The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Flashcards
(237 cards)
1
Q
the amazing and beneficial effects of inner body awareness, the sense of freedom that comes from letting go of self-identification with one’s personal history and life-situation, and a newfound inner peace that arises as one learns to relinquish mental/emotional resistance to the “suchness” of the present moment.156
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
2
Q
I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.200
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
3
Q
“I want what you have. Can you give it to me, or show me how to get it?” And I would say: “You have it already. You just can’t feel it because your mind is making too much noise.”213
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
4
Q
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.279
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
5
Q
your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.283
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
6
Q
Buddha’s simple definition of enlightenment as “the end of suffering.”287
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
7
Q
Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.293
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
8
Q
When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally.296
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
9
Q
Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being. It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence,311
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
10
Q
This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.317
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
11
Q
“I think, therefore I am.” He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking.320
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
12
Q
Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance.332
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
13
Q
can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the “off” button? You mean stop thinking altogether? No, I can’t, except maybe for a moment or two. Then the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don’t even know that you are its slave.340
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
14
Q
You have probably come across “mad” people in the street incessantly talking or muttering to themselves. Well, that’s not much different from what you and all other “normal” people do, except that you don’t do it out loud.353
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
15
Q
It is not uncommon for the voice to be a person’s own worst enemy. Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy. It is the cause of untold misery and unhappiness, as well as of disease.360
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
16
Q
Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns,363
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
17
Q
So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence — your deeper self — behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.370
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
18
Q
Instead of “watching the thinker,” you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment.387
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
19
Q
you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.389
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
20
Q
In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself.390
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
21
Q
So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind.397
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
22
Q
Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, 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.402
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
23
Q
The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it here it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind.411
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
24
Q
To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional.413
A
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
25
The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.419
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
26
Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.424
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
27
Enlightenment means rising above thought,426
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
28
All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.433
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
29
Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’s reaction to your mind446
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
30
If you really want to know your mind, the body will always give you a truthful reflection, so look at the emotion, or rather feel it in your body.463
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
31
So observing our emotions is as important as observing our thoughts? Yes. Make it a habit to ask yourself: What’s going on inside me at this moment?472
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
32
all emotions are modifications of one primordial, undifferentiated emotion483
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
33
“Fear” comes close, but apart from a continuous sense of threat, it also includes a deep sense of abandonment and incompleteness.485
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
34
Glimpses of love and joy or brief moments of deep peace are possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought.494
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
35
Emotion literally means “disturbance.” The word comes from the Latin emovere, meaning “to disturb.”500
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
36
All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings,517
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
37
There are two levels to your pain: the pain that you create now, and the pain from the past that still lives on in your mind and body.533
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
38
The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created539
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
39
The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it.542
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
40
The question “What time is it?” or “What’s the date today?” — if anybody were there to ask it — would be quite meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a question. “What time?” they would ask. “Well, of course, it’s now. The time is now. What else is there?”548
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
41
The mind, to ensure that it remains in control, seeks continuously to cover up the present moment with past and future,552
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
42
How to stop creating time? Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.559
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
43
The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it.589
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
44
Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.593
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
45
will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others.596
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
46
the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you.606
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
47
Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself.611
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
48
summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it — don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge or analyze. Don’t make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of “the one who observes,” the silent watcher. This is the power of the Now, the power of your own conscious presence.633
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
49
you would rather be in pain — be the pain-body — than take a leap into the unknown and risk losing the familiar unhappy self.648
