The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

Summary of the Summary

Do not overthink things. Overthinking causes you to live in the past or the future which is not beneficial to you in the present. Too many people are controlled by their over – thinking mind. This excessive control subjects them to unnecessary suffering. You will experience improvement in your life when you learn to separate yourself from your mind.

Live in the present to make your life better. Listen to what your body is saying and do what it wants. Your body knows what’s best for you. Your body is focused on the present. It is the mind that wanders to the past and the future.

You can train yourself to be present all of the time by questioning yourself on what your next thought will be. This questioning method allows you to break the flow of thinking. This break in the flow of thought brings your thinking to your consciousness and gives you more control over it.

There is a part of you that needs pain to survive and it creates most of the pain you experience. The more pain it creates, the more powerful it gets. Living in the present helps you to regain power from this pain – seeking part of you.

Beware of your “ego.” It resides in your mind and keeps you from being happy. A richer life comes from the ability to kill the ego and focus on what the body needs. You can gain this ability by observing your mind without judgment. Acknowledge what your mind is telling you but do not obey it.

Exist in a state of permanent alertness. This awaiting state will keep you in the present.

The people closest to you may not understand your choice. Still, being present can help improve your relationship with them. Living in the present will help you listen better and show understanding.

When you surrender to the present, you will become more active and able to change situations for good. You will learn to accept things as is and thus avoid unnecessary pain and suffering.

There are two strong feelings that trap many of us: regret and anxiety

We are either full of regret for the things we did or failed to do in the past, or we are full of anxiety over future events we cannot control. Still, we somehow believe that we can live better, happier lives even if we are clueless on how to go about it.

There are several methods we can apply to resolve the inner conflict we experience. We can develop a healthy relationship with our past, present and future by exploring the lessons in “The Power of Now”.

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

Living in the present moment requires careful training of our minds to overcome the self-destructive ways in which we have been using it.

From his own personal experiences involving depressing late-night thoughts, Eckhart Tolle shares how he literally found peace by discovering the source of pain and suffering.

Experience great improvement in your life by focusing only on the present instead of regretting the past or worrying about the future

Everyone is in search of peace and enlightenment but these seem somehow elusive. We do not know how to improve our lives. We’re instead trapped by a web of circumstances that keep us circling the drain.

There is a way out and it is easier than we think. The key is to become conscious of the present and live there. It is very easy to fall into reminiscence or regret by thinking of a past event or situation. We also worry a lot about a future event or situation that we may find ourselves in.

The first step to a peaceful and improved life is living in the present.

The only place where events occur is the present — not the past or the future.We feel in the present. Our senses can only interpret present sensation. Sometimes, when we refer to an event as a past event, what we mean is that it happened in a certain present moment. Every “past” was once a present moment. Any “future” occurrence is a present moment waiting to happen.

Therefore, it is useless worrying about the future or dwelling on a past event. The only useful endeavor here is to live in the now. Living in the present moment reduces your problems drastically. You can deal effectively with the small present problems but not with the past or future problems. For example, if you have a term paper to submit and the deadline seems to be closing in on you, being anxious about the volume of work left to be done or regret over the time wasted in the past will not provide motivation for the task. However, if you start now and choose to solve one problem after another, it will be easier to accomplish the task.

Decide to live in the present. Let go of the past and do not be afraid of what may happen tomorrow. Your life will experience dramatic improvements and you will find peace.

Most of the pain you experience comes from within and not from external circumstances

You feel pain because your body is building an internal resistance to an external circumstance that you cannot change. When you are unsatisfied with the situation of things and are unable to change the situation, you feel pain. A past event you regret cannot be changed. Your body will respond to this by feeling pain.

Pain comes from resisting situations that you cannot change.

On an emotional level, it appears as a negative feeling. On the physical level, it causes the development of what is called the “pain-body.” The pain-body is a part of the self that needs you to feel pain so it can survive. Every time you experience pain, the pain-body grows. It continues to feed on your pain and grows stronger with each pain you experience. As it grows stronger, it makes you feel miserable and sad.

This experience can continue until you become one with your pain-body. Consequently, it becomes difficult to let go of the pain because it has become an important part of your life. You have embraced it wholly so that it becomes your identity. To lose the pain will mean to lose your identity.

If the pain-body becomes your identity, you feel more pain to sustain the identity.

