The Power of Now

The Power of Now The Power of Now

by Eckhart Tolle

ISBN: 978 0 7336 1912 0

From the rear cover -

To make the journey into The Power of Now, we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of this extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a signifcantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, 'the eternal ever-present One life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subjetc to birth and death.' Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question-and-answer format to guide us.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers - one that can radically change their lives for the beetter.

Eckhart Tolle is a contemporary spiritual teacher who is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. He writes with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters and imparts a simple yet profound message: there is a way out of suffering and into peace.

INTRODUCTION

THE ORIGIN OF THIS BOOK

I have little use for the past and rarely think about it; however, I would briefly like to tell you how I came to be a spiritual teacher and how this book came into existence.

Until my thirtieth year, I lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety interspersed with bouts of suicidal depression. It feels now as if I were talking about some past lifetime or somebody else's life

One night, not long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such a feeling many times before, but this time it was more intense than it had ever been. The silence of the night, the vague outlines of the furniture in the dark room, the distant noise of a passing train - everything felt so aline, so hostile, and so utterly meaningless that it created in me a deep loathing of the world. The most loathsome thing of all, however, was my own existence. What was the point of continuing to live with this burden of misery? Why carry on with this continuous struggle?I could feel that a deep longing for annihilation, for nonexistence was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live.

"I cannot live with myself any longer." This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. "Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself then there must be two of me" The 'I' and the 'self' that 'I' cannot live with." "Maybe", I thought, "only one of them is real."

I was so stunned by this starnge realisation that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words "resist nothing" as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myslef being sucked into a void. It felt as if the vortex was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenyl, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.

I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never hear a such a sound before. My eyes were still closed and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it woulod be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtians. Wityhout any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognised the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all.

That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world.

For the next five months I lived in a state of uninterruoted deep peace and bliss. After that, it diminshed somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it became my natural state. I could still function in the world although I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.

I knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to me, but I didn't understand it at all. It wasn't until several years later, after I had read spiritual texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that I realised that what everyone was looking for had already happened to me. I understood that the intense pressure of suuffering that night must have forced my consciousness to withdraw from its identification with the unhappy and deeply fearful self, which is ultimately a fiction of the mind. This withdrawal must have been so complete that this false, suffering self immediately collapsed just as if a plug had been pulled out of an inflatable toy. What was left was my true nature as the ever-present I am in its stae prior to identification with form. Later I also learned to go into that inner timeless and deathless realm tht I had originally perceived as a void and remain fully conscious. I dwelt in states of indescribable bliss and sacredness that even the original experience I just described pales in comparison. A time came when, for a while, I was left with nothing on the physiacal plane. I had no relationship, no job, no home, no socially defined identity. I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.

But even the most beautiful experiences come and go. More fundamental, perhaps, than any experience is the undercurrent of peace that has never left me since then. Sometimes it is very strong, almost palpable, and others can feel it too. At other times, it is somewhere in the background, like a distant melody.

Later, people would occasionally come up to me and say: "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." That answer later grew into the book you are holding in your hands.

Before I knew it, I had an extenal identity again. I had become a spiritual teacher.

THE TRUTH THAT IS WITHIN YOU

This book represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be conveyed in words, with individuals and small groups of spiritual seekers during the past ten years, in Europe and in North America. In deep love and apppreciation, I would like to thank those exceptional people for their courage, their willingness to embrace inner change, their challenging questions and their willingness to listen. This book would not have come into existence without them. They belong to what is as yet a small but fortunately growing minority of spritual pioneers: people who are reaching a point where they become capable of breaking out of inherited collective mind-patterns that have kept humans in bondage to suffering for aeons.

I trust that this book will find its way to those who are ready for such radical inner transformation and so act as a catalyst for it. I also hope that it will reach many others who will find its content worthy of consideration, although they may not be ready to fully practice or live it. It is possible that at a later time, the seed that was sown while reading this book will merge with the seed of enlightenment that each human being carries within, and suddenly that seed will sprout and come alive within them.

May type more of the intro at some stage :)

I have only just started this book & may add to these excerpts as I read further. But why not get yourself a copy - Reading off a computer screen can't compare with having a book in your hot little hands and reading it :)