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all there is
June 2009 
Be Happy NOW! (Video)
Posted on May 17th, 2007
by 
Photizo
Photizo
Eckhart Tolle
"I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don't
know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten"
The principle behind the idea of the Power of Now is that nothing exists outside this present moment.. A truth elucidated better then anyone I have read in the book "The Power of Now: : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle,
This state of consciousness has
been spoken of by such greats as,
Jesus Christ
"Take no thought of tomorrow."
been spoken of by such greats as,
Jesus Christ
"Take no thought of tomorrow."
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it,
if you have to, with the same weapons of reason
which today arm you against the present."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
"Nothing is worth more than this day."
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it,
if you have to, with the same weapons of reason
which today arm you against the present."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
"Nothing is worth more than this day."
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
"With the past, I have nothing to do;
nor with the future. I live now."
"With the past, I have nothing to do;
nor with the future. I live now."
D.H. Lawrence
"The living moment is everything."
Abraham Maslow
"The ability to be in the present moment is
a major component of mental wellness. "
And a host of other men and women who have found this secret to happiness and joy.
Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins wrote a song called "Today" from their Siamese Dream album of 1993...
Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins wrote a song called "Today" from their Siamese Dream album of 1993...
Today is the greatest
Day I've ever known
Can't live for tomorrow,
Tomorrow's much too long....
Smashing Pumpkins
Can't live for tomorrow,
Tomorrow's much too long....
Today
Smashing Pumpkins
What Eckhart Tolle does in his book, is present these truths in such a simple manner that one cannot help but experience a complete shift in perspective. A shift to Non-thinking to present awareness of what is without value judgments or preconceived ideas of what should be, or ought to be.
That Past and Future are just mere Illusions that do not exist, accept in our minds. Illusions we hold onto because we are comfortable with what we already know, or we try to imagine what the future may bring. This causes and endless series of thoughts that either worry or fantasize about that which is not real, while the present moment, slips by.
That Past and Future are just mere Illusions that do not exist, accept in our minds. Illusions we hold onto because we are comfortable with what we already know, or we try to imagine what the future may bring. This causes and endless series of thoughts that either worry or fantasize about that which is not real, while the present moment, slips by.
What is the Power of Now according to Eckhart Tolle?
"None other than the power of your presence,
your consciousness liberated from thought forms."
"None other than the power of your presence,
your consciousness liberated from thought forms."
Simply understanding as all the greats philosphers did that there was never a time when it was not Now, and there will never be a time when it will be anything but now.
The 'past' is a mind created concept that your mind creates now, and you experience it now in such things as your reactions, thoughts and energetic configurations. The 'future' is also a mind created world that you will never get to because it does not exist, accept in your mind.
Eckhart Tolle, not reacting to content, www.soundstrue.com
"So deal with the past on the level of the present. The more attention you give to the past, the more you energize it, and the more likely you are to make a "self" out of it. Don't misunderstand: attention is essential, but not to the past. Give attention to the present; give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present. There's the past in you. If you can be present enough to watch all those things, not critically or analytically but non-judgementally, then you are dealing with the past and dissolving it through the power of your presence. You find yourself by coming into the present."
"Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher."
"Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher."
So the real question.
Are you happy NOW?
DEO
Are you happy NOW?
Michelle Branch - Are You Happy Now?
DEO
Access: PublicTagged with: The Power of Now, Echart Tolle, Not Reating To Content, All There Is, Are You Happy, Are You Happy Now, Michelle Branch, Happy, Happiness, Silent Watcher, Illusion, Past, Present, Future, Field of Now, It Just Is, Observe, Seeking Self, Reaction, Mental Noise, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan, Siamese Dream, Thinking, Photizo
Most of us prefer the channel surfing to the real thing :-)
Now is all there is…
Hey Peter, enjoyed the link to your book. Looks like some good reading material. I liked the use of the Reality TV vs. the History channel or the Dream.
“Our channel surfing concerns the current living moment.
We seldom stay in the channel. We'd rather jump on and off
many times in a second. This happens by switching either to the
dream or the history channel. Reality TV is something we prefer
to consume as a recorded version, just to be on the safe side.”
