Book review: Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now.

This is a book that will either wake you up or make you laugh , in your own unconsciousness. Nevertheless, I consider it a must read for all people who have gone through some sort of spiritual awakening. As usual, the majority of us live in a state of unconsciousness until pain arises. Until a decisive moment of dreadful pain awakens us. Now, who are we? What do we do with our life?

Eckhart Tolle had such a moment after battling for years with depression. I could find myself in his book as only a person who has been on the dark side knows how lonely and excruciating it feels to be there. Stuck. Without any remedy to ease your pain. When even for an intelectual being like Tolle the solution for the ending of pain appeared to be suicide. By miracle, Eckhart managed to detach from the pain and in that memorable night, when he had the most vicious depressive burst, he was reborn.

This is how the book The Power of Now came to life.

Watch part 2 as well (I had to split it in two as my laptop refused to render the full clip for several times...a sign I should change the oldie with a new one soon)

I must tell you that I have found this book in the best moment , after I managed to slowly pull myself out from my own inner void and cope with everything and everyone who has caused me pain and trauma.

Most of our suffering comes from our egoic mind. We mostly live in the past or projecting for the future. We rarely notice or enjoy the present moment.

The book is like a dialogue, where questions are being answered. Your ego will try to make you find this book hilarious or a bunch of mumbo jumbo spiritual blah blah. But your soul will know that you need to read this over and over again until you get it.

The most interesting detail is that people love suffering, that some are even addicted to it because it gives them an identity. How many times have you heard people saying: "I am like this because of my past", "I am like this because of my parents", "I am like this because of my ex", "I am like this because of our society" etc. The turning point comes when we realize that we can choose to remain a victim or a hero. We can choose to heal and reset new boundaries with parents, friends, strangers. We can discover our true soul if we battle our Ego and defeat it. Ego is the one needing the walls. Ego needs to be right. Ego wants pain and revenge. Letting go of pain and trauma is not easy. Being the authentic you is not easy. But Tolle says that it is. That you can be happy now. Free of trauma now. More aware now. Incredible right? That we have so much to enjoy in life and yet somehow we are oblivious to life's joys because our mind gets stuck on time. According to Eckhart time is an illusion. There is no time. There is only NOW. I shall say empowering ....a very empowering statement right there.

I loved that Eckhart also approached the topic of intimate relationships as many of us surely struggled at least once with them. I will let you read the book to find out more, but let me warn you that all you believe about what love is might be put under a big question mark after reading Tolle's thoughts. Some of my selected quotes might provide you with a different perspective. Love is the most powerful force in the Universe. When you will love yourself in a healthy way it will be easier to give and receive love. Love is about acceptance. Love is an action. True love is when you accept and embrace the other's world without judgement. You can't say you love someone and then hate them and block them. That is not love, that is Egoic anxious attachment.

What I like the most about this book is that it gives you the basic big secret of a happy life (if you dissolve your Ego enough in order to want to be happy) : happiness is an inner concept. And happiness is always available NOW. And your problems are oportunities therefore you have no problems in reality. They are all a construct of your egoic mind. The more Ego has grabbed you by the neck, the more miserable and unhappy you will feel. The more trauma and suffering you will cause to others. Because Ego loves pain.

Our Universe needs an awakening. I loved a particular quote about this idea:

♡It is not a question of guilt.But as long as you are run by the egoic mind, you are part of the collective insanity.Perhaps you haven't looked very deeply into the human condition in its state of dominance by the egoic mind. Open your eyes and see the fear, the despair, the greed, and the violence that are all-pervasive. See the heinous cruelty and suffering on an unimaginable scale that humans have inflicted and continue to inflict on each other as well as on other life forms on the planet. You don't need to condemn. Just observe. That is sin.That is insanity. That is unconscioussness. Above all, don't forget to observe your own mind. Seek out the root of insanity there.

The idea is that a happy person will never want to cause pain to another human being. Unfortunately traumatized people are rarely aware of the damage they cause and some feel that they are entitled to it because others have done it unto them. And this is how the circle of insanity spins. Until someone awakens. Until someone refuses to react anymore. It has happened in numerous families: many parents traumatized their children and continue to do so and the pain goes further when their children will also choose to traumatize others. This will continue until one family members awakens and starts to solve their inner puzzle. Human relationships are like a dance: if you change your steps, the dynamics of the whole family will change and things will never be the same again. The change is hard as our desire to belong is big. But our soul's desire for peace is even bigger. And it can defeat the Ego with enough guidance.

