The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 1

the amazing and beneficial effects of inner body awareness, the sense of freedom that comes from letting go of self-identification with one’s personal history and life-situation, and a newfound inner peace that arises as one learns to relinquish mental/emotional resistance to the “suchness” of the present moment.156

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 2

I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.200

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 3

“I want what you have. Can you give it to me, or show me how to get it?” And I would say: “You have it already. You just can’t feel it because your mind is making too much noise.”213

Answer 3

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 4

Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.279

Answer 4

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 5

your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.283

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 6

Buddha’s simple definition of enlightenment as “the end of suffering.”287

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 7

Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.293

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 8

When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally.296

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 9

Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being. It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence,311

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 10

This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.317

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 11

“I think, therefore I am.” He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking.320

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 12

Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance.332

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 13

can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the “off” button? You mean stop thinking altogether? No, I can’t, except maybe for a moment or two. Then the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don’t even know that you are its slave.340

Answer 13

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 14

You have probably come across “mad” people in the street incessantly talking or muttering to themselves. Well, that’s not much different from what you and all other “normal” people do, except that you don’t do it out loud.353

Answer 14

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 15

It is not uncommon for the voice to be a person’s own worst enemy. Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy. It is the cause of untold misery and unhappiness, as well as of disease.360

Answer 15

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 16

Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns,363

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Question 17

So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence — your deeper self — behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.370

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 18

Instead of “watching the thinker,” you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment.387

Answer 18

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 19

you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.389

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 20

In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself.390

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 21

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind.397

Answer 21

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 22

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 percent 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.402

Answer 22

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Question 23

The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it here it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind.411

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 24

To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional.413

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 25

The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.419

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 26

Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.424

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 27

Enlightenment means rising above thought,426

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 28

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.433

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 29

Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’s reaction to your mind446

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 30

If you really want to know your mind, the body will always give you a truthful reflection, so look at the emotion, or rather feel it in your body.463

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 31

So observing our emotions is as important as observing our thoughts? Yes. Make it a habit to ask yourself: What’s going on inside me at this moment?472

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 32

all emotions are modifications of one primordial, undifferentiated emotion483

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 33

“Fear” comes close, but apart from a continuous sense of threat, it also includes a deep sense of abandonment and incompleteness.485

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 34

Glimpses of love and joy or brief moments of deep peace are possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought.494

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 35

Emotion literally means “disturbance.” The word comes from the Latin emovere, meaning “to disturb.”500

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Question 36

All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings,517

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 37

There are two levels to your pain: the pain that you create now, and the pain from the past that still lives on in your mind and body.533

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 38

The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created539

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 39

The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it.542

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 40

The question “What time is it?” or “What’s the date today?” — if anybody were there to ask it — would be quite meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a question. “What time?” they would ask. “Well, of course, it’s now. The time is now. What else is there?”548

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 41

The mind, to ensure that it remains in control, seeks continuously to cover up the present moment with past and future,552

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 42

How to stop creating time? Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.559

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 43

The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it.589

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 44

Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.593

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 45

will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others.596

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 46

the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you.606

Answer 46

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 47

Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself.611

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 48

summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it — don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge or analyze. Don’t make an identity 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 observes,” the silent watcher. This is the power of the Now, the power of your own conscious presence.633

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 49

you would rather be in pain — be the pain-body — than take a leap into the unknown and risk losing the familiar unhappy self.648

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 50

Observe the attachment to your pain. Be very alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you derive from being unhappy.650

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 51

Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are right or wrong makes no difference to your sense of self at all, so the forcefully compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of violence, will no longer be there. You can state clearly and firmly how you feel or what you think, but there will be no aggressiveness or defensiveness about it. Your sense of self is then derived from a deeper and truer place within yourself, not from the mind.680

Answer 51

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 52

The number of people who have gone beyond mind is as yet extremely small, so you can assume that virtually everyone you meet or know lives in a state of fear. Only the intensity of it varies.688

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 53

As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled.699

Answer 53

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 54

Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly.701

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 55

The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.707

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 56

The problems of the mind cannot be solved on the level of the mind.712

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 57

the basic mechanics of the unconscious state: identification with the mind, which creates a false self, the ego, as a substitute for your true self rooted in Being.715

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 58

The ego’s needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatened and so lives in a state of fear and want.717