That's just it! Staying SAFE because it's what we KNOW as opposed to flowing with WHAT IS. We get so caught up in the would have, could have, should have games that infect the mind like some dis-ease over the current flow of reality. But then again, those unaware, are unaware that they are unaware.
Good stuff Peter. Thanks for sharing!
As Rod says, “Now Is all there is.”
DEO
:-)
okay will try again. thanks for video of Eckhart Tolle. Seeing him in person, seemed to bring his message home to me. I like what he says regarding how we hold on to situations and identify them with ourselves and then we fear lossof those things and thus loss of self. jenni
That's it Jenni.
We get so absorbed by our past that we see it as who we are. We take in each moment and scan the memory of experience to see how best to react, thus losing the very moment in the act of “Holding on” to self for “fear” of loss.
I really appreciate what Eckhart has done. So often we see these matters complicated in endless debate. Breaking it down to it's simplest parts, to it''s essence is where truth lies. Even Wilbur basis his 20 tenets on the essence or reality as a whole not being composed of things or processes, but of holons and their evolving Holarchies that create greater depth and span as the unfolding emerges. It's our richness of direct experience of that “letting go” that we appreciate the flow of the eternal Now all around us.
We are evolving as individuals and as a collective and it is this understanding of our emergent potentiality of self transcendence that requires us to “let go” of what came before and embrace the wider whole of the creative moment of the NOW and the emerging potential of a noospheric Omega Point.
“We must shift our perspectives, deepen our perception, often against a great deal of resistance, to embrace the deeper and wider contexts. But for that reason, each time we identify a deeper context, our relative autonomy actually increases, because in identifying with a deeper perception, we have found a wider freedom.”
Ken Wilbur - Sex, Ecology and Spirituality.
It is in this deep embrace of the whole and the freedom of the Now that we through direct experience see not only ourselves for who we truly are, but the interiority of our explorations yields to us the mystical experience of the divine. A state of being beyond conceptions and the reasonings of men but of direct experience of the awareness of the Eternal Now . As Sri Aurobindo says,
“They proved to me by convincing reasons that God does not exist; Afterwards I saw God, for he came and embraced me. And now what am I to believe- the reasoning of others or my own experience? Truth is what the soul has seen and experienced; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.”
DEO
“We must shift our perspectives, deepen our perception, often against a great deal of resistance, to embrace the deeper and wider contexts. But for that reason, each time we identify a deeper context, our relative autonomy actually increases, because in identifying with a deeper perception, we have found a wider freedom.”
Ken Wilbur - Sex, Ecology and Spirituality.
Holy molly!! This quote sums it all up for me …. Talk about synch, wow.
“Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory.”, Les Brown. If you can do that every moment without carrying over anything from the previous, you can be considered pretty free :-)
Just love that quote Peter…. here are a few more that I really enjoy….
The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post. -L. Thomas Holdcroft
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within and God o'erhead.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Psalm of Life
The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle. - Anais Nin:
and of course more Eckhart…
“The present moment has always been available to spiritual seekers, but as long as you are seeking you are not available to the present moment. “Seeking” implies that you are looking to the future for some answer, or for some achievement, spiritual or otherwise. Everybody is in the seeking mode, seeking to add something to who they are, whether it be money, relationships, possessions, knowledge, status.. or spiritual attainment.”
Eckhart Tolle -
DEO
Tolle reminded me of this: ”Every moment we want something means that in
that moment we declare that we are not something.” from Becoming. When you need time, you lost the game already :-)
Wow this took off. Cool!
Truth is what the soul has seen and experienced; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.” This, too, sums up a lot. I mean this is the ground on which I, we, you stand isn't it? We are either standing in Truth or wading in the muck of appearance, prejudice, and opinion.
A quick aside on Wilber's meeting resistance to depth and span. We have to meet resistance. It's an inherit natural requisite because without out it we'd reach the balanced equilibrium of (shall I say) Enlightenment without any experience, awareness, without any gain in Knowledge. Resistance is appropriate until you gain the Knowledge to BE. Direct experience is what it's all about and it is NOW and Always. As Tolle says, “Compared to that, happiness is quite a shallow thing.”