Hence, when you feel anger or frustration because of some external situation, your pain-body is in charge. It causes you to take actions that will cause more pain because it needs the pain to survive. You blame the situation for your anger and feel pain as a result. After all, it is not your fault.

In truth, pain is mostly self-created. Therefore, you can dissociate yourself from it by making a different set of choices.

You can kill your pain-body by choosing a different course of action when you’re triggered to feel pain.

You deprive yourself of happiness when you allow the “ego” to control your thoughts and behavior

Nobody wants to be miserable, yet many are unhappy. Why do people tend to press the self-destruct button? The answer lies in the ego. The ego unconsciously controls how you think and behave. It is difficult to measure the extent of control that the ego has on your life because it works stealthily. For example, when we reflect on some actions we took in a heated situation, we may notice with regret that we overreacted. But we didn’t spot the fact that we had gone overboard while we were in the thick of things. That is the ego in action.

The ego acts against your own best interests because its survival depends on your misery.

It is a destructive part of your mind that produces misery. People suffer because they have not killed the ego. They engage in self-sabotaging behavior such as refusing to leave a destructive and painful relationship. They do not want to wound their ego.

The ego is difficult to detect when it is at work.

In a bid to take control of your thinking and behavior, the ego leads you into situations that put you at odds with others. Consequently, you become unhappy and this becomes a breeding ground for your ego.

A clash of egos occurs all the time in households and office spaces. The ego gets in the way of people’s desire for peaceful coexistence. They become annoyed and overreact over trivial matters. Give the ego an inch and it will take a mile. Much suffering comes from ceding control to the ego.

Pay less attention to your mind and focus on your body to enjoy a life free from pain

Pain comes from the mind. The ego resides in the mind. To be free from the destructive effects of ego and pain, you need to move away your attention from your mind and concentrate on your body.

Regretful memories and anxiety about the future come from the mind and cause pain.

You cannot live in the present because your mind is busy with the past and the future. The solution is to reduce the power of the mind and prevent it from having so much control over our behavior. To do this, we must place our focus on the body.

You can free yourself from pain and ego by focusing on your body.

The body helps you to seek what is important in your life because it knows what is best for you. Jesus Christ spoke extensively about the body being a temple. He resurrected and ascended with his body and not just his mind or soul. You cannot ignore your body in your quest to find happiness.

The body helps you focus on the things that really matter. Enlightenment comes from being at one with your body.

Buddha undertook a 6-year abstinence coupled with fasting in a bid to separate himself from his body. While he felt separated from his body, he didn’t find peace or enlightenment in the endeavor. Enlightenment came only when he felt at one with his body.

Detach yourself from your mind and learn to observe it without judgment to be free from pain

Learning to detach yourself from your mind begins with becoming conscious of its power over you. The destructive part of the human mind like to go unnoticed as it influences thinking and behavior. Therefore, you must learn to observe how your mind operates if you want to be happy.

To observe your mind is to ask yourself what your next thought would be.

When you focus fully on this question, you’ll realize that it would take a while for you to conceive your next thought. This act of observation makes you create a gap in your flow of thought.

Repeating this exercise will help you realize how your mind is in a continuous flow of thoughts. You will also learn to interrupt your mind. By interrupting your mind, you also learn to separate from it.

Having mastered how to observe your mind, you can now learn to observe it without judging. When you judge, it is your mind that is at work. Meanwhile, the goal is to dissociate from your mind completely.

Observe without judgment by acknowledging your mind’s advice but ignoring it.

When your body feels like sleeping, for example, listen to it and go to sleep. Your body knows what is good for you at that moment. Your mind may kick in to tell you to do something else like studying for an exam or reply to an email. Don’t judge the voice whispering these instructions as good or bad. Just acknowledge the advice but refuse to follow it. This practice helps you to notice your mind without allowing it to control you and without judging what it is telling you.

Listen to your body and follow its impulse because it knows what’s best for you.

Another technique that helps you tap into the power of now is active waiting

Active waiting is a special type of waiting state in which you are fully aware of the fact that something really important could happen at any time and you’re ready to catch it. It has an additional advantage in that it helps you get better at separating yourself from your mind and focusing on your body.

