Power Of Now

Question 1

What is Enlightment?

Answer 1

The story of a beggar who sits on a box. A stranger tells him to look inside the box, by surprise he finds a fortune.

Eckhart is the stranger who has nothing to give you, rather he tells you to like inside. These people look outside for scrapes of pleasure, fullfilment, validation, security or love, while they have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the external world can offer.

Enlightment is simply the natural state of felt oneness with being

Question 2

You use the word being, what does it mean?

Answer 2

Being is the eternal, ever-present one life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.

It is accessible to everyone as its your own deepest self, your true nature. When you are present, when your attention if fully and intensily in the Now, being can be felt.

However, don’t try to understand it, as the mind cannot fully grasp it. Being can be felt, but never fully understood. To gain awarness of being and to stay in that state of feeling realization is enlightenment

Question 3

What is the greatest obstacle to experiencing this reality? (Enlightenment)

Answer 3

Identification with your mind, which causes thoughts to become compulsive. Not be able to stop thinking is bad, but we don’t realize this as almost everybody is suffering from it. In relation to this error, descartes made the same basic error: I think therefore I am.

Where the compulsive thinker lives in a complex world of problems and conflict, whereas the enlighten person lives in a state of wholeness of being at one and therefore at peace.

Instead of chosing to use the brain as powerful instrument, it is using us. We are unconsiously indentified with the thinker, that we don’t even know we are the slave. The start of freedom is paying attention of the thinker and observe it, this creates a high level of consciousness. You begin to awaken

Question 4

What do you mean by watching the thinker (power of now)?

Answer 4

All people hear a voice in their head, which would be deemed insanity if it was not only in our heads but also out loud. This voice is based on the past and our mind-set which can be a totally distored view.

By listening and observing the voice, not judging, you will soon realise you own precence is not the thought itself. The thought quickly loses power, which is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.

When the thought dissappears a gap of ‘no-mind’ will occur, which will feal like stilness and peace: the joy of being. Another way is to simply put 100% of your focus on basic tasks like breathing (meditation)

Question 5

What is ego? (Power of now)

Answer 5

Is the false self created uncounscious indentifcation with the mind. This ego is solely based on past or future ideas and never on the present.

Question 6

What about emotions? (Power of now)

Answer 6

Emotions are the body’s reaction to the mind. The more you are indentified with thinking, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be.

When you think that there is a conflict between the mind and the emotion, listen to emotion, as the thought will most likely be the lie

An emotion wants to take you over and it usually succeeds, unless there is enough presence. When there is no presence, the emotion often becomes ‘you’ and a vicious cycle will build up between both feeding eachother.
The mind is not able to fix emotions like fear, the only solution is to remove your self indentifcation with the mind.

Glimpes of joy and love are for most people brief moments. Love, joy and peace are deep states of being and can only really be felt when you are freed from the mind dominance.

Question 7

Create no more pain in the present (power of now)

Answer 7

The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self created as the mind wants to be in control based on the past and the future. In other words, the mind always seeks to deny the Now and escape from it.

How to stop creating time? Realize deeply that the primary focus of your life is the Now. Say yes to the present moment

Question 8

How can we break the pain-body, the accumulated pain that occupies your body and mind? (Power of now)

Answer 8

Focus attention on the inside know that there is the pain-body. Accept it and don’t think about it, dont let the feeling turn into thinking. Dont judge or analyze, dont make an indentity for yourself out of it. Stay present and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of “the one who observers” also know as the silent watcher.

Question 9

What is the origin of fear?

Answer 9

Isn’t fear necessary for us people? No. There is a difference between instinctive fear for fire and the psychological condition of fear created by the mind. This kind is always in always something that MIGHT happen in the future. You can always cope with the present moment, not with the future.

When you are indentified with the mind, the ego will run your life under constant threat, leading to anxiety and fear.

Question 10

What is ment with “don’t seek your self in the mind”

Answer 10

The problem of the mind cannot be solved on the level of the mind. Once you understand the basic dysfunction, there is not really much to it. The mind itself is not dysfunctional, rather its a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you indentify “you” as being your mind, the ego will take over your whole life

Question 11

What is ment with “nothing exists outside the now” (power of now)

Answer 11

The memories are traces of the past where the future is imagined. Both have no reality on their own; as the moon has no light on its own, but it can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the enlighted now.

Question 12

What is ment with letting go of the psychological time and only use clock time? (Power of now)

Answer 12

The enlightend person main focus is always on the now, but they are still aware of the time: they continue to learn from the past and plan ahead but do not dweil on them for longer times

Question 13

What is the meaning of clock time? (Power of now)

Answer 13

Using time in practical aspects of life is called clock time, where a person directly returns to the present-moment when practical matters have been dealt with. The opposite is psychological time, which is identification with the past and the continuous compulsive projection in the future.

When a person is focused on a goal but stays present he is using clock time, when the goal focus however becomes to strong, it can decline the present focus. The journey is no longer an adventure and just an obsession to obtain the goal or make it.