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
50
Observe the attachment to your pain. Be very alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you derive from being unhappy.650
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
51
Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are right or wrong makes no difference to your sense of self at all, so the forcefully compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of violence, will no longer be there. You can state clearly and firmly how you feel or what you think, but there will be no aggressiveness or defensiveness about it. Your sense of self is then derived from a deeper and truer place within yourself, not from the mind.680
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
52
The number of people who have gone beyond mind is as yet extremely small, so you can assume that virtually everyone you meet or know lives in a state of fear. Only the intensity of it varies.688
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
53
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.699
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
54
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.701
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
55
The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.707
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
56
The problems of the mind cannot be solved on the level of the mind.712
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
57
the basic mechanics of the unconscious state: identification with the mind, which creates a false self, the ego, as a substitute for your true self rooted in Being.715
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
58
The ego’s needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatened and so lives in a state of fear and want.717
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
59
When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is not dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are. It then becomes the egoic mind and takes over your whole life.724
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
60
End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable. Remove time from the mind and it stops — unless you choose to use it.728
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
61
The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.731
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
62
Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.748
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
63
What you think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a former Now. When you remember the past, you reactivate a memory trace — and you do so now. The future is an imagined Now, a projection of the mind.749
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
64
“What, at this moment, is lacking?” A powerful question that does not require an answer on the level of the mind. It is designed to take your attention deeply into the Now. A similar question in the Zen tradition is this: “If not now, when?”775
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
65
Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century spiritual teacher, summed it all up beautifully: “Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time.”780
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
66
Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it.804
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
67
Identification with the mind gives it more energy; observation of the mind withdraws energy from it. Identification with the mind creates more time; observation of the mind opens up the dimension of the timeless.815
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
68
The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time. In other words, they continue to use clock time but are free of psychological time.829
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
69
If you set yourself a goal and work toward it, you are using clock time. You are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your fullest attention to the step that you are taking at this moment. If you then become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the Now is no longer honored. It becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value. Clock time then turns into psychological time.835
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
70
the present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not “this moment.”845
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
71
Usually, the future is a replica of the past. Superficial changes are possible, but real transformation is rare and depends upon whether you can become present enough to dissolve the past by accessing the power of the Now.867
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
72
Most people find it difficult to believe that a state of consciousness totally free of all negativity is possible. And yet this is the liberated state to which all spiritual teachings point. It is the promise of salvation, not in an illusory future but right here and now.879
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
73
You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.894
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
74
Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.902
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
75
this is not about solving your problems. It’s about realizing that there are no problems. Only situations — to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as part of the “isness” of the present moment until they change or can be dealt with. Problems are mind-made and need time to survive. They cannot survive in the actuality of the Now.919
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
76
When you create a problem, you create pain.930
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
77
As there are no problems in the Now, there is no fear either.943
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
78
you cannot give your full attention to something and at the same time resist it.965
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
79
As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love965
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
80
nonattachment to the fruit of your action is called Karma Yoga.970
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
81
When every cell of your body is so present that it feels vibrant with life, and when you can feel that life every moment as the joy of Being, then it can be said that you are free of time.995
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
82
to know that you are not present is a great success: That knowing is presence —1005
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
83
The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious.1032
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
84
Native American chief who pointed out to him 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. We don’t know what they want. We think they are mad.”1049
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
85
Jesus asked his disciples. “Can anxious thought add a single day to your life?”1054
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
86
Buddha taught that the root of suffering is to be found in our constant wanting and craving.1055
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
87
Anything unconscious dissolves when you shine the light of consciousness on it.1063
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
88
Make it a habit to monitor your mental-emotional state through self-observation. “Am I at ease at this moment?” is a good question to ask yourself frequently. Or you can ask: “What’s going on inside me at this moment?” Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.1066
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
89
Primary reality is within, secondary reality without.1068
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
90
The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution:1084