Answer 58

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 59

When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is not dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are. It then becomes the egoic mind and takes over your whole life.724

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 60

End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable. Remove time from the mind and it stops — unless you choose to use it.728

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 61

The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.731

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 62

Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.748

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 63

What you think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a former Now. When you remember the past, you reactivate a memory trace — and you do so now. The future is an imagined Now, a projection of the mind.749

Answer 63

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 64

“What, at this moment, is lacking?” A powerful question that does not require an answer on the level of the mind. It is designed to take your attention deeply into the Now. A similar question in the Zen tradition is this: “If not now, when?”775

Answer 64

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 65

Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century spiritual teacher, summed it all up beautifully: “Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time.”780

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 66

Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it.804

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 67

Identification with the mind gives it more energy; observation of the mind withdraws energy from it. Identification with the mind creates more time; observation of the mind opens up the dimension of the timeless.815

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 68

The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time. In other words, they continue to use clock time but are free of psychological time.829

Answer 68

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 69

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.835

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 70

the present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not “this moment.”845

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 71

Usually, the future is a replica of the past. Superficial changes are possible, but real transformation is rare and depends upon whether you can become present enough to dissolve the past by accessing the power of the Now.867

Answer 71

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 72

Most people find it difficult to believe that a state of consciousness totally free of all negativity is possible. And yet this is the liberated state to which all spiritual teachings point. It is the promise of salvation, not in an illusory future but right here and now.879

Answer 72

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 73

You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.894

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 74

Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.902

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 75

this is not about solving your problems. It’s about realizing that there are no problems. Only situations — to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as part of the “isness” of the present moment until they change or can be dealt with. Problems are mind-made and need time to survive. They cannot survive in the actuality of the Now.919

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 76

When you create a problem, you create pain.930

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 77

As there are no problems in the Now, there is no fear either.943

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 78

you cannot give your full attention to something and at the same time resist it.965

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 79

As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love965

Answer 79

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 80

nonattachment to the fruit of your action is called Karma Yoga.970

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 81

When every cell of your body is so present that it feels vibrant with life, and when you can feel that life every moment as the joy of Being, then it can be said that you are free of time.995

Answer 81

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 82

to know that you are not present is a great success: That knowing is presence —1005

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 83

The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious.1032

Answer 83

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 84

Native American chief who pointed out to him that in his perception most white people have tense faces, staring eyes, and a cruel demeanor. He said: “They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something. They are always uneasy and restless. We don’t know what they want. We think they are mad.”1049

Answer 84

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 85

Jesus asked his disciples. “Can anxious thought add a single day to your life?”1054

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 86

Buddha taught that the root of suffering is to be found in our constant wanting and craving.1055

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 87

Anything unconscious dissolves when you shine the light of consciousness on it.1063

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 88

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 as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.1066

Answer 88

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 89

Primary reality is within, secondary reality without.1068

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 90

The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution:1084

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 91

any negative inner state is contagious: Unhappiness spreads more easily than a physical disease.1089

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 92

How can we drop negativity, as you suggest? By dropping it.1093

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 93

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.1133

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 94

If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.1138

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 95

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.1139

Answer 95

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 96

Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there,” or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.1155

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 97

Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being.1166

Answer 97

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 98

You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future — nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after.1173

Answer 98

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 99

Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present.1182

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 100

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. Your life situation consists of your circumstances and your experiences. 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.1186

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 101

Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.1199

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 102

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.”1200

Answer 102

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 103

When you are on a journey, it is certainly helpful to know where you are going or at least the general direction in which you are moving, but don’t forget: The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.1209

Answer 103

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 104

Your life’s journey has an outer purpose and an inner purpose. The outer purpose is to arrive at your goal or destination,1211

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 105

the journey’s inner purpose, which has nothing to do with where you are going or what you are doing, but everything to do with how.1214

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 106

It is also possible to fail completely in your outer purpose and at the same time totally succeed in your inner purpose. Or the other way around, which is actually more common:1224

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 107

The sooner you realize that your outer purpose cannot give you lasting fulfillment, the better.1227

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 108

Only the present can free you of the past.1240

Answer 108

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 109

You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You find yourself by coming into the present.1247

Answer 109

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 110

Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought.1260

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 111

I had to wait for quite a long time before a thought came in. Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought.1264