Question 14

What is ment with the insanity of psychological time, important lesson (power of now

Answer 14

Are you always focused on becoming, achieving or attaining something in the future? The psychological time is taken over your life and the life loses its vibrancy, freshness and sense of wonder. The mind creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present.

Question 15

How would you describe the process of becoming enlightend? Power of now

Answer 15

When you have had your first few glimpses of the timeless state of consciousness, you begin to move back and forth between the dimensions of time and presence. First you become aware of just how rarely your attention is truly in
the Now. But to know that you are not present is a great success: That knowing is presence - even if initially it only lasts for a couple of seconds of clock time before it is lost again. Then, with increasing frequency, you choose to have the focus of your consciousness in the present moment rather than in the past or
future, and whenever you realize that you had lost the Now, you are able to
stay in it not just for a couple of seconds, but for longer periods as perceived from the external perspective of clock time. So before you are firmly established in the state of presence, which is to say before you are fully conscious, you shift back and forth for a while between consciousness and unconsciousness, between the state of presence and the state of mind identification. You lose 1
the Now, and you return to it, again and again. Eventually, presence becomes your predominant state.

Question 16

How to remove the ordinary unconsciousness in daily life? (Power of now)

Answer 16

Some people would always rather be somewhere else. Their “here” is never
good enough. Through self observation, find out if that is the case in your life. Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situa-
tion, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose
one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

Question 17

How do you view people that are always waiting for things to get better? Power of now

Answer 17

So give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting… snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything. So next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting,”
you can reply, “That’s all right, I wasn’t waiting. I was just standing here enjoying myself - in joy in my self.”

Question 18

How should we use the past? Power of now

Answer 18

So deal with the past on the level of the present. The more attention you give to the past, the more you energize it, and the more likely you are to make a “self” out of it. Don’t misunderstand: Attention is essential, but not to the past as past. Give attention to the present; give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present. There’s the past in you. If
you can be present enough to watch all those things, not critically or analytically but nonjudg- mentally, then you are dealing with the past and
dissolving it through the power of your presence.
You cannot find yourself by going into the past.
You find yourself by coming into the present

Question 19

Why do a lot of religions see the body as something wrong and seek it outside enlightment outside it? (Power of now)?

Answer 19

Transformation is through the body, not away from it. This is why no true master has ever advocated fighting or leaving the body, although their mind-based followers often have. What you perceive as a dense physical structure
called the body, which is subject to disease, old age, and death, is not ultimately real - is not you. It is a misperception of your essential reality that is beyond birth and death, and is due to the limitations of your mind, which, having lost touch with Being, creates the body as evidence of its illusory belief in separation and to justify its state of fear. But do not turn away from the body, for within that symbol of impermanence, limitation, and death that you perceive as the illusory creation of your mind is concealed the splendor of your essential and immortal reality. Do not turn your attention elsewhere in your search for the Truth, for it is nowhere else to be found but within your body. Do not fight against the body, for in doing so you are fighting against your own reality. You are your 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. Through the inner body, you are inseparably connected to this unmanifested 90 One Life-birthless, deathless, eternally present. Through the inner body, you are forever one with God.

Question 20

How to deal with challenges as they arise? Power of now

Answer 20

So when such challenges come, as they always
do, make it a habit to go within at once and focus
as much as you can on the inner energy field of
your body. This need not take long, just a few
seconds. But you need to do it the moment that
the challenge presents itself. Any delay will allow
a conditioned mental-emotional reaction to arise
and take you over. When you focus within and
feel the inner body, you immediately become still
and present as you are withdrawing consciousness from the mind. If a response is
required in that situation, it will come up from
this deeper level. Just as the sun is infinitely
brighter than a candle flame, there is infinitely
more intelligence in Being than in your mind.
As long as you are in conscious contact with your
inner body, you are like a tree that is deeply
rooted in the earth, or a building with a deep and
solid foundation. The latter analogy is used by
Jesus in the generally misunderstood parable of
the two men who build a house. One man builds
it on the sand, without a foundation, and when
the storms and floods come, the house is swept
away. The other man digs deep until he reaches
the rock, then builds his house, which is not
swept away by the floods.

Question 21

How do we practice the unmanifasted during daily life activitites? Power of now

Answer 21

Now let your spiritual practice be this: As you go about your life, don’t give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and to your mind.
Keep some within. I have spoken about this already. Feel the inner body even when engaged in everyday activities, especially when engaged in relationships or when you are relating with nature. Feel the stillness deep inside it. Keep the portal open. It is quite possible to be conscious 99
of the Unmanifested throughout your life. You feel it as a deep sense of peace somewhere in the background, a stillness that never leaves you, no
matter what happens out here. You become a bridge between the Unmanifested and the manifested, between God and the world. This is
the state of connectedness with the Source that we call enlightenment.

Question 22

What are the portals to enter the manifested? Power of now

Answer 22

1. Being in the now
2. Cessation of thinking
3. Surrender
4. Pay attention to silence

Question 23

What is love and how does it work in a relationship? Power of the now

Answer 23

Love is to feel the pressence of the eternal one life underneath all the forms of life deep within yourself and within all other creatures.

