The Power of Now Part 1 of 5: You are Not Your Mind
January 26, 2009 by dr. lam
I really enjoyed Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. I envision the book as a refinement to many of the ideas that I have been covering over the past few weeks to months, and I have achieved a much more profound self-awareness after reading it. As a reminder to my faithful readers, I am not interested in recounting the entire book but just select passages that have had personal resonance for me and for my own personal journey toward a more enlightened and pain-free existence.
His first chapter, “You are Not Your Mind”, addresses many of the concepts that were discussed by Ruiz in his books on Toltec wisdom, which I did not cover as explicitly in the past two weeks so this should be a great addition to some of the overall concepts from Ruiz but in my opinion even better articulated. Tolle says that our egoic mind is in a state of constant buzz. We are always focused on thinking in an incessant manner so that we drown out our own experience of the present, the only time that in fact we can enjoy and the only time that really matters. We look at our past and configure ourselves in relationship to it, thinking that we are a product of our past. In essence, we make the past alive and fail to live in the moment. Or, we are so perturbed with the future and the anxiety over what may or may not be, that we are not truly alive, or conscious.
We must let go of our mind, the constant buzzing noise that goes off in our mind and experience our present moment. He talks about “watching the thinker” meaning to disengage ourselves from our constant thinking, our application of our egoic state. By putting ourselves almost as a third person looking at ourselves in the thinking mode, we start to achieve a level of deep consciousness that we would not otherwise have in the spiraling rattle of thoughts that plague our very existence.
He also talks about truly feeling the moment. Get into the feeling of one’s own breath, the typing that I am doing right now on my computer, my sense of the operatic music that envelops me as I write. We live so far in the past or the future that we cannot even begin to enjoy and relish the now, the only time that we can truly experience and enjoy. We must divorce ourselves from always thinking and thinking and thinking and worrying and worrying about the future and reflecting on our past. We must live in the rich tapestry of the moment that is right in front of us. We must feel the moment, the only time that truly matters in many ways.
By doing so, we achieve a profound inner peace and calm, an enlightened state of consciousness that is devoid of the travails of over analysis and a hyper state of the cycling mind. Instead, we become hyper acute of our surroundings and where we are currently and by doing so achieve a much happier and profoundly peaceful condition. Stop for a moment and ask yourself as you’re reading this are you aware of your surroundings? Do you hear everything around you? Feel it? Sense it? Try this and do you sense a much more profound equanimity and tranquility? Tomorrow we talk about ridding ourselves of pain.
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9 Responses to “The Power of Now Part 1 of 5: You are Not Your Mind”
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Love and appreciate this. Two months ago, a friend, our pastor’s wife and herself a pastor, asked me what was up. I began to describe some social drama (in a committee) and how it bothered me. She simply moved her hand in front of me (no goofy stuff, we’re Methodists:) and said, “Be AT PEACE.”
Waah? Oh yeah. That’s it-be AT PEACE. We can choose? We can choose.
Thanks “Nord” for the response. You will hear my talking about drama on Friday, and you will see the relevance to your comments. I like what Tolle says that we can only “choose” if we have achieved consciousness. For example, if someone chooses to have pain and chooses to be miserable, sometimes that person is living his/her life in a pantomime and truly unconscious about the condition so there is no conscious choice. When we start to enter a deeper state of consciousness, as these week’s blogs discuss, we have a greater ability to choose and that choice is much more real. Thanks again for the comments. Love it!
Eckhart Tolle is a genius, in my opinion. He has found a way to help all of us step back and actually LIVE. It’s a choice that is not always easy, especially if one has very toxic people in their life. It can take some practice to not get wrapped up in gossip, the news, personal disappointments or other outside events. It can be refreshing and downright moving to just lay and listen to our own breath. I think a goal for all of us should be to just relax, enjoy the simple pleasures in life, and make an effort to enjoy the NOW. Like right now. Seriously….it’s so easy. Thanks, Dr. Lam – you always inspire!
great, love the feedback. thanks for reading my blogs. really appreciate words people share here. love it!!!!! keeping writing everyone even if you say a few words. i read every comment and respond to every comment that comes through.
Tracy, I agree it takes practice. Very helpful to install these simple, yet huge, wisdoms. Helps us resist the sturm und drang that seems to own so many. I know I have “be impeccable”(last week’s blogs) under my belt, as I just used it on my child the other day, explaining precisely (thanks for the Latin Dr. L) what that means. I’d already been working on the “don’t take it personally” and wow, is that one tough.
Must add, Dr. L., my child’s getting a lot from these blogs, too! She doesn’t read them, but is often sitting next to me, eating her breakfast, when I read them. Back when you wrote about your voting odyssey, she leaned over and said, “Somehow I can’t imagine Dr. Lam getting lost.” I said, “Same here, but isn’t it nice to know?” Your candor and humility are an example. Hugggs (where is MysteryAgain with our hugs, btw?)
Yeah, I was wondering where our South American counterpart has been? Thanks “Nord”. I love calling you Nord for some reason. It is funny (not that your family name is funny). I think it is a fun name. I really love the energy of people just writing things here. Your positive energy will radiate to your daughter. I believe that. She is getting a lot out of the blogs simply because you are radiating my energy to you, then you to her!
One of my favourites – and on top of it all by one of my fellow countrymen (who, strangely enough, ended up in Vancouver as well – hmmh…). It’s been a while that I listened to it – I had the audio version – so I don’t remember all the details, but it certainly struck home with me.
Tolle has the ability to convey Buddhist concepts using everyday language and examples to which we all can easily relate. Delusion is one such concept, and when Tolle talks about the traps of the thinking mind, he really talks about the same thing. Every time I stop and become aware – aware, not thinking! – of my surroundings, sounds are crisper, colours are more vivid, tastes and smells are more intense, and the sense of touch is more refined. It is amazing how much we miss by not being in the present moment, and how much of our energy and time we squander living in the “delusionary” states of the past or future. The only “real” state is the present moment, but we are so trained to think that it is not easy for most of us to just “be”.
Nicely put. When I prepare for my blogs, I use multiple media: both audio books and the written book. It helps to have the information bombarded into my brain to register it deeply.