Answer 111

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 112

Zen masters use the word satori to describe a flash of insight, a moment of no-mind and total presence.1294

Answer 112

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 113

When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of itself — that’s presence.1321

Answer 113

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 114

ancient seers of India asked themselves. They saw the world as lila, a kind of divine game that God is playing.1338

Answer 114

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 115

“The teacher and the taught together create the teaching.”1381

Answer 115

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 116

You can substitute “Christ” for presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-essence or the Self,1391

Answer 116

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 117

Thus, the man Jesus became Christ, a vehicle for pure consciousness. And what is God’s self-definition in the Bible? Did God say, “I have always been, and I always will be?” Of course not. That would have given reality to past and future. God said: “I AM THAT I AM.” No time here, just presence.1400

Answer 117

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 118

The “second coming” of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman.1403

Answer 118

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 119

I am still not quite sure if I fully understand what you mean by Being. “Water? What do you mean by that? I don’t understand it.” This is what a fish would say if it had a human mind. Please stop trying to understand Being.1427

Answer 119

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 120

If, for whatever reason, you disliked the word honey, that might prevent you from ever tasting it. If you had a strong aversion to the word God, which is a negative form of attachment, you may be denying not just the word but also the reality to which it points.1447

Answer 120

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 121

if a word doesn’t work for you anymore, then drop it and replace it with one that does work. If you don’t like the word sin, then call it unconsciousness or insanity.1450

Answer 121

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 122

To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey.1478

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 123

in the end you will always have to return to the body, where the essential work of transformation takes place.1517

Answer 123

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 124

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.1537

Answer 124

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 125

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 One Life — birthless, deathless, eternally present. Through the inner body, you are forever one with God.1539

Answer 125

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 126

The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your inner body — to feel it at all times. This will rapidly deepen and transform your life.1543

Answer 126

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 127

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.1571

Answer 127

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 128

In a fully functional organism, an emotion has a very short life span. It is like a momentary ripple or wave on the surface of your Being.1584

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 129

Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so to let go of grief.1592

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 130

Jesus said: “Before you enter the temple, forgive.”1597

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 131

Feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking.1613

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 132

Is there any scientific evidence for this? Try it out and you will be the evidence.1627

Answer 132

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 133

last thing at night before falling asleep and first thing in the morning before getting up, “flood” your body with consciousness. Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest, head, and so on. Feel the life energy inside those parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for fifteen seconds or so. Then let your attention run through the body like a wave a few times, from feet to head and back again.1643

Answer 133

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 134

In any thought activity, make it a habit to go back and forth every few minutes or so between thinking and an inner kind of listening, an inner stillness.1663

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 135

When listening to another person, don’t just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body.1667

Answer 135

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 136

Most human relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each other, not of human beings communicating, being in communion.1673

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The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 137

open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few minutes in a meditative way — that is, without labeling them mentally — and continue to feel the inner body as you do so.1692

Answer 137

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 138

Chi is the inner energy field of your body.1701

Answer 138

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 139

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.1712

Answer 139

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 140

You cannot be in your body without being intensely present in the Now.1734

Answer 140

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 141

Jesus, speaking entirely from his essence or Christ identity, says in the Gospel of Thomas: “Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there.”1739

Answer 141

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 142

Another portal into the Unmanifested is created through the cessation of thinking. This can start with a very simple thing, such as taking one conscious breath or looking, in a state of intense alertness, at a flower, so that there is no mental commentary running at the same time.1740

Answer 142

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 143

There are many ways to create a gap in the incessant stream of thought. This is what meditation is all about.1742

Answer 143

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 144

Your task is not to search for love but to find a portal through which love can enter.1758

Answer 144

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 145

Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. A portal is opening up.1764

Answer 145

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 146

Physicists tell us that the solidity of matter is an illusion. Even seemingly solid matter, including your physical body, is nearly 100 percent empty space — so vast are the distances between the atoms compared to their size. What is more, even inside every atom there is mostly empty space.1773

Answer 146

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 147

Since space is “nothing,” we can say that what is not there is more important than what is there. So become aware of the space that is all around you. Don’t think about it. Feel it, as it were. Pay attention to “nothing.”1795

