The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle is a German-born spiritual teacher and practitioner and 'The Power of Now' A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.

Here are 3 lessons from it to help you worry and regret less:

1) Life is just a series of present moments.
2) All pain is a result of resistance to the things you cannot change.
3) You can free yourself from pain by constantly observing your mind and not judging your thoughts.

Present moment is all that you have, Make now the primary focus of your life.

Separate your body from your always-on, thought-driven mind, after which you’ll be in less pain because you resist the things you can’t change a lot less. Mind do not have an off-button, means you are a slave to it. The predominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of consciousness. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Enlightenment means rising above thoughts and emotions. Thought is in head and emotions have physical component. Liberation. As long as you are identified with your mind, the ego runs your life. To dis identify from the mind, we need to end the delusion of time. What is precious is not time, but now.

Unhappiness spread more easily than a physical disease. If human clear inner pollution then they will also cease to create outer pollution. Deep unconsciousness, such as the pain-body, or other deep pain, such as the loss of the loved one, usually needs to be transmuted through acceptance combined with the light of your presence - your sustained attention. Many patterns in the ordinary unconsciousness, on the other hand, can simply be dropped once you know that you don't want them and don't need them anymore. You have a choice, and you are not just a bundle of conditioned reflexes. Access the power of now, without it, you have no choice.

There is nothing wrong with striving to improve your life situation. You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deepest inner being. It is already whole, complete, perfect. There is nothing wrong with setting goals and striving to achieve things. The mistake lies in using it as a substitute for the feeling of life, for Being. Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Our outer purpose belongs to the horizontal dimension of space and time; the inner purpose belongs to the vertical dimension of the timeless Now, concerns deepening of your Being.

Now Is All There Is. Past and future are mental constructs that bare no reality.

What is the Power of Now?
None other than the power of your presence, your consciousness liberated from thought form.


Attention is needed, but not the past as past. But to the present. Give attention to behavior, reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears and desires as they occur in the present.

Things only happen in a continuous stream of present moments. Become Present. Being, consciousness and life are synonymous. Presence means consciousness becoming conscious of itself.

When you feel something about the past you are feeling it now. So it’s not true that you are feeling some pain from the past: you are experiencing it in a success of present, “now moments”.

Our feelings indeed can only give you information about the now, about this specific moment.
What we call the past is nothing but a collection of once-present moments. And the future is made of present moments that have yet to materialize.

On the level of body, human are very close to animals. Shame and taboos appeared around certain parts of the body, and they began to disassociate from their body. They now saw themselves as having a body, rather than just being it. When religion arouse, the disassociation became even more pronounced with 'you are not your body' belief. The fact is that no one has ever become enlightened through denying or fighting the body or through an out-of-the-body experience. All spiritual teachings originate from the same source, there is one Master. The sermon of the body is : Physical structure called body is not ultimately real - is not you. But do not turn away from it. Truth can be found in the body. The body that you can see and touch is only a thin illusory veil. Underneath it lies the invisible inner body, the doorway into Being, into Life UnManifested. Have deep roots within. Be in a state of permanent connectedness with your inner body. Feel your whole body from within, as a single field of energy - as if you are listening or reading with your whole body.

Forgive. Non-forgiveness is the very nature of mind, just as the mind-made false self, the ego cannot survive without strife and conflict. Only you can. You become present, you enter your body, you feel the vibrant peace and stillness that emanate from Being.

Awareness of your inner body will help slowing down the aging process, strengthen the immune system. If at anytime you are finding it hard to get in touch with the inner body, it is usually easier to focus on your breathing first, may be with closed eyes without getting attached to any visual image - into a sea of consciousness.

When listening to another person, listen with your whole body.

Death is stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to 'die before your die' - and find that there is no death. The end of illusion - that's all that death is. It is painful only as long as you cling to illusion.

The unmanifested and the manifested are not separate. The unmanifested does not liberate you until you enter it consciously. Time and the manifested are as inextricably linked as are the timeless Now and the unmanifested. You take a journey into the unmanifested every night when you enter the phase of deep dreamless sleep. Another portal into the unmanifested is created through the cessation of thinking. Surrender - the letting go of mental-emotional resistance to what is - also becomes a portal into the unmanifested. Silence, space are all portals. The world is needed for the unmanifested to be realised. Buddhist saying goes "If there were no illusion, there would be no enlightenment". It is through the world and ultimately through you that the unmanifested knows itself. You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.

Salvation is here and now. What is God? The eternal one life underneath all the forms of life. What is love? To feel the presence of that One Life deep within yourself and within all creatures. To be it. Therefore, all love is the love of God. Beyond happiness and unhappiness there is peace. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not. Conditions are always positive. They are as they are. There is no good or bad. Through forgiveness, which essentially means recognizing the insubstantiality of the past and allowing the present moment to be as it is, the miracle of transformation happens not only within but also without. The cyclic nature of universe is closely linked with the impermanence of all things and situations. A Buddhist monk once said 'All that arises passes away.' Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. Resistance serve no purpose. 'Don't resist the opponent's force. Yield to overcome. When there is no way out, there is still always a way through. Don't turn away from the pain. Face it. Feel it fully. Feel it. Acceptance of suffering is the way to death. We have a power to choose. Choice implies consciousness. Choice begin when you are present.

And that was 13 of 2020.