THE POWER OF NOW, by Eckhart Tolle

[Doreen]

TODAY'S FINAL (3/9) POST FOR THIS THREAD IS #23 -- you can read through them all or scroll down to today's. NOTE: I tried to move the posts to flip them to have most recent post first, but cannot figure out how -- sorry.

Please create a log in and comment -- through helping each other we help ourselves.

The next book, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People: Link -- http://timetoplay.com/forum/showthre...ion-amp-Review
Hope this helps you as much as it has helped me.

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I just started reading this. I'm only up to page 14 and already identified 2 paragraphs that have made me think. Here's the first one. . .

Page 12: "The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of separation, from yourself and from the world around you. You then perceive yourself, consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment. Fear arises, and conflict within and without becomes the norm".

This excerpt is regarding enlightenment. The author is speaking about a disconnect we may feel with our God, spirituality, or being. BUT, I also believe it is a disconnect between each other. So many of us feel the weight of the world on our shoulders, maybe because of a job issue, financial security or bills, taking care of the family, etc. Even if that's not it, maybe we feel alone. So many of us are so isolated today. This brings us to the discussion of prescription drugs and how people are using them as a crutch or bandaid. I have talked about "bandaids" before in blogs I've written. We don't look for the root cause to solve our problems, which is one of the goals for timetoplay.com. Now we go to a doctor and say we feel this way or that way and they write a prescription. Is is really the doctor's fault a person is addicted to a medication (see article I had referenced, Antidepressants used by 11 percent of Americans http://timetoplay.com/blog/?p=204)? Maybe we have to evaluate ourselves and really get to the root of our problems. We need to figure out what we need to do to reconnect and become whole.

I look forward to continue reading and sharing thoughts.

[Doreen]

So last night (and while having coffee this morning) I read about thinking. Again, I'm still only in chapter 1, but it's made me start to "think". The author put in a quote, "I Think, therefore I am" from a philosopher Descartes. Mr. Tolle noted that, "the compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in a state of apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflit, a world that reflects the ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind". (p. 15).

Jim Ryan and I have talked about the mind being the worst enemy. On page 22 Mr. Tolle notes, "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. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy".

Truly, I see it. I woke up this morning and had the immediate chatter that Mr. Tolle speaks about. The dialogue. It is exhausting.

I never really realized it before. I thought my constant thinking was a good thing. BUT, it does have the negative, the things that repeat are things that do cause worry.

I look forward to reading some more.

Any thoughts or comments?

[Doreen]

Emotion: The body's reaction to your mind -- starting on page 25.

HMM. Never really thought about how thinking and emotions connect in this manner. I thought events triggered emotions more than thoughts, but, I now realize our emotions do manifest in our thoughts. We already know thoughts can be our enemy, but based on this book, through our emotions it is felt through our bodies. The author wrote "through lack of presence. . . the emotion temporarily becomes "you".

This is SO TRUE! How many times have you felt that you couldn't believe how angry you got or how frustrated. . . it all stems from thought. AND, we need the power to step back, evaluate, and control the thought, which could, hopefully, change our reaction. A reaction that may be exhausting to us. Instead, we could change the emotion and the way we react. Interesting, the word "emotion" was noted to mean "disturbance", and that the word's root was the Latin emovere, which means "to disturb". SO, people have know about this for a long time, right? I feel much more at peace in evaluating the stuff in this book.

So, there's so much more I read last night. About pain being inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind (page 31), about "consciousness" being the way out of pain (chapter two p. 33).

Something totally interesting -- this sentance. "Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life. . . say "yes" to the present moment. (p. 35).

AND, "as long as you are unable to access the power of the Now, every emotional pain that you experience leaves behind a residue of pain that lives on in you". (p. 36).

Makes sense, right?

Until tomorrow. . .

[Doreen]

Where to continue. . .

I'm up to page 65. There are a lot of thought provoking statements in the pages I've read. And, I start to wonder about how I do think and the "chatter" which has brought me so many good ideas and breakthroughs. So where do you draw the line of what is good or bad chatter? How do you turn it on or off as needed? Hopefully as I read more I'll learn more I'll figure this out.

Here's an amazing, thought provoking paragraph (page 46-47): "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. 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. The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious and other collective identifcations. None of these is you . . . The ego's needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatened and so lives in a state of fear and want".

Wow. I totally saw myself in this. The pursuit of career, completing my masters, my job. These things defined me, pushed me. If I had a good day at work, I was in a good mood. Bad day? Bad mood. HOWEVER, at what point do you need motivation to pursue a "life", and at what point are you kind of a hump of flesh (very visual, huh?) sitting on a couch? BUT, the state of fear and want sentance makes you think, too. Is this pursuit what's causing us so much stress? What do we really need or want? Is that what we need to evaluate to have a good quality of life? At what point do we not strive? I'm still reading, so, hopefully this will be answered.

The author continued to talk about the past, the future vs. the now. The life situations we are dealing with, not the LIFE. I'll leave you with this: (page 63) "Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real". The author notes that we need to realize that there are no problems, only situations to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as part of the present moment until they change or can be dealt with, and that problems are mind-made and need time to survive.

Hmmmm --

Until tomorrow.

[LoveLife]

What an interesting book, I think I will get a copy to read.

[Doreen]

Continuation on the topic of problems -- this is where I think we become our worst enemy.