Answer 147

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 148

if you withdraw attention from things — objects in space — you automatically withdraw attention from your mind objects as well. In other words: You cannot think and be aware of space — or of silence, for that matter.1800

Answer 148

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 149

By becoming aware of the empty space around you, you simultaneously become aware of the space of no-mind, of pure consciousness: the Unmanifested.1801

Answer 149

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 150

You also know that every form is destined to dissolve again and that ultimately nothing out here matters all that much. You have “overcome the world,” in the words of Jesus, or, as the Buddha put it, you have “crossed over to the other shore.”1811

Answer 150

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 151

Approaching death and death itself, the dissolution of the physical form, is always a great opportunity for spiritual realization.1857

Answer 151

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 152

you are waiting for an event in time to save you. Is this not the core error that we have been talking about? Salvation is not elsewhere in place or time. It is here and now.1868

Answer 152

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 153

True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness. It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself.1877

Answer 153

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 154

You “get” there by realizing that you are there already. You find God the moment you realize that you don’t need to seek God.1887

Answer 154

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 155

Love as a continuous state is as yet very rare — as rare as conscious human beings.1907

Answer 155

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 156

As long as you are identified with the mind, you have an externally derived sense of self. That is to say, you get your sense of who you are from things that ultimately have nothing to do with who you are: your social role, possessions, external appearance, successes and1934

Answer 156

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 157

Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.1957

Answer 157

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 158

Avoidance of relationships in an attempt to avoid pain is not the answer either.1965

Answer 158

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 159

First you stop judging yourself; then you stop judging your partner. 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. That immediately takes you beyond ego.1978

Answer 159

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 160

True communication is communion — the realization of oneness, which is love.1999

Answer 160

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 161

every crisis represents not only danger but also opportunity.2014

Answer 161

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 162

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.2026

Answer 162

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 163

If you react at all to your partner’s unconsciousness, you become unconscious yourself.2033

Answer 163

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 164

When your partner behaves unconsciously, relinquish all judgment. Judgment is either to confuse someone’s unconscious behavior with who they are or to project your own unconsciousness onto another person and mistake that for who they are.2048

Answer 164

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 165

To relinquish judgment does not mean that you do not recognize dysfunction and unconsciousness when you see it. It means “being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction” and the judge.2050

Answer 165

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 166

Learn to give expression to what you feel without blaming. Learn to listen to your partner in an open, nondefensive way. Give your partner space for expressing himself or herself. Be present.2057

Answer 166

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 167

If your partner is still identified with the mind and the pain-body while you are already free, this will represent a major challenge — not to you but to your partner. It is not easy to live with an enlightened person, or rather it is so easy that the ego finds it extremely threatening. Remember that the ego needs problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the sense of separateness on which its identity depends.2064

Answer 167

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 168

it is easier for a woman to feel and be in her body, so she is naturally closer to Being and potentially closer to enlightenment than a man.2104

Answer 168

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 169

the Tao, which could be translated as Being, is described as “infinite, eternally present, the mother of the universe.”2108

Answer 169

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 170

The mind runs our civilization, whereas Being is in charge of all life on our planet and beyond.2123

Answer 170

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 171

the major obstacle for men tends to be the thinking mind, and the major obstacle for women the pain-body,2127

Answer 171

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 172

Anyone with a strong pain-body and not enough consciousness to disidentify from it will not only continuously or periodically be forced to relive their emotional pain but may also easily become either the perpetrator or the victim of violence, depending on whether their pain-body is predominantly active or passive.2134

Answer 172

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 173

if you are trapped in a nightmare you will probably be more strongly motivated to awaken than someone who is just caught in the ups and downs of an ordinary dream.2137

Answer 173

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 174

A victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful than the present,2162

Answer 174

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 175

Some women who are already conscious enough to have relinquished their victim identity on the personal level are still holding on to a collective victim identity: “what men did to women.” They are right — and they are also wrong. They are right inasmuch as the collective female pain-body is in large part due to male violence inflicted on women and repression of the female principle throughout the planet over millennia. They are wrong if they derive a sense of self from this fact and thereby keep themselves imprisoned in a collective victim identity.2168

Answer 175

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 176

Being an outsider to some extent, someone who does not “fit in” with others or is rejected by them for whatever reason, makes life difficult, but it also places you at an advantage as far as enlightenment is concerned. It takes you out of unconsciousness almost by force.2223

