The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

 

So many books, So little time.....

This morning I finished reading this book. This was another book recommended by my Kashmiri friend Amir Hussain. As he had told me about this book, it really was a master piece. The ideas are so practical, realistic and helpful. Writing is another point of strength of this book, it is remarkably fantastic; after all writer is the best spiritual leader in entire USA. I enjoyed a lot this book and I will recommend it to everyone specially those people who are going through a rough time or meeting some new challenges in life. It gives hope, it inspires the reader. Basically it gives a whole different perspective about world around us visible and invisible.

   Practicing these ideas and ways will transform to a complete different person with inner enlightenment. I do not know why but I have been feeling really great about myself and everything in my life ever since I started reading this book. It describes really easy and outstanding ways of meditation. The main purpose of the book is that we should keep digging inside us for happiness and enlightenment. Everything is inside us, we do not need to search for fulfillment and happiness outside. God is inside us, he is inside every living being in the world. He says when we found happiness inside we will never ever be unhappy, depressed or anxious about things happening in outside  world. It describes his ideas in every possible situation and how it can be applied anywhere anytime, all we need is ourselves and our consciousness.

It is one of the best and sophisticated books I have ever read. Some of the ideas were unfathomable for my level but from the ideas which I did fathom I can tell, this is a true masterpiece and Eckhart Tolle is a complete spiritual genius.

#Hope_you_read_and_Enjoy_this_book.

and here I am gonna mention some of my favorite quotes from this remarkable book:

"All problems are illusions of the mind"

"The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not 'the thinker.' The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then beging of realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter__beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace __arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken."

"All you really need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself."

"True power is within, and it is available now."

"Do not be concerned with the fruit of your action_ just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come of it's own accord. This is a powerful spiritual practice."

"Be where you are, Look around. Just look, don't interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be."

"When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power. The realm of Being, which had been obscured by the mind, then opens up. Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy. And withing that joy, there is love. And at the innermost core, there is the sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named."

"Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form."

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have."

"One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your hed, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as you sense of self does not depend on it."

"If YOUR OVERALL SITUATION IS UNSATISFACTORY or unpleasant, separate out this instant and surrender to what is. That's the flashlight cutting through the fog. Your state of consciousness then ceases to be controlled by external conditions. Your are no longer coming from reaction and resistance. Then look at the specifics of the situation. Ask yourself, 'Is there anything I can do to change the situation, improve it, or remove myself from it?' If so. take appropriate action. Focus not on the hundred things that you will or may have to do at some future time but on the one thing that you can do now. This doesn't mean you should not do any planning. It may well be that planning is the one thing you can do now. But make sure you don't keep running' mental movies' that continually project yourself into the future. and so lose the Now. Any action you take may not bear fruit immediately. Until it does _ do not resist what is."

"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."

"THE JOY OF BEING TO alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by psychological time, you can use a simple criterion. ASK YOURSELF: Is there joy, ease and lightness in what I am doing? If there isn't, then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle."

"When you accept what is, every moment is the best moment. That is enlightenment."

"THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM is the realization that you are not the possessing entity_ the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter__beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace__arise from beyond the mind."


"Coming from Being, you will perceive another person's body and mind as just a screen, as it were, behind which you can feel their true reality, as you feel yours. So, when confronted with someone else's suffering or unconscious behavior, you stay present and in touch with Being and are thus able to look beyond the form and feel the other person's radiant and pure Being through your won."

"Present moment holds the key to liberation."

"IF THERE IS NO ACTON YOU CAN TAKE, and you cannot remove yourself from the situation either, then use the situation to make you go more deeply into surrender, more deeply into the Now, more deeply into Being. When you enter this timeless dimension of the present, change often comes about in strange ways without the need for a great deal of doing on your part. Life becomes helpful and cooperative. If inner factors such as fear, guilt, or inertia prevented you from taking action, they will dissolve in the light of your conscious presence."

"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. If you resist or fight unconscious behavior in others, you become unconscious yourself. But surrender does not mean that you allow yourself to be used by unconscious people. Not at all. It is perfectly possibly to say 'no' firmly and clearly to a person or to walk away from a situation and be ina state of complete inner noresistance at the same time."

"As long as a condition is judged as 'good' by your mind, whether it be a relationship, a possession, a social role, a place, or your physical body, the mind attaches itself to it and identifies with it. It makes you happy, makes you feel good about yourself, and it may become part of who you are or think you are."

"Stay present, stay conscious. Be the ever_alert guardian of your inner space."

"When you are fully present and people around you manifest unconscious behavior, you won't feel the need to react to it, so you don't give it any reality. Your peace is so vast and deep that anything that is not peace disappears into it as it it had never existed. This breaks the karmic cycle of action and reaction."

ALL_THE_BEST