The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your patner as she is, without needing to change or judge them in anyway.

Question 24

Is it possible to only attract positive conditions ? Power of Now

Answer 24

Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative? Do you have the total picture? There have been many people for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form
turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and superficial
ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility, and compassion. It made them more real Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn’t. Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are
always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of
what is which is the only sane way to live there is no “good” or “bad” in your life anymore. There is only a higher good - which includes the bad.” Seen from the perspective of the mind,
however, there is good-bad, like-dislike, love- hate relationship.

Remember that we are not talking about happiness here. For example, when a loved one has just died, or you feel your own death approaching, you cannot be happy. It is impossible. But you can be at peace. There may be
sadness and tears, but provided that you have relinquished resistance, underneath the sadness you will feel a deep serenity, a stillness, a sacred
presence. This is the emanation of Being, this is inner peace, the good that has no opposite.

Bad and good are seen as one only separated by time. A good thing now can be seen as bad over a time, the same can be said over a bad thing now can be considered a good thing in the future.

Question 25

Not really a question, rather a wise lesson on letting the world be and not resist everything (POWER OF THE NOW)

Answer 25

A bhudist monk once said All i have learned can be summarized in one sentence; all that arises passes away. What he means is that he has learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions, thus i have found peace

Question 26

How to apply the power of the now in Daily challenges?

Answer 26

Its important to apply it to everything in life, start with small things when for example a car noice annoys you. Accept it and don’t judge. Apply it to everything and become transparent rather than reactive.

Question 27

What is so important about surrender? Power of now

Answer 27

Surrender, which is not doing nothing or not taking action, is crucial for becoming enlightened. Surrender is accepting the being and using this as bases for taking actions.

For example in an argument don’t let the egoistic mind make the decisions rather become completely focused on the now and feel the energy flowing. Instead of using this enraging energy, drop it and see what happens.

Surrender does not transform what is, it transforms you. When you are transformed, your whole world is transformed, because the world is only a reflection.

Question 28

How do I know I surrendered?

Answer 28

And how do I get to that point of realization?
When you surrender to what is and so become
fully present, the past ceases to have any power.
You do not need it anymore. Presence is the key.
The Now is the key.
How will I know when I have surrendered?
When you no longer need to ask the question.

Question 29

1. Life is just a series of present moments.

Answer 29

If I asked 100 people to name the two most common bad feelings they can think of, 99 of them would probably respond with regret and anxiety.

Wouldn’t you?

The reason we regret and worry about a lot of things lies in the way our minds work. The constant stream of consciousness and thoughts in our head, which plays 24/7 in our heads, is mostly preoccupied with 2 things: the past and the future.

When you wake up 10 minutes too late in the morning, what’s the first thing you think? “Shit, I overslept, I wish I hadn’t hit the snooze button.” closely followed by “Oh no, now I’ll be late for work, I’m sure my boss will yell at me!” – and voilà, you’ve ruined at least the first half of your day.

Tolle says that the only important time is the one we think about the least: the present. The reason only the present matters is that everything happens here. Everything you feel and sense takes place in the present. When you think about it, the past is nothing more than all present moments that have gone by, and the future is just the collection of present moments waiting to arrive.

Therefore, living in any other moment than the present is useless. If your task is to hand in a research paper in 14 days, neither regretting all this time you procrastinated nor worrying about the big workload that’s to come will actually help get you there.

But if you just start solving the first tiny problem and come up with an outline, it’s all downhill from there.

Question 30

Lesson 2: Any pain you feel results from resisting the things you can’t change.

Answer 30

I’m a big fan of stoicism. Part of their philosophy includes the idea that the only pain you really suffer is the one you create yourself.

Tolle would surely agree since he argues that pain is nothing more than the result of you resisting to all the things you cannot change. We think a lot about the future and the past, but can live only in the present and have therefore no means to change many things from the other two that we’re unhappy about.

Then we fill the gap between these by developing a resistance to these things, which is what we experience as pain, whether psychological or physical.

When you’re angry, that anger usually makes you think and act less rational, which more often than not results in a worse situation and thus, more pain – but it’s really all in your head.

Question 31

Lesson 3: You can free yourself from pain by constantly observing your mind and not judging your thoughts

Answer 31

How then, can you get rid of pain? Tolle recommends 2 things:

Constantly ask yourself: “What will my next thought be?”
Stop judging your thoughts and urges.
The first strategy is based on an effect from physics, called the quantum zeno effect. It says that you can freeze any system in its current state by constantly observing it. Asking yourself this question over and over will usually delay your actual next thought, thus giving you enough time to realize how much time you actually spend in autopilot mode. This way you can start interrupting your mind and thus separating from it.

The second method is meant to help you listen to your body and learn to accept the constant, nagging thoughts in your head, about what you should be doing or not doing. The next time you do wake up late for work, just listen to that voice that says “You should’ve done better!”, but don’t act on it. Notice it, see it, accept that it’s there, but don’t give in to its advice.

These two tools will help you 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.