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
91
any negative inner state is contagious: Unhappiness spreads more easily than a physical disease.1089
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
92
How can we drop negativity, as you suggest? By dropping it.1093
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
93
To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.1133
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
94
If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.1138
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
95
If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.1139
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
96
Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there,” or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.1155
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
97
Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being.1166
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
98
You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future — nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after.1173
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
99
Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present.1182
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
100
You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deepest inner Being. It is already whole, complete, perfect. Your life situation consists of your circumstances and your experiences. There is nothing wrong with setting goals and striving to achieve things. The mistake lies in using it as a substitute for the feeling of life, for Being.1186
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
101
Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.1199
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
102
next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” you can reply, “That’s all right, I wasn’t waiting. I was just standing here enjoying myself — in joy in my self.”1200
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
103
When you are on a journey, it is certainly helpful to know where you are going or at least the general direction in which you are moving, but don’t forget: The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.1209
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
104
Your life’s journey has an outer purpose and an inner purpose. The outer purpose is to arrive at your goal or destination,1211
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
105
the journey’s inner purpose, which has nothing to do with where you are going or what you are doing, but everything to do with how.1214
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
106
It is also possible to fail completely in your outer purpose and at the same time totally succeed in your inner purpose. Or the other way around, which is actually more common:1224
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
107
The sooner you realize that your outer purpose cannot give you lasting fulfillment, the better.1227
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
108
Only the present can free you of the past.1240
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
109
You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You find yourself by coming into the present.1247
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
110
Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought.1260
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
111
I had to wait for quite a long time before a thought came in. Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought.1264
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
112
Zen masters use the word satori to describe a flash of insight, a moment of no-mind and total presence.1294
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
113
When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of itself — that’s presence.1321
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
114
ancient seers of India asked themselves. They saw the world as lila, a kind of divine game that God is playing.1338
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
115
“The teacher and the taught together create the teaching.”1381
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
116
You can substitute “Christ” for presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-essence or the Self,1391
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
117
Thus, the man Jesus became Christ, a vehicle for pure consciousness. And what is God’s self-definition in the Bible? Did God say, “I have always been, and I always will be?” Of course not. That would have given reality to past and future. God said: “I AM THAT I AM.” No time here, just presence.1400
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
118
The “second coming” of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman.1403
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
119
I am still not quite sure if I fully understand what you mean by Being. “Water? What do you mean by that? I don’t understand it.” This is what a fish would say if it had a human mind. Please stop trying to understand Being.1427
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
120
If, for whatever reason, you disliked the word honey, that might prevent you from ever tasting it. If you had a strong aversion to the word God, which is a negative form of attachment, you may be denying not just the word but also the reality to which it points.1447
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
121
if a word doesn’t work for you anymore, then drop it and replace it with one that does work. If you don’t like the word sin, then call it unconsciousness or insanity.1450
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
122
To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey.1478
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
123
in the end you will always have to return to the body, where the essential work of transformation takes place.1517
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
124
Do not turn your attention elsewhere in your search for the Truth, for it is nowhere else to be found but within your body. Do not fight against the body, for in doing so you are fighting against your own reality. You are your body.1537
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
125
The body that you can see and touch is only a thin illusory veil. Underneath it lies the invisible inner body, the doorway into Being, into Life Unmanifested. Through the inner body, you are inseparably connected to this unmanifested One Life — birthless, deathless, eternally present. Through the inner body, you are forever one with God.1539
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
126
The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your inner body — to feel it at all times. This will rapidly deepen and transform your life.1543
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
127
As long as you are in conscious contact with your inner body, you are like a tree that is deeply rooted in the earth, or a building with a deep and solid foundation.1571
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
128
In a fully functional organism, an emotion has a very short life span. It is like a momentary ripple or wave on the surface of your Being.1584
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
129
Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so to let go of grief.1592
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
130
Jesus said: “Before you enter the temple, forgive.”1597
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
131
Feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking.1613
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
132
Is there any scientific evidence for this? Try it out and you will be the evidence.1627
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
133
last thing at night before falling asleep and first thing in the morning before getting up, “flood” your body with consciousness. Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest, head, and so on. Feel the life energy inside those parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for fifteen seconds or so. Then let your attention run through the body like a wave a few times, from feet to head and back again.1643