This book is a mini spiritual bible. I can see why it has caused a hype around the world, making the famous Oprah a big fan of Tolle. I will end with another favorite quote of mine and then I will put some relevant quotes I personally selected in order to give you a glimpse of the content of this wonderful book.

♡When listening to another person, don't just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body.Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen.That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering. You are giving the other person space - space to be.It is the most precious gift you can give. Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind.

I often fell asleep while listening to Eckhart's podcast, where you can find questions , answers, meditation. Check it here. Discovering Tolle, his book and his podcast has made a tremendous difference in my life, I am truly grateful and happy for being able to share this with you!

Now the list of selected quotes. Enjoy!

I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don't know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.Living knowledge, ancient and yet ever new, is then activated and released from within every cell of your body

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everybodyis suffering from it, so it is considered normal.

Real love doesn't make you suffer

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is.On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgement.On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity.

Observe the attachment to your pain. Be very alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you derive from being unhappy.Observe the compulsion to talk or think about it.

Fear seems to have many causes.Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego's fear of death, of annihilation.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strenght.True power is within, and it is available to you now.

The secret of life is to "die before you die"- and find that there is no death.

The ego's needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatened and so lives in a state of fear and want. This is why, 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 become free of them; that would mean loss of self. There can be a great deal of unconscious ego investment in pain and suffering.

Time isn't precious at all, because it is an illusion.What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time:the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time -past and future- the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.

The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such as mountain climbing, car racing, and so on, although they might 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.

If you set yourself a goal and work toward it, you are using clock time. You are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your fullest attention to the step that you are taking at this moment. If you then become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the Now is no longer honored. It becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value .Clock time then turns into psychological time.

Nonforgiveness necessarily implies a heavy burden of psychological time.

You may win $10 million, but that kind of change is no more than skin deep. You would simply continue to act out the same conditioned patterns in more luxurious surroundings.

If you create no more pain for yourself, then you create no more pain for others.

Some people get angry when they hear me say that problems are illusions.I am threatening to take away their sense of who they are.They have invested much time in a false sense of self. For many years, they have unconsciously defined their whole identity in terms of their problems or their suffering. Who would they be without it?

If you cannot be present even in normal circumstances, such as when you are sitting alone in a room, walking in the woods, or listening to someone, then you certainly won't be able to stay conscious when something "goes wrong" or you are faced with difficult people or situations, with loss or the threat of loss. You will be taken over by a reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear, and pulled into deep unconsciousness.Those challenges are your tests.Only the way in which you deal with them will show you and others where you are at as far as your state of consciousness is concerned, not how long you can sit with your eyes closed or what visions you see.

Make it a habit to monitor your mental-emotional state through self-observation."Am I at ease at this moment?" is a good question to ask yourself frequently. Or you can ask : "What's going on inside me at this moment?". Be at least interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside.If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.

Unhappiness spreads more easily than a physical disease.If humans clear inner pollutiom, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge.When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out , you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time

Everything that exists has Being, had God-essence , has some degree of consciousness. Even a stone has rudimentary consciousness; otherwise, it would not be, and its atoms and molecules would disperse.Everything is alive. The sun, the earth, plants, animals, humans - all are expressions of consciousness in varying degrees, conscioussness manifesting as form.

♡It is not a question of guilt.But as long as you are run by the egoic mind, you are part of the collective insanity.Perhaps you haven't looked very deeply into the human condition in its state of dominance by the egoic mind. Open your eyes and see the fear, the despair, the greed, and the violence that are all-pervasive. See the heinous cruelty and suffering on an unimaginable scale that humans have inflicted and continue to inflict on each other as well as on other life forms on the planet. You don't need to condemn. Just observe. That is sin.That is insanity. That is unconscioussness. Above all, don't forget to observe your own mind. Seek out the root of insanity there.

Whenever you are waiting, wherever it may be, use that time to feel the inner body.In this way, traffic jams and line-ups become very enjoyable. Instead of mentally projecting yourself away from the Now, go more deeply into the Now by going more deeply into the body.

The moment you truly forgive, you have reclaimed your power from the mind. Nonforgiveness is the very nature of the mind, just as the mind-made false self , the ego, cannot survive without strife and conflict. The mind cannot forgive. Only you can. You become present, you enter your body, you feel the vibrant peace and stillness that emanate from Being. That is why Jesus said: "Before you enter the temple, forgive".

♡When listening to another person, don't just listen with your mind, listen wirh your whole body.Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen.That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering. You are giving the other person space - space to be.It is the most precious gift you can give. Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind.

Love isn't a portal; it's what comes through the portal into this world. As long as you are completely trapped in your form identity, there can be no love.Your task is not to search for love but to find a portal through which love can enter.