In a state of active waiting, you are focused on the now. For example, when writing an exam, you cannot afford to be distracted by the regret of not being fully prepared or the worry that surrounds the results. All your focus is on answering the questions before you to the best of your ability. It is therefore important to enter into a state of active waiting just before you begin an exam.

Active waiting keeps you in a state of anticipation of a significant event; this anticipation forces you to be in the present moment rather than the past or the future.

Zen masters train their pupils to learn to feel an attack coming with their eyes closed by being in a state of active waiting. Students who are in this state can fully concentrate on their body and sense an attack so that they can evade it. Being in a state of active waiting heightens the senses and helps you to become fully aware.

Being in a state of active waiting can lead to a good life.

Jesus recommended that his followers remained in a state of a servant awaiting the return of their master. The servant waits actively because he does not know when the master will return. The servant is not busy thinking about the past or planning for the future. He is alert so that he does not miss the master when he comes.

Living in the now weighs on your relationship but it also has the potential to improve the relationship

Up until now, you have learned to separate yourself from your mind. You are now living in the present. This transformation will have an impact on the way you live your life. Therefore, the people closest to you will be affected by this change.

You will be seen as a threat by the non-present individual. Their ego feeds on problems whereas you are at peace, calm and in the present. They will continue to engage in things that will draw you out of the present. They may insult you, refer to past mistakes or engage you in a debate over something insignificant.

The relationship between a non-present person and a present person is like the relationship between light and darkness. They are strong opposites that cannot be near each other.

How do you resolve this conflict? Embrace a life free from criticism. When you begin to see your partner as an independent person and can observe their actions without judgment, it will greatly improve your relationship.

The inner peace that comes from living in the present will enable you to develop good listening skills.

Listening to your partner can help end cycles of debate. Because you have inner peace, you can listen to understand rather than to reply. When you understand others, you will not engage in endless arguments with them.

Observing your partner’s actions without judging them will improve your relationship.

Living in the present will test your relationship and almost end it. If you pass this test, your relationship will become greatly rewarding. Living in the present holds potential for improved relationships that will be beneficial to everyone.

Living in the present is not an antidote to all forms of sadness or hurt feelings

Not all pain or feelings of sadness are avoidable. The fact that you live in the present does not mean you cannot feel pain. Most, not all, pain is self-created. For example, when you lose a loved one, feelings of sadness will be inevitable. People who are still under the influence of their destructive mind can also inflict pain on you. These are examples of unavoidable pain. You cannot lead everyone to the path of enlightenment. What should be your response when feelings of pain or sadness appear? Should you suppress them or live in denial of the pain? No!

It is natural to experience feelings of sadness.

When you lose a loved one to death, for example, you will mourn them and feel sad. Still, you need to accept the situation for what it is. This acceptance will set you free from needless suffering.

It is natural to be sad. It is in fact, healthy. You should not be ashamed or be made to feel guilty for being sad. When you allow yourself to accept things as they are, it will help you to avoid wasting time wishing things were different.

Acceptance is the key to dealing with unavoidable pain.

Living in the now helps you to avoid most of the pain that “normal” people experience, but not all of it. Being present furnishes you with the strength to accept the hurtful realities of life rather than denying them or suppressing the painful feelings. You will be truly free, calm, and peaceful in the end.

Living in the present is not an excuse for mediocrity or living a passive life

It may be difficult to maintain inner peace if your outer life situation is bad. Being present does not mean you should be unwilling to change a troubling situation. It is not a license for mediocrity or living a passive life.

When you live in the present, you go through an inner process of feeling and insight. It can help you become active and excellent.

These internal processes do not mean that your external behavior should be passive. If you find yourself in a traffic jam, for example, the way out is not to remain there and say you’ve always wanted to be in traffic. Instead, you will find ways to get out of it without feeling anxious.

When you approach an uncomfortable situation with clear eyes and a clear mind, you’ll uncover new ways to overcome the obstacle. Being present allows you to tap into the power of now. You will have a constant supply of strength and determination because your inner resources are not busy creating problems. You have fresh energy to deal with challenges. What seems like problems will be broken down into small situations that you can easily manage.

Rather than seeing problems, you will see individual, manageable situations that you can solve one after the other.

When you live in and accept the present, you become active and empowered to change each situation for the better. You are not distracted by the past or the future but are fully locked on to the present. Phenomenal achievements come from being present.