it stirs, whatever challenges you are trying to address via Eckhart's teachings. This site is a place to find other like-minded people who you can share these thoughts and challenges with, who you can ask questions of, and who you can help by answering their questions. In essence, we can support and nurture each other's journey by means of this book discussion and our exchanges. So please know that you have no need to worry about deviating from the book study, as this is all part of it. It is right where it is meant to be. Your dialoguing adds a richness and depth to our study, and I hope the dialoguing enriches or helps you in whatever way you may be seeking.
We have covered most chapters in TPON, though we have barely touched on the immense wealth of isights in this book. So we'll take our time through the remainder of the book.
T, your desire to help your mother by introducing her to Eckhart's work and perhaps others, is driven by love. I too have tried to share much of this work with others, only to find that they aren't ready for it. What I have learned is that it is okay to plant the seed, to extend the gift, to share the light. But then we must surrender the outcome. As Eckhart says, we must not be attached to outcome because then we are either being driven by the past or chasing the future (chasing a particular outcome), or both. And then we should ask ourselves, are we doing this for them really, or is it in some way for us? Our intention is at its purest when we can extend it and then release it in trust.
Thank you all for enriching my study of Eckhart's teachings and my life with what you have shared here!
Lucinda:
All thanks and praise should go to you and to Kate for your magnificent work on this book study. I've only read a small portion of the the previous posts and what wealth of information. The two of you I find are outstanding in your writing. Keep doing what you do. Thank you so much and glad to be here. T
Lucinda,
This whole discussion about planting seeds in others is one I am contemplating as I look at what I must be willing to do as the Spirit plants and sews the words of personal Truth into me as I wait patiently in stillness. I have wondered most my life why there is so little fruit that attracts others to curiosity of spiritual things. And I am seeing that as usual, I have had things backwards.
If I have not first received from the Spirit into my spirit the Truth that gives my own life power, I will have only powerless words about the Truth that fall on the ground but have no real life in them to take root in another.
There is a season, I believe where we must allow the seeds of truth that are being planted in us by the Spirit to have their season underground...in silence, in secret, where we do not take on the idea of sharing everything given to us with others. As we allow this very important season to take place, we ourselves are further established and rooted in the Truth and without a word if we are patient the time comes when our presence alone with others speaks volumes.
I, myself, was instructed backwards taking on the belief it was my responsibility to tell others what was only barely a concept of truth to me. I am only now beginning to practice the opposite.
Kate: You are right on with what you said. "I will have only powerless words about the Truth that fall on the ground but have no real life in them to take root in another" if you have not first received from the Spirit the truth that gives your own life power. For so long I have been preoccupied by trying to get this information out there, trying to promote "A New Earth" when I to have it backwards. I look back at how I came upon the teachings of Eckhart Tolle through seeing him on Oprah promoting The New Earth and watching the webcast. I was drawn in and ready to awaken. I question how many people were reached back then in 2008 and how can I spread the word. Now I realize that I need to put that aside, my job is not to be planting seed in others. I too am only now beginning to practice the opposite. From within. T
Dear Kate:
Feeling grateful for your words of wisdom. And thanks for caring. I hope we didn't stray too far from the book discussion. I will take and digest all that you have written. I'am not at all irritated. A little emotional...may be. Now back to tending my own garden. Do you recommend reading Practicing The Power Of before The Power of Now? I have been bouncing around with all the books and find it hard stay with TPON.
Love, T
Hi again T,
I would guess that those in charge of leading these book studies care more about meeting a person's present need and the promotion of encouragement and support as we grow than being sticklers for staying on topic. Your question and what it led to is important and I am so glad you could use this forum to ask.
To be honest, I personally found my way through the woods of learning about my own control issues getting the most understanding about how the practicing of the present moment ties in with it all through Michael Brown's book called The Presence Process. His book serves those who are more so wanting to get down to the knitty gritty in how to make this stuff practical and he takes you through a week by week course to draw your attention to certain things. It would definitely be a book for someone who really wants to tend their own garden and experience transformation
.
I have only read the TPON but not the other one you mentioned. Follow what works for you and know that you are truly being led by your Source within who knows what you need and when you need it. Ultimately, any book worth it's salt leads us to the experience of knowing this Presence that lives within that is here to teach us spirit to Spirit. Whatever author inspires you to realize these things, I'd stick with. You're in good company here at Namaste and the blogs I have been a part of on the site are desirous of clarifying anything that may be confusing and open to answering questions.
I call you family now...just so ya know : ) Your sister, Kate
Hi Kate,
So glad I found this family at Namaste to help guide, encourage and support me as I grow in the process of spiritual awakening. I wish more people knew about this forum. I just want to shout it from the roof tops. "Here it is, just study this to find joy and peace in your life" but you are right, and the teachings say once you awaken it is then easy for others to awaken. Here I was pushing the books on my daughter because I got a glimpse of the transformation, she was thinking all along, "so what has this done for you?" I have realized that I have much more to learn....practice what you preach. I am now reading the Presence Process and also the book Practicing the Power of Now. I mentioned this book earlier. In the introduction Eckhart says "For those readers who felt daunted or overwhelmed by TPON, this book can also serve as an introduction". I just wanted to put that out there for anyone who needs a more readily accessible format that they can use in their daily practice.