If you remain in conscious connection with the Unmanifested, you value, love, and deeply respect the manifested and every life form in it as an expression of the One Life beyond form.

When space and time are realized within the Unmanifested - no-mind and presence- external space and time continue to exist for you, but they become much less important. The world, too continues to exist for you, but it will not bind you anymore. Hence, the ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the world but in transcendence of the world. Just as you would not be conscious of space if there were no objects in space, the world is needed for the Unmanifested to be realized. You may have heard the Buddhist saying: "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. That is how important you are!

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.

Unless and until you access the consciousness frequency of presence, all relationships, and particularly intimate relationships, are deeply flawed and ultimately dysfunctional.

It is also easier to recognize the source of negativity in your partner than to see it in yourself.

If in your relationships you experience both "love" and the opposite of love -attack, emotional violence, and so on- then it is likely that you are confusing ego attachment and addictive clinging with love. 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 arw 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 that. Every addiction reaches a point where it does not work for you anymore, and then you feel the pain more intensely than ever.

Avoidance of relationships in an attempt to avoid pain is not the answer either. The pain is there anyway. Three failed relationships in as many years are more likely to force you into awakening than three years on a desert island or shut away in your room. But if you could bring intense presence into your aloneness, that would work for you too.

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.

So whenever your relationship is not working , whenever it brings out the "madness" in you and in your partner, be glad. What was unconscious is being brought up to the light. It is an opportunity for salvation.

Sanity-consciousness-can only come into this world through you. You do not need to wait for the world to become sane, or for somebody else to become conscious, before you can be enlightened.

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 you 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.

To suddenly see that you are or have been attached to your pain can be quite a shocking realization. The moment you realize this, you have broken the attachment. A victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful than the present, which is the opposite of the truth.

Acute unhappiness can be a great awakener.

If you cannot be at ease with yourself when you are alone, you will seek a relationship to cover up your unease. You can be sure that the unease will then reappear in some other form within the relationship, and you will probably hold your partner responsible for it.

Most of the so-called bad things that happen in people's lives are due to unconsciousness. They are self-created, or rather ego-created.

When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life. Nobody can even have an argument with you, no matter how hard he or she tries. You cannot have an argument with a fully conscious person.

Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry or hard-done-by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane

Somebody says something to you that is rude or designed to hurt.Instead of going into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack, defense or withdrawal, you let it pass right through you. Offer no resistance. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness. In this way you become invulnerable. You can still tell that person that his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what you choose to do. But that person no longer has the power to control your inner state. You are then in your power - not in someone else's, nor are you run by your mind. Whether it is a car alarm, a rude person, a flood, an earthquake, or the loss of all your possessions, the resistance mechanism is the same.

Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness.

At this deep level, compassion becomes healing in the widest sense. In that state, your healing influence is primarily based not on doing but on being. Everybody you come in contact with will be touched by your presence and affected by the peace you emanate, whether they are conscious of it or not. When you are fully present and people around you manifest unconscious behavior, you won't feel the need to react to it, so you don't give it any reality. Your peace is so vast and so deep that anything that is not peace disappears into it as if it had never existed. This breaks the karmic cycle of action and reaction. Animals, trees, flowers will feel your peace and respond to it. You teach through being, through demonstrating the peace of God. You become the "light of the world" , an emanation of pure consciousness, and so you elliminate suffering on the level of cause. You eliminate unconsciousness from the world.

Let me give you a visual analogy to illustrate the point I am making. You are walking along a path at night, surrounded by a thick fog. But you have a powerful flashlight that cuts through the fog and creates a narrow, clear space in front of you. The fog is your life situation, which includes past and future ; the flashlight is your conscious presence ; the clear space is the Now.

It is perfectly possible to say "no" firmly and clearly to a person or to walk away from a situation and be in a state of complete nonresistance at the same time. When you say "no" to a person or a situation, let it come not from reaction but from insight, from a clear realization of what is right or not right for you at that moment. Let it be a nonreactive "no" , a high-quality "no" , a "no" that is free of all negativity and so creates no further suffering.

You attract and manifest whatever corresponds to your inner state

Your friend is stuck in a relationship with an abusive partner, and not for the first time. Why? No choice. The mind , conditioned as it is by the past, always seeks to re-create what it knows and is familiar with. Even if is is painful, at least it is familiar. The mind always adheres to the known. The unknown is dangerous because it has no control over it. So your friend being identified with her mind , may be re-creating a pattern learned in the past in which intimacy and abuse are inseparably linked. Alternatively she may be acting out a mind pattern learned in early childhood according to which she is unworthy and deserves to be punished.