Book excerpt: page 65 -- " 'Problem' beans that you are dwelling on a situation mentally without there being a true intention or possibility of taking action now and that you are unconsciously making it part of your sense of self. You become so overwhelmed by your life situation that you lose your sense of life, of Being. Or you are carrying in your mind the insane burden of a hundred things that you will or may have to do in the future instead of focusing your attention on the one thing that you can do now. When you create a problem, you create pain."

This is totally interesting. When you think about it, when you have a problem and dwell on a problem, it is all consuming. It saps your energy, you become exhausted. You spiral downward. It is toxic. The author suggests not taking the time to dwell. I guess it's something where when you take the "life situation" at hand, you act on it and move on. I'm still reading and learning.

[Doreen]

What I learned today -- while striving to reach a goal is motivational, it can also be detrimental to a person or the downfall to society. In speaking about some things I read with Michael Waterman (he's the beauty editor on timetoplay under happiness), we talked about acquisition, of people "conquering" others to obtain physical objects to satisfy a need that they have determined would make them happy. It's something that's been happening since forever in the history of mankind -- look at the countries conquering others to get what they have, the wars, etc. All in pursuit of becoming "greater" or "richer". On page 75, there was a quote from a Native American chief who "pointed out . . . 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." I, myself, have always been seeking. But, this book has made me realize that seeking is what caused me to be stressful, seeking was what created the self-made pressure to be better, but not just to be better, to make myself feel good about myself for something I achieved. What I achieved made me happy. If I had a good day, I was happy, if I had a bad day, I was not.

I'm going to leave you with this excerpt from page 68: "When the compulsive striving away from the NOW ceases, the joy of being flows into everything you do. The moment your attention turns to the Now, you feel a presence, a stillness, a peace. You no longer depend on the future for fulfillment and satisfaction - you don't look to it for salvation. Therefore, you are not attached to the results. Neither failure nor success has the power to change your inner state of Being."

[Connie]

Doreen, since reading this book and perhaps the wisdom that comes with age, while I still have my good and not so good days, I'm learning to stop my brain, literally. I stop all thinking and allow myself to just "be" in that moment if only for a second. I let all the feelings I have just come at me and I gently nod my head yes, not yes in hooray this is great. But yes in a calm way of acknowledging those feelings. Most of us try to take our mind off our feelings, that is how we were taught. Examine, explore, question. What is this that I am feeling right now? This is HARD! How many people I see each day when I'm teaching a Body Pump or some similar class blow off the cool down because they don't have time for it. We are a reactionary society, how much do we really think before we react? We are having a bad day and 'go off' on somebody or 'defend' ourselves if someone says something we don't like or hurts us. Instead, we need to reflect. If something bad happens to us. We seek false refuge either in substance or shopping or whatever takes our mind 'off' of it. Instead, we should go deeply into our breathing and ask ourselves, really, 'what is wrong with this moment, right here, right now'? Not sure if any of this makes sense. I hope so.
Sincerely
Connie Deshpande

[Doreen]

Questions for today (page 77-79):

1) Am I at ease at this moment?
2) Do I resent doing what I am doing?
3) What thoughts are in my mind that are created around this situation?

Ask yourself what's going on inside at the present moment. Mr. Tolle noted that if you get the inside right the outside will fall into place. How so? The way we feel about the situation causes the emotion which is the reaction to the thoughts; therefore, negative energy we create when we resent or are unhappy about a situation creates pain. He stated, "feel the emotion. does it feel pleasant or unpleasant? Is it an energy that you would actually choose to have inside you? Do you have a choice?" He explained that when we are being taken advantage of, or if an activity we are participating in is tedious or someone we deal with is dishonest or irritating, it doesn't matter because we are resisting what is and making the present moment into an enemy creating unhappiness and conflict between our inner self and what happens outside.

Mr. Tolle suggests: "Either stop doing what you are doing, speak to the person concerned and express fully what you feel, or drop the negativity that your mind has created around the situation and that serves no purpose whatsoever except to strengthen a false sense of self. . . Negativity is never the optimum way of dealing with any situation. In fact, in most cases it keeps you stuck in it, blocking real change. . .giving rise to more pain, more unhappiness".

He said to realize you have a choice. I guess that give you power, right? Power to make a difference in your situation so you can enjoy life.

@ Connie, I imagine you didn't accomplish what you set out to do yesterday -- I, too, have made myself so responsible for so many things that it becomes truly overwhelming. It is almost a man-made prison; however, it is also not all our fault. We are victim to the ills of society in some manner. The striving, goal setting, and pressure we put on ourselves gets to be too much. The economy drives us harder. Making choices on food or putting oil in your house. . . gas at $4 a gallon. Truly, how much harder can we work? I totally get it. Shouldn't we get a chance to enjoy life? I think that breeds HUGE resentment. We get so tired when we're always working. We get burnt out and resentful. I did, personally, compromise this weekend, though. I scheduled in some time to play, and I was much happier. Amazingly, as I've realized, everything somehow gets done. We just have to try our best and not be so hard on ourselves.

[Doreen]

Wherever you are, be there totally

Today's comments from book pages page 82 - 84

This is something that is hard for me to do. Wherever I am or whatever I'm doing, I'm always thinking about something else, planning, where else I have to go, what I have to do next, "the list".

OMG!

I never realized how bad it was till I read this. Here's an excerpt from page 84: "Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being "here" but wanting to be "there," or being in the present but wanting to be in the future."

The author suggests that, whatever you do, to do it toally, to enjoy the energy of the moment. To feel the power of the moment. That it will decrease stress to do so.

Karin Stewart (Happiness professional on the timetoplay.com site) advocates for this, too.

I'm learning. I'm trying. How about you?