Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now

I have been listening to this as I have walked Pretzel and driven to meetings.  It is a book that I am pleased that I have listened to rather than read.  Listening to Eckhart Tolle’s words has made me concentrate on them and bring my whole self to them.  There are so many messages to reflect upon.   It is a book that I will need to keep coming back to.

I think that anyone who has been reading this blog will see that I am working to keep in the now, in the present; trying to prevent my thoughts from disappearing into the past or looking forward into an imagined future.  I am becoming more aware of my thoughts and where they are taking me.  Because of this awareness, I am sometimes able to step back from my thoughts and focus more on where I am now, in this minute.  There is only now.  Everything happens in the now.  Concentrating / obsessing on the past or future, even wishing life was different is a fruitless endeavour which just brings pain and suffering.

Tolle talks about the Pain Body.  The Pain Body is self-created and, once in existence, it wants to survive by any means possible.   It will survive by feeding on any negative emotions, situation.  It wants to cause or experience pain.   It will pretend to be me, take me over, lead me to repeating patterns that will cause me more pain so that it is fed and very much alive within me.  Since listening to Tolle talking about the Pain Body, I have reflected on mine.  I have seen that I have, unconsciously, been feeding it in the way that I have lived and the choices I have made.  Even looking back at the past, wishing it had been different feeds the pain making it deeper.  Fantasising about a fantastically happy future or worrying also feeds the pain.   “The moment you observe the pain body, feel its energy within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken”.

In previous posts, I have been reflecting on the fact that my life situation has not changed but my perception of it has.  Well – my life situation has changed!  In many ways it has got worse!  More suffering for myself and those who I love.  Tolle makes a distinction between one’s life and one’s life situation.  Things happen in life.  The fact of impermanence means that even happy situations will not last.  There will always be pain; pleasure will always be temporary.   To find peace, I need to work towards not being dependent upon life being a certain way.   I am trying to step back from situations, from my thoughts about them.  As a result I feel much more positive, more at peace with what is and where I am.

I have also been reflecting on Tolle’s thoughts on romantic love.  To the ego, loving and wanting are the same.  True love has no wanting in it, no desire to possess or wanting someone to change.  The ego uses the other person to cover up feelings of discontentment.  In Buddhism, attachment is the root of suffering.  We crave what we cannot have, or what cannot last.  Attachment is the usual basis of romantic relationships.  We often attach our personal happiness to one person.  It is difficult, as you may appreciate, to comment too much on my thinking and learning about attachment in romantic relationships as others are involved.  However, I can say that recent experience has shown me that my relationships now (both romantic and others) have much less to do with attachment than in the past.  Please – do not for a minute think that I am 100% there!  Obviously not.  But now, those people I love and care for (romantically or otherwise,  I don’t want to change.  I don’t need to possess them.  I want them to be well and happy, at peace.  I can support them and love them by making sure that they know that I am here for them.

Tolle makes a distinction between clock time and psychological time.  Clock time is often required so that we can actually live in this world.   Time, however, is a construct.  We only ever live in the now.  There is never a time when life is not lived in the now.   But we become trapped into bringing the past and the future into the present so that we step out of the present.  Negativity is caused by psychological time and denial of the present moment.  Fear, anxiety, etc are caused by thinking of the future; Sadness, regret, guilt arises from devotion to the past.  It seems impossible to me at the moment to live totally in the present.  I can feel my mind forcing its way into my consciousness and thinking about what has been or what could be.   But – I have got better at accepting the present, accepting what is.  Not longing for or fearing the future.  Not looking back with sadness or nostalgia.  I am learning – very slowly – to feel gratitude for what is happening right now; to be aware of my emotions and thoughts right now.   

“If you make a mistake in the past and learn from it now, you are using clock time.  On the other hand, if you dwell on it mentally, and self-criticism, remorse or guilt come up, then you are making the mistake into “me” and “mine”: You make it part of your sense of self, and it has become psychological time, which is always linked to a false sense of identity“