Dear Kate: I understand what you are saying and it is comforting but there is resistance in me. I do not want to give up. I do not want to lose my mother. I believe that she can turn herself around and stop this downward spiral that she is in. I get so angry about this illness that has inflicted her for the last fifteen years. I want to blame someone - the factory she worked in for thirty years caused this illness. She worked so hard to raise seven children without the help of two deadbeat husbands. She finally retires and doesn't get to enjoy the remainder of her life. I don't want it to end like this. She is 76 but I know she could live much longer if she would just get in the right frame of mind, if she would just try harder. And that is why I think some spiritual coaching could be the answer.
When we are being asked to surrender and give up trying to control what we can not, we feel like the world is ending and our mental minds, like you say resist. This is everyone's initial knee-jerk instinct. The shrilling cry from our childhoods, from those days where we were helpless to make our home circumstances change or improve says, " I'm not going to stand by and do nothing!" We become activated and moved by our past angers and griefs still stuck deep down inside ourselves that want to "even the score". All our attempts at control have to do with trying to get away from feeling all the emotion that is being drawn to the surface from our current realities.
As we tend to what we do have control over...ourselves, and allow ourselves to process all of the "yuck" that we have tried to stay away from, we can act from a place of peacefulness towards what is happening in our world around us. What I have also seen as a result of tending to my own emotions and allowing them to wash through is that my vision of how I see my current circumstances is transformed. Even the circumstance outside myself that I was trying to control changed for the good without my intrusion into it.
So when we let go of circumstances beyond our control, it does not mean we are giving up and believing the worst will happen. That kind of thinking comes from our wounded child mind that still exists in us and gets triggered in these kinds of situations. No, we are taking responsibility to take care of ourselves and when we do, our loved ones receive the overflow of us doing that.
None of this may make any sense right now and if all this that I wrote further irritates you, just chuck it. Be easy on yourself. Caring about the both of you and grateful for your sharing. Kate
Dear t,
I can understand your fear. There is nothing to feel but anxiety and helplessness for another when our eyes lock on to what is seen only to the naked eye...the outer appearance. What you are learning within the Power of Now gives you a knowledge of what is unseen...the Source of us all Who is with us all through the valley of the shadow of death. Knowing that your mother, in her weakened physical state is being held in these Everlasting Arms and that her spiritual state is completely unaffected by what is happening to her body...having this eye-sight into the invisible realm gives the more complete picture.
Nothing can separate us from the Love of God...nothing. And the Psalmist says to us: What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Psalm 56:3. Your mom is being cared for in a way you can not see by the One who is always present, all wise and all powerful. And this Creator is also fully aware of what needs tending to in you as you go through this. Be still and know that I Am God. I ask that this situation bring you into a depth of knowing these mental concepts I have written about in a very deep personal way. Seeing you and your mom surrounded now in great peace, Love Kate
Thank you Kate and Diane. You are right, maybe they are not ready to awaken. I feel so helpless. My mother is very ill right now (COPD). Her health has declined dramatically in the last three months. I am afraid that she is giving up the fight. She is totally identified with her illness and lives in constant fear. The fear of not being able to breath is pretty traumatic. I believe there is very useful information for her in Eckhart's teachings.
Hi t,
I surely understand how you want to help your family and friends with spiritual things. I have mentioned the Power of Now to my sibllings and my sons but they are not interested. I know they would benefit immensely if they would just take it all in but they have to be open to it. I hope like Kate is saying that they will be attracted to our beliefs in oneness and beingness. I will just keep on keeping on with my faithful ways and hope they will awaken on their own. Peace and love to you.
Diane
Looking for some advise on how to introduce the teachings of Eckhart Tolle to my family and friends who are suffering in many different ways. I have been studying (reading the new earth & the power of now) and i have been awakened. Though I am still practicing, there has been a significant shift in my consciousness. I am truly inspired by the way my life has changed. I am like a sponge, i can't get enough information fast enough! I so want to help those I love. I have given them the new earth but can't get them to read it. For whatever reason, they don't get it. I believe the new earth is the book to start with. That's where I began. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
Hi t,
Though it may seem like you don't care, the best thing I have leaned to do for my own family is to allow them to stay sleeping as long as they need to. It is not ours to know when their time of waking is to come and we will only encounter resistance when we take it upon ourselves to think it is our job to pull off their covers, yank open the blinds and tell them to rise and shine.
The Spirit found It's own way to gently shake me awake and produce a hunger in me that gave me the ability to take in and digest what certain authors write about at just the right time and I know with the Spirit, It plays no favorites. So, I let my loved ones be as they are and continue tending the fires of my own relationship with the Spirit.