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
134
In any thought activity, make it a habit to go back and forth every few minutes or so between thinking and an inner kind of listening, an inner stillness.1663
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
135
When listening to another person, don’t just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body.1667
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
136
Most human relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each other, not of human beings communicating, being in communion.1673
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
137
open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few minutes in a meditative way — that is, without labeling them mentally — and continue to feel the inner body as you do so.1692
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
138
Chi is the inner energy field of your body.1701
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
139
As you go about your life, don’t give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and to your mind. Keep some within.1712
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
140
You cannot be in your body without being intensely present in the Now.1734
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
141
Jesus, speaking entirely from his essence or Christ identity, says in the Gospel of Thomas: “Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there.”1739
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
142
Another portal into the Unmanifested is created through the cessation of thinking. This can start with a very simple thing, such as taking one conscious breath or looking, in a state of intense alertness, at a flower, so that there is no mental commentary running at the same time.1740
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
143
There are many ways to create a gap in the incessant stream of thought. This is what meditation is all about.1742
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
144
Your task is not to search for love but to find a portal through which love can enter.1758
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
145
Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. A portal is opening up.1764
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
146
Physicists tell us that the solidity of matter is an illusion. Even seemingly solid matter, including your physical body, is nearly 100 percent empty space — so vast are the distances between the atoms compared to their size. What is more, even inside every atom there is mostly empty space.1773
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
147
Since space is “nothing,” we can say that what is not there is more important than what is there. So become aware of the space that is all around you. Don’t think about it. Feel it, as it were. Pay attention to “nothing.”1795
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
148
if you withdraw attention from things — objects in space — you automatically withdraw attention from your mind objects as well. In other words: You cannot think and be aware of space — or of silence, for that matter.1800
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
149
By becoming aware of the empty space around you, you simultaneously become aware of the space of no-mind, of pure consciousness: the Unmanifested.1801
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
150
You also know that every form is destined to dissolve again and that ultimately nothing out here matters all that much. You have “overcome the world,” in the words of Jesus, or, as the Buddha put it, you have “crossed over to the other shore.”1811
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
151
Approaching death and death itself, the dissolution of the physical form, is always a great opportunity for spiritual realization.1857
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
152
you are waiting for an event in time to save you. Is this not the core error that we have been talking about? Salvation is not elsewhere in place or time. It is here and now.1868
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
153
True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness. It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself.1877
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
154
You “get” there by realizing that you are there already. You find God the moment you realize that you don’t need to seek God.1887
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
155
Love as a continuous state is as yet very rare — as rare as conscious human beings.1907
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
156
As long as you are identified with the mind, you have an externally derived sense of self. That is to say, you get your sense of who you are from things that ultimately have nothing to do with who you are: your social role, possessions, external appearance, successes and1934
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
157
Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.1957
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
158
Avoidance of relationships in an attempt to avoid pain is not the answer either.1965
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
159
First you stop judging yourself; then you stop judging your partner. The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your partner as he or she is, without needing to judge or change them in any way. That immediately takes you beyond ego.1978
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
160
True communication is communion — the realization of oneness, which is love.1999
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
161
every crisis represents not only danger but also opportunity.2014
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
162
So whenever your relationship is not working, whenever it brings out the “madness” in you and in your partner, be glad. What was unconscious is being brought up to the light.2026
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
163
If you react at all to your partner’s unconsciousness, you become unconscious yourself.2033
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
164
When your partner behaves unconsciously, relinquish all judgment. Judgment is either to confuse someone’s unconscious behavior with who they are or to project your own unconsciousness onto another person and mistake that for who they are.2048
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
165
To relinquish judgment does not mean that you do not recognize dysfunction and unconsciousness when you see it. It means “being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction” and the judge.2050
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
166
Learn to give expression to what you feel without blaming. Learn to listen to your partner in an open, nondefensive way. Give your partner space for expressing himself or herself. Be present.2057
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
167
If your partner is still identified with the mind and the pain-body while you are already free, this will represent a major challenge — not to you but to your partner. It is not easy to live with an enlightened person, or rather it is so easy that the ego finds it extremely threatening. Remember that the ego needs problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the sense of separateness on which its identity depends.2064
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
168
it is easier for a woman to feel and be in her body, so she is naturally closer to Being and potentially closer to enlightenment than a man.2104
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
169
the Tao, which could be translated as Being, is described as “infinite, eternally present, the mother of the universe.”2108
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
170