And let's not forget Stillness…the quality of the NOW. Stillness is the Context and the Content, right Eckhart? In the NOW we can both watch the game and play it without judgment - wouldn't you say Peter? Real imagination is greatly more creative than judgmental, discerning pehaps, but not judgmental.
It would be fun if Eckhart was here to respond, huh?
Another great blog and lively comments… Yeehaaa!
There is nothing except the current moment (NOW). The observer creates his own perception of the moment, and therefore also its own interpretation of it. And this is based on the culmination of all the previous knowledge, experience, understanding, quality of the perception etc.
In another words, we only know what we know, and we only see (hear etc.) what we know. And this is the paradox. How can you perceive something you do not already know? You cannot. Hence you have to 'get rid of' your mind or your thoughts to be more specific (read this for further details). Your world is your thoughts but your thoughts are not the genuine perception of the moment. You never get that far because your mind interferes and draws you the world you know (and is familiar to you). As a result we are not afraid of the unknown but a possible separation from the known (thus the resistance).
And finally yes - everything simply is. So no judgment or relation to anything. Like watching a mute security camera - things just happen. And it's not stillness in a static way - very dynamic indeed.
An old post about this mind business.
It sure has Rod!
Thanks for helping push the wheel. You and Peter bring up some excellent points on the need for stillness, but as Peter says, not in a static way. Another word that comes to mind in all this is “Flow.” Knowing that the only constant is change and our ability to engage the Now is seen through our experieince to “flow” from moment to moment.
But you make the excellent point Rod of Resistance. We all reach a threshold within ourselves and as you say,
“Resistance is appropriate until you gain the Knowledge to BE.”
I think too many think the path or way is one full of rainbows and sunshine, but in order to BE, we must get past the resistance and confront it, and that means confronting the Shadow within. This is the real work, the crossroads to the Hero's journey in slaying the dragons and learning to “Follow our Bliss.”
Cait just posted a blog on this very subject, Living the Now where she speaks to this from an experiential POV.
“Its so important to play the part of the silent observer within ourselves in order to learn about who we are, what makes us tick, what triggers us into reacting. Its so crucial that we get to know and understand who we are, observe ourselves, understand our patterns, see how we seem to ripple out from one single word sometimes into habitual behaviors, and unknowingly hit that play button within our subconscious mind influencing our next move.
Don't be afraid to look within the shadows of the self, that's were you will find so many answers about the self. Its in getting to know the shadow self that we truly are able to know the complete self.”
Well said Cait!
DEO
There is no resistance per se. It is simply your old luggage - everything you know. You just have to get rid of it (unlearn). Only then you can BE more purely but that's just the beginning, nothing more. You will always have 'inertia' since the conciousness is ever expanding and thus experiencing itself in new ways. Hence the 'resistance' or inertia does not stop in the 'enlightenment' - only the frame of reference changes.
All these are just words and entirely useless, only the first-hand experience (by observing) counts and words have no territorial claim on that land :-)
Once again another great point Peter.
One of my favorite quotes from Wilbur and one found on Alberts profile page (Cool Guy!) says,
“An integral approach is merely an attempt to categorize, in conceptual terms, some of this glory as it manifests itself. But it is no more than that. Every one of my books has at least one sentence, usually buried, that says the following (this is the version found in The Atman Project): “There follows, then, the story of the Atman project. It is a sharing of what I have seen; it is a small offering of what I have remembered; it is also the Zen dust you should shake from your sandals; and it is finally a lie in the face of that Mystery which only alone is.”
In other words, all of my books are lies. They are simply maps of a territory, shadows of a reality, gray symbols dragging their bellies across the dead page, suffocated signs full of muffled sound and faded glory, signifying absolutely nothing. And it is the nothing, the Mystery, the Emptiness alone that needs to be realized: not known but felt, not thought but breathed, not an object but an atmosphere, not a lesson but a life. ”
I touched on this in Perspective Can Shift Thinking.
DEO