"The present moment holds the key to liberation."
"As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease."
The Power of Now, spoken book form by Eckhart himself.
and PDF book The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.
Here's a little excerpt from the book, spoken and written, and my comments on it.
"The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize all things that truly matter - beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace - arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken."
I must have been awake for a long time. Here's one experience that happened to me when I was approx 18 years old. My friend Roberta saw me walking down the street. She asked her boyfriend to stop because she wanted to say hi. So as we talked she said they were all going to her boyfriends for some beer and asked if I wanted to come. I said sure.
There were two guys in the back and I fitted myself in the backseat with them. I sensed all the presences around me and everyone was just fine. I also had joy within me. But I noticed someone's presence out of whack. It felt oppressive, tense, tight. It was the guy furthest from me, at the window. I looked at him, and thought he was appearing to be like everyone else but I sensed a great agitation coming from him and asked him, "hey, are you alright?" He looked at me and seemed surprised, then smiled and said everything was fine.
Well, I got to know him a bit more and thought he was a really nice guy so we made friends. It wasn't until a year later when he told me about that incident when we first met. He said that no one ever paid any attention to him whatsoever, and that day he was planning to commit suicide like his friend had a month ago. He said he would have shot himself the next day if it weren't for me coming into his life and asking him whether everthing was alright or not. Apparently it was not alright. He said, the most strangest thing was that I was such a beautiful woman and out of no one inquiring about him, to such a beautiful lady inquiring, he entirely changed his mind about committing suicide the next day. That's how much of an impact I made on him.
But you see, to me, that was just the normal everyday thing. I didn't see myself as beautiful. I just saw others through the senses, feelings, perceptions I got from them...the deeper perception. I didn't have to do any thinking...I was just being. And so there you go. Stop your thinking and get in touch with the higher self. Were I not in touch, Roberta would never have asked her boyfriend to stop, nor would I probably even have been walking on that path, and maybe Brian would have committed suicide, if no one else had intervened. But he lived on to become friends with many people. He did get lung cancer and died about ten years later, but not until he learned how much love and beauty there really is, in this world, and shared loving caring relationships with many people around him.
I've had many experiences such as that, where thoughts had nothing to do with it. Thoughts seem to suck you up into your own world and isolate you from the life around you. So stop your thinking for a while and just sense and feel, look, hear, see. You know? Do this. Next time you get into a conversation with someone, do not think about what you're going to say. Just check them out. Listen to what they are saying, how they are saying it, the sound of their voice, the mannerisms they use. Don't get into an arguement or defend yourself, just let them say whatever they are all about, and observe, to get to know that type of being. And don't worry about silence when it happens in a conversation. Silence is good. Better than babbling small-talk which wastes energy and gets you nowhere closer to what the truth is about that person or you. So stop and relax when there is a silent space, to feel the love and closeness to the other human being, whoever they may be. Because everyone is human and needs to feel that love and closeness to one another no matter what. Love is an essential. It's important. When you're alone at home for too long, like I am sometimes, I just go for a walk, or to a store, coffeeshop or bar, and just be around people. It makes all the difference in the world. Then I feel better and go home and back to work, with a lovelier feeling inside. We're a great big family, and the sooner you start realizing this the easier it feels to be around others no matter who they are or where they came from.
The other day I stood at the bus stop listening to a guy and a girl talking in the Arabic language. They were very lovely and the sounds and expressions of the words, so interesting. I smiled to myself some times when they said certain things in certain ways. I had a learning experience from deep within. Just because my programmed mind didn't understand the words they used or how they enunciated the sounds, doesn't mean I didn't understand the two human beings standing there talking to each other, and this human being listening and delighting in their fun presence.
And then on the way home I saw a group of east Indian men (with turbans on their heads) and observed their faces and listened to the way they communicated as I sat on the bus on my way home again. There was a feeling of peace and of acceptance because I sent this out, on purpose, so I could observe the way they truly are. Which I often do. I make myself into a really casual, warm, relaxed presence, so I could get to understand others from their own way of being, not from the way I was taught about them, or would judge them through my pre-programmed mind. But the real reality. Who THEY are. And I always find they are so beautiful. And I love them all so much. People are so wonderful. Just drop the mind's incessant chatter and take a look for yourself. Also, there is something that this method does. Would there to be anyone around you who is about to be negative or do something wrong, well it dims this idea in them, and they actually become like a lively little child who is being paid attention to by their mother or father. So you do good by actually paying attention to others silently. It's sharing love.
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