The mind runs our civilization, whereas Being is in charge of all life on our planet and beyond.2123
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
171
the major obstacle for men tends to be the thinking mind, and the major obstacle for women the pain-body,2127
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
172
Anyone with a strong pain-body and not enough consciousness to disidentify from it will not only continuously or periodically be forced to relive their emotional pain but may also easily become either the perpetrator or the victim of violence, depending on whether their pain-body is predominantly active or passive.2134
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
173
if you are trapped in a nightmare you will probably be more strongly motivated to awaken than someone who is just caught in the ups and downs of an ordinary dream.2137
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
174
A victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful than the present,2162
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
175
Some women who are already conscious enough to have relinquished their victim identity on the personal level are still holding on to a collective victim identity: “what men did to women.” They are right — and they are also wrong. They are right inasmuch as the collective female pain-body is in large part due to male violence inflicted on women and repression of the female principle throughout the planet over millennia. They are wrong if they derive a sense of self from this fact and thereby keep themselves imprisoned in a collective victim identity.2168
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
176
Being an outsider to some extent, someone who does not “fit in” with others or is rejected by them for whatever reason, makes life difficult, but it also places you at an advantage as far as enlightenment is concerned. It takes you out of unconsciousness almost by force.2223
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
177
If you cannot be at ease with yourself when you are alone, you will seek a relationship to cover up your unease.2230
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
178
When you are enlightened, there is one relationship that you no longer have: the relationship with yourself. Once you have given that up, all your other relationships will be love relationships.2239
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
179
Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time.2250
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
180
Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every moment — allow it to be as it is — then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.2260
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
181
Most of the so-called bad things that happen in people’s lives are due to unconsciousness. They are self-created, or rather ego-created.2286
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
182
Ego is the unobserved mind that runs your life when you are not present as the witnessing consciousness, the watcher.2288
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
183
The basic ego patterns are designed to combat its own deep-seated fear and sense of lack.2291
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
184
The down cycle is absolutely essential for spiritual realization. You must have failed deeply on some level or experienced some deep loss or pain to be drawn to the spiritual dimension. Or perhaps your very success became empty and meaningless and so turned out to be failure.2326
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
185
Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure.2328
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
186
The whole advertising industry and consumer society would collapse if people became enlightened and no longer sought to find their identity through things. The more you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you.2365
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
187
A Buddhist monk once told me: “All I have learned in the twenty years that I have been a monk I can sum up in one sentence: All that arises passes away. This I know.”2375
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
188
I have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace.2376
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
189
To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness.2378
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
190
Even if everything were to collapse and crumble all around you, you would still feel a deep inner core of peace. You may not be happy, but you will be at peace.2385
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
191
All inner resistance is experienced as negativity in one form or another. All negativity is resistance.2387
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
192
No other life-form on the planet knows negativity, only humans,2400
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
193
Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being.2404
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
194
I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.2407
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
195
Whenever you notice that some form of negativity has arisen within you, look on it not as a failure, but as a helpful signal that is telling you: “Wake up. Get out of your mind. Be present.”2424
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
196
Instead of having a wall of resistance inside you that gets constantly and painfully hit by things that “should not be happening,” let everything pass through you.2445
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
197
The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace.2457
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
198
When you accept what is, every piece of meat — every moment — is the best. That is enlightenment.2466
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
199
Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures.2482
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
200
One of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called: Die before you die. Go into it deeply.2488
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
201
Our collective human world is largely created through the level of consciousness we call mind. Even within the collective human world there are vast differences, many different “sub-worlds,” depending on the perceivers or creators of their respective worlds.2527
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
202
the dual nature of true compassion, which is awareness of a common bond of shared mortality and immortality. At this deep level, compassion becomes healing in the widest sense. In that state, your healing influence is primarily based not on doing but on being. Everybody you come in contact with will be touched by your presence and affected by the peace that you emanate,2551
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
203
who you are is always a more vital teaching and a more powerful transformer of the world than what you say, and more essential even than what you do.2560
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
204
When a hungry person asks you for bread and you have some, you will give it. But as you give the bread, even though your interaction may only be very brief, what really matters is this moment of shared Being, of which the bread is only a symbol. A deep healing takes place within it. In that moment, there is no giver, no receiver.2563
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
205
Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you cannot fight unconsciousness. If you try to do so, the polar opposites will become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. You will become identified with one of the polarities, you will create an “enemy,” and so be drawn into unconsciousness yourself.2575
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
206
True surrender, however, is something entirely different. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean to cease making plans or initiating positive action.2589