As I have done this, I have had siblings that I have not talked to about spiritual things in the past, call me out of the blue and have long conversations. As we just take care of ourselves and trust the Spirit with our loved ones, it is amazing to me how our "allowing them to be where they are at" attracts them.
This did go against the grain of what I was taught all my life about it being my job to spread the "good news". As I let what I had been taught in concepts go and listened to the Spirit's desire for me to just trust and take care of my own business, I received great Peace on this matter.
Keep on being a sponge and soaking up the good stuff!
Kate
When I was browsing for a book about meditation about 6 days ago, I found this book in a budhist book store. I grabed this book and the otrher book "The practicing the poer of now" and statrt reading the first mook. Reading first few pages itself change my way of thinking. I had been in a stage of memorising and thinking what would happe to me in future for what I had done sometime ago. After reading the Power of Now, I am feling a different person now.
Wicrama2309,
Wow! What a relief to have your fears of the future relieved. I don't imagine there is anyone here who hasn't had regrets about the pain we have caused others in our past. So glad you are here with us and waking up to the person that you really are. Peace to you.
Eckhart Tolle's book - The Power of Now has been a very good influence on me as far as my thoughts. Now I see how repetitive and negative my thoughts have been. Our own thoughts can be so damaging to ourselves! I think we are harder on ourselves than anyone else could be. This book has been an inspiration to me. I am now practicing more of being and enjoying nature. When I am doing chores at home I am slowing down and trying to embrace the moment now. I have also read 'A New Earth' . 'Full on Arrival' sounds interesting to me also. I will look into it soon.
Diane,
Nature has a way of reminding me of the faithful nature of our Creator...no one has to worry or get anxious about the sun coming up everyday, nor the birds being fed. So much of my own mind's ego voice has to do with forgetting we live within a benevolent universe, always being cared for. I am so glad the book is being used in your life to wake you further into the enjoyment of living in the moment and I'm glad you came to share what you are experiencing.
Eckhart is one voice. There are many others. The beautiful experience of life is that wisdom does not limit itself to one person, country, religion or belief system. It is inherently borderless. The only barrier to knowing this source is how open you are to absorbing its unique message for you at your point in 'time and space'. To worship or follow another's teachings I see is not the way. Freedom comes when there is not an overly exaggerated acknowledgment of another person's words or work. Rather, liberation and peace within yourself often comes when you can sit with your own feeling of vulnerability and not seek to change it.
Life itself is the greatest teacher. When we overly idealize one person, there is a risk of falling into a conceptual hypnotized state of living. Therefore, to welcome a fresh and untainted experience of life is to listen, but not to follow. When one truly listens, what occurs is the inner voice of wisdom becomes their guide, opposed to relying upon the words of another. When one rises above the labeling of experiences as 'good' or 'bad' and just sits with them, then one may be able to absorb the timeless way of consciousness.
I see there are infinite doors of perception which simultaneously create infinite universes. So in any given moment if one life form is closer to your ongoing transforming & expanding perception, then both of you will understand each other's 'universe'. But this experience is not static. For there is always a further illumination which follows the most recent illumination that you have just reached.
Also, I see none of us 'need' enlightenment. This is because we're already intrinsically It. Waking up to this realisation happens whenever it happens. Your particular 'now' moment should not be sought for, or strived after. It happens naturally, for each moment is your unique way. We can now say that linear time is redundant for enlightenment to occur.
There are signposts in life, triggers that make us question and ponder. I see this is what Eckhart's writing is for, as he is part of the well known mystics who have lived on Earth. Ultimately however, I value that the greatest teacher in life is Oneself, and the intrinsic connection you and I have with It All.
We each see what we allow ourselves to 'see'. The depth of what you know, is shown by the amount of courage you can draw upon in your heart. The journey is not one of 'results', but rather it wants to reveal what is sacred. A gift, which is not be found in a book, concept or religion. This is because the gift is so simple, so intertwined in your very nature. Realizing it is like looking into a mirror but seeing no reflection. The invisible reflection is not unsettling, for you are at peace with your own mysterious nature - for the gift is you. No giver is present. The channel, home and receiver are all found in your simple awareness of your own sacredness.
RC,
I like what you have said here:
"Life itself is the greatest teacher. When we overly idealize one person, there is a risk of falling into a conceptual hypnotized state of living."
There are those who I read about and admire for the courage they had to explore deeply and as a result found great transformation in their lives. One of my greatest desires is to flower into all that my own personal seed contains. It is in the reading of the mystics that inspiration and encouragement to stay the course comes for me, yet they could never show me how my own personal unfoldment will continue to happen. I can learn now from anyone no matter what stage of development they may be in and find people much more fascinating now while awake than when I was asleep!
Thanks so much for sharing your own life experience.
Thank you, Robert Charles, for these beautiful and insightful words!