Answer 176

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 177

If you cannot be at ease with yourself when you are alone, you will seek a relationship to cover up your unease.2230

Answer 177

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 178

When you are enlightened, there is one relationship that you no longer have: the relationship with yourself. Once you have given that up, all your other relationships will be love relationships.2239

Answer 178

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 179

Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time.2250

Answer 179

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 180

Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every moment — allow it to be as it is — then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.2260

Answer 180

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 181

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.2286

Answer 181

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 182

Ego is the unobserved mind that runs your life when you are not present as the witnessing consciousness, the watcher.2288

Answer 182

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 183

The basic ego patterns are designed to combat its own deep-seated fear and sense of lack.2291

Answer 183

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 184

The down cycle is absolutely essential for spiritual realization. You must have failed deeply on some level or experienced some deep loss or pain to be drawn to the spiritual dimension. Or perhaps your very success became empty and meaningless and so turned out to be failure.2326

Answer 184

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 185

Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure.2328

Answer 185

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 186

The whole advertising industry and consumer society would collapse if people became enlightened and no longer sought to find their identity through things. The more you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you.2365

Answer 186

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 187

A Buddhist monk once told me: “All I have learned in the twenty years that I have been a monk I can sum up in one sentence: All that arises passes away. This I know.”2375

Answer 187

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 188

I have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace.2376

Answer 188

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 189

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness.2378

Answer 189

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 190

Even if everything were to collapse and crumble all around you, you would still feel a deep inner core of peace. You may not be happy, but you will be at peace.2385

Answer 190

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 191

All inner resistance is experienced as negativity in one form or another. All negativity is resistance.2387

Answer 191

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 192

No other life-form on the planet knows negativity, only humans,2400

Answer 192

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 193

Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being.2404

Answer 193

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 194

I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.2407

Answer 194

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 195

Whenever you notice that some form of negativity has arisen within you, look on it not as a failure, but as a helpful signal that is telling you: “Wake up. Get out of your mind. Be present.”2424

Answer 195

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 196

Instead of having a wall of resistance inside you that gets constantly and painfully hit by things that “should not be happening,” let everything pass through you.2445

Answer 196

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 197

The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace.2457

Answer 197

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 198

When you accept what is, every piece of meat — every moment — is the best. That is enlightenment.2466

Answer 198

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 199

Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures.2482

Answer 199

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 200

One of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called: Die before you die. Go into it deeply.2488

Answer 200

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 201

Our collective human world is largely created through the level of consciousness we call mind. Even within the collective human world there are vast differences, many different “sub-worlds,” depending on the perceivers or creators of their respective worlds.2527

Answer 201

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 202

the dual nature of true compassion, which is awareness of a common bond of shared mortality and immortality. 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 that you emanate,2551

Answer 202

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 203

who you are is always a more vital teaching and a more powerful transformer of the world than what you say, and more essential even than what you do.2560

Answer 203

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 204

When a hungry person asks you for bread and you have some, you will give it. But as you give the bread, even though your interaction may only be very brief, what really matters is this moment of shared Being, of which the bread is only a symbol. A deep healing takes place within it. In that moment, there is no giver, no receiver.2563

Answer 204

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 205

Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you cannot fight unconsciousness. If you try to do so, the polar opposites will become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. You will become identified with one of the polarities, you will create an “enemy,” and so be drawn into unconsciousness yourself.2575

Answer 205

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 206

True surrender, however, is something entirely different. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean to cease making plans or initiating positive action.2589

Answer 206

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 207

Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.2591

Answer 207

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 208

to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation.2592

Answer 208

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 209

Resistance is the mind.2598

Answer 209

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 210

For example, if you were stuck in the mud somewhere, you wouldn’t say: “Okay, I resign myself to being stuck in the mud.” Resignation is not surrender. You don’t need to accept an undesirable or unpleasant life situation. Nor do you need to deceive yourself and say that there is nothing wrong with being stuck in the mud. No. You recognize fully that you want to get out of it. You then narrow your attention down to the present moment without mentally labeling it in any way. This means that there is no judgment of the Now. Therefore, there is no resistance, no emotional negativity. You accept the “isness” of this moment. Then you take action and do all that you can to get out of the mud. Such action I call positive action. It is far more effective than negative action, which arises out of anger, despair, or frustration.2600