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
207
Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.2591
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
208
to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation.2592
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
209
Resistance is the mind.2598
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
210
For example, if you were stuck in the mud somewhere, you wouldn’t say: “Okay, I resign myself to being stuck in the mud.” Resignation is not surrender. You don’t need to accept an undesirable or unpleasant life situation. Nor do you need to deceive yourself and say that there is nothing wrong with being stuck in the mud. No. You recognize fully that you want to get out of it. You then narrow your attention down to the present moment without mentally labeling it in any way. This means that there is no judgment of the Now. Therefore, there is no resistance, no emotional negativity. You accept the “isness” of this moment. Then you take action and do all that you can to get out of the mud. Such action I call positive action. It is far more effective than negative action, which arises out of anger, despair, or frustration.2600
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
211
Surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change, or achieving goals. But in the surrendered state a totally different energy, a different quality, flows into your doing.2623
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
212
In the state of surrender, you see very clearly what needs to be done, and you take action, doing one thing at a time and focusing on one thing at a time.2634
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
213
You cannot be conscious and unhappy, conscious and in negativity. Negativity, unhappiness, or suffering in whatever form means that there is resistance, and resistance is always unconscious.2657
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
214
You keep your unhappiness alive by giving it time. That is its lifeblood. Remove time through intense present-moment awareness and it dies.2663
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
215
Those who run on mind energy, which is still the vast majority of the Earth’s population, remain unaware of the existence of spiritual energy.2672
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
216
It is true that only an unconscious person will try to use or manipulate others, but it is equally true that only an unconscious person can be used and manipulated.2682
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
217
surrender doesn’t mean that you allow yourself to be used by unconscious people. Not at all. It is perfectly possible to say “no” firmly and clearly to a person or to walk away from a situation and be in a state of complete inner nonresistance at the same time. When you say “no” to a person or a situation, let it come not from reaction but from insight, from a clear realization of what is right or not right for you at that moment. Let it be a nonreactive “no,” a high-quality “no,” a “no” that is free of all negativity and so creates no further suffering.2684
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
218
When you become involved in an argument or some conflict situation, perhaps with a partner or someone close to you, start by observing how defensive you become2702
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
219
Nonresistance doesn’t necessarily mean doing nothing. All it means is that any “doing” becomes nonreactive.2715
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
220
Don’t resist the opponent’s force. Yield to overcome.2716
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
221
In Taoism, there is a term called wu wei, which is usually translated as “actionless activity” or “sitting quietly doing nothing.”2718
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
222
The ego believes that in your resistance lies your strength, whereas in truth resistance cuts you off from Being, the only place of true power.2723
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
223
As there are no problems in the Now, there is no illness either. The belief in a label that someone attaches to your condition keeps the condition in place, empowers it, and makes a seemingly solid reality out of a temporary imbalance.2738
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
224
Surrender does not transform what is, at least not directly. Surrender transforms you. When you are transformed, your whole world is transformed, because the world is only a reflection.2744
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
225
Are you seriously ill and feeling angry now about what I have just said? Then that is a clear sign that the illness has become part of your sense of self and that you are now protecting your identity — as well as protecting the illness. The condition that is labeled “illness” has nothing to do with who you truly are.2754
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
226
So whenever any kind of disaster strikes, or something goes seriously “wrong” — illness, disability, loss of home or fortune or of a socially defined identity, breakup of a close relationship, death or suffering of a loved one, or your own impending death — know that there is another side to it, that you are just one step away from something incredible:2770
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
227
If you cannot accept what is outside, then accept what is inside. If you cannot accept the external condition, accept the internal condition.2791
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
228
When there is no way out, there is still always a way through.2803
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
229
Full attention is full acceptance, is surrender.2812
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
230
God is Being itself, not a being. There can be no subject-object relationship here, no duality, no you and God. God-realization is the most natural thing there is.2832
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
231
Enlightenment consciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life. It means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is. You then don’t need pain anymore.2847
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
232
It is misleading to say that somebody “chose” a dysfunctional relationship or any other negative situation in his or her life. Choice implies consciousness — a high degree of consciousness. Without it, you have no choice.2856
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
233
The mind, conditioned as it is by the past, always seeks to re-create what it knows and is familiar with. Even if it is painful, at least it is familiar.2864
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
234
Nobody chooses dysfunction, conflict, pain. Nobody chooses insanity. They happen because there is not enough presence in you to dissolve the past, not enough light to dispel the darkness. You are not fully here.2876
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
235
issue with their parents, if you still harbor resentment about something they did or did not do, then you still believe that they had a choice — that they could have acted differently. It always looks as if people had a choice, but that is an illusion. As long as your mind with its conditioned patterns runs your life, as long as you are your mind, what choice do you have? None. You are not even there.2879
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
236
If you are run by your mind, although you have no choice you will still suffer the consequences of your unconsciousness, and you will create further suffering.2885
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
237
And how do I get to that point of realization? When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power. You do not need it anymore. Presence is the key. The Now is the key.2893
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
