In times of turbulence, we turn to transcendent texts and tomes that teach us a better way. Some of these are The Bible and the Koran. Some contemporary guides to spiritual growth are books such as "The Four Agreements" and "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.
This week starts a series of reflections on excerpts from "The Power of Now." For me, I find this book a powerful beside reference, filled with insight and inspiration. Here you can see the author in all of his peaceful glory, speaking of The Power of Now.
Video of Eckhart Tolle on Decoding the Power of Now
All text below are excerpts from "The Power of Now," by Eckhart Tolle.
On the importance of directing your thoughts
Isn't thinking essential in order to survive in this world? Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90% of most people's thinking is not only repetitive and useless but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind, and you will find this to be true. It causes a serious leakage a vital energy.
On the impact of your identification with your mind to the creation of emotional pain
As long as you are identified with your mind, which is to say as long as you are unconscious, spiritually speaking. I am talking here primarily of emotional pain, which is also the main cause of physical pain and physical disease. Resentment, hatred, self-pity, guilt, anger, depression, jealousy, and so on, even the slightest irritation, are all forms of pain. And every pleasure or emotional high contains within itself the seed of pain: it's a inseparable opposite, which will manifest in time.
On the impact that the Now has on the life we experience
Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now in pay brief visits to past And future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation. Always say "yes" to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, then to create inner resistance to something that already is? What could be more insane then to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say yes to life–and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
On connecting your larger purpose, manifested in the future, to the power of the present
Your life's journey has an outer purpose and an inner purpose. The outer purpose is to arrive at your goal or destination, to accomplish what you set out to do, to achieve this or that, which, of course, implies future. But if your destination, or the steps you are going to take in the future, take up so much of your attention that they become more important to you than the step you are taking now, then you completely miss the journeys inner purpose, which has nothing to do with where you are going or what you are doing, but everything to do with how. It has nothing to do with future but everything to do with the quality of your consciousness at this moment. The outer purpose belongs to the horizontal dimension of space and time: the inner purpose concerns a deepening of your being in the vertical dimension of the timeless now. Your outer journey may contain 1 million steps; your inner journey has only one: the step you are taking right now. As you become more deeply aware of this one step, you realize that it already contains within itself all the other steps as well as the destination. This one step then becomes transformed into an expression of perfection, an act of great beauty and quality. It will have taken you into being, and the light of being will shine through it. This is both the purpose and the fulfillment of your inner journey, the journey into yourself.