Answer 210

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 211

Surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change, or achieving goals. But in the surrendered state a totally different energy, a different quality, flows into your doing.2623

Answer 211

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 212

In the state of surrender, you see very clearly what needs to be done, and you take action, doing one thing at a time and focusing on one thing at a time.2634

Answer 212

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 213

You cannot be conscious and unhappy, conscious and in negativity. Negativity, unhappiness, or suffering in whatever form means that there is resistance, and resistance is always unconscious.2657

Answer 213

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 214

You keep your unhappiness alive by giving it time. That is its lifeblood. Remove time through intense present-moment awareness and it dies.2663

Answer 214

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 215

Those who run on mind energy, which is still the vast majority of the Earth’s population, remain unaware of the existence of spiritual energy.2672

Answer 215

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 216

It is true that only an unconscious person will try to use or manipulate others, but it is equally true that only an unconscious person can be used and manipulated.2682

Answer 216

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 217

surrender doesn’t mean that you allow yourself to be used by unconscious people. Not at all. 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 inner 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.2684

Answer 217

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 218

When you become involved in an argument or some conflict situation, perhaps with a partner or someone close to you, start by observing how defensive you become2702

Answer 218

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 219

Nonresistance doesn’t necessarily mean doing nothing. All it means is that any “doing” becomes nonreactive.2715

Answer 219

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 220

Don’t resist the opponent’s force. Yield to overcome.2716

Answer 220

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 221

In Taoism, there is a term called wu wei, which is usually translated as “actionless activity” or “sitting quietly doing nothing.”2718

Answer 221

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 222

The ego believes that in your resistance lies your strength, whereas in truth resistance cuts you off from Being, the only place of true power.2723

Answer 222

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 223

As there are no problems in the Now, there is no illness either. The belief in a label that someone attaches to your condition keeps the condition in place, empowers it, and makes a seemingly solid reality out of a temporary imbalance.2738

Answer 223

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 224

Surrender does not transform what is, at least not directly. Surrender transforms you. When you are transformed, your whole world is transformed, because the world is only a reflection.2744

Answer 224

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 225

Are you seriously ill and feeling angry now about what I have just said? Then that is a clear sign that the illness has become part of your sense of self and that you are now protecting your identity — as well as protecting the illness. The condition that is labeled “illness” has nothing to do with who you truly are.2754

Answer 225

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 226

So whenever any kind of disaster strikes, or something goes seriously “wrong” — illness, disability, loss of home or fortune or of a socially defined identity, breakup of a close relationship, death or suffering of a loved one, or your own impending death — know that there is another side to it, that you are just one step away from something incredible:2770

Answer 226

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 227

If you cannot accept what is outside, then accept what is inside. If you cannot accept the external condition, accept the internal condition.2791

Answer 227

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 228

When there is no way out, there is still always a way through.2803

Answer 228

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 229

Full attention is full acceptance, is surrender.2812

Answer 229

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 230

God is Being itself, not a being. There can be no subject-object relationship here, no duality, no you and God. God-realization is the most natural thing there is.2832

Answer 230

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 231

Enlightenment consciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life. It means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is. You then don’t need pain anymore.2847

Answer 231

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 232

It is misleading to say that somebody “chose” a dysfunctional relationship or any other negative situation in his or her life. Choice implies consciousness — a high degree of consciousness. Without it, you have no choice.2856

Answer 232

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 233

The mind, conditioned as it is by the past, always seeks to re-create what it knows and is familiar with. Even if it is painful, at least it is familiar.2864

Answer 233

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 234

Nobody chooses dysfunction, conflict, pain. Nobody chooses insanity. They happen because there is not enough presence in you to dissolve the past, not enough light to dispel the darkness. You are not fully here.2876

Answer 234

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 235

issue with their parents, if you still harbor resentment about something they did or did not do, then you still believe that they had a choice — that they could have acted differently. It always looks as if people had a choice, but that is an illusion. As long as your mind with its conditioned patterns runs your life, as long as you are your mind, what choice do you have? None. You are not even there.2879

Answer 235

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 236

If you are run by your mind, although you have no choice you will still suffer the consequences of your unconsciousness, and you will create further suffering.2885

Answer 236

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Question 237

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.2893

Answer 237

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle