The Power of Now

[jamech]

Hi All, Just wondering if any of you have read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle that has received a lot of recent hype.

::the following is said with a mystical soft breathy voice with new age meditation music in the background::

The book is about not allowing your mind to get in the way of experiencing your deeper self and getting rid of any thoughts that originate in the past and the future allowing you to arrive to a state of wholeness and living in the eternal bliss of the divine "Now"
(ok ok I'm being a little overly dramatic).

But anyway the basic idea of the book (as taken by a reviewer on amazon.com) is: the mind is the root of all problems, because it has taken us over (meaning that we can't control it, but rather, it controls us). However, we can free ourselves from this by becoming totally present.

Anyway, a mormon friend called the other day wanting me to read this book so she could have someone to talk to about it. I was excited about this because I enjoy reading about spiritual stuff and thought it would be a nice opportunity to discuss something with her that wasn't threatening to either one of us for once (imagine that!) After about 40 minutes in (I was listening to the audio version), I got the feeling that my friend was trying again "to get through to me" I am sooooooo sick of this!!!! :Crazy: She has told me in the past that she thinks that my mind gets in the way of my heart to the point that I can't feel the "Holy Ghost" (or I talk myself out of it). Anyway, I think she's convinced that this is at the root of "my problem with not getting a testimony". So I'm sure you can imagine what I was thinking when I heard sentences in the book such as the following:

1. " I often address myself to the “knower” in you who dwells behind the “thinker”, the deeper self that immediately recognizes spiritual truth"

2. "Being … is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don’t seek to grasp it with your mind. Don’t try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still….Being can be felt, but it an never be understood mentally."

3. "What is the greatest obstacle to experiencing this reality? Identification with your mind which causes thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction. But we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise disturbs you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from being. It also creates a false “mind made” self that casts a shadow of fear and suffering."

4. "Identification with your mind presents an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions. It blocks all true relationships. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God."

5. "To put it accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly, you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you! This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind, this is the delusion: the instrument has taken you over."

6. "Let me ask you this: Can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the off button? [if not] then the mind is using you, you’re unconsciously identified with it, and so you don’t even know that you are its slave. It’s almost as if you are possessed without knowing it and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself."

These quotes and many more were just in the first 40 minutes of the audiobook. I can't listen to anymore and stay sane! I could just hear my friend thinking as she listened to this: "Jamech NEEDS to hear this!!"

Anyway, I think there is a good chance that my friend really just wanted to share a book that she found valuable and wanted to discuss it with NO ulterior motive. It's very possible I could be "over-identifying" with experiences in the past and not listening to what's happening in "the NOW" ;) I really don't want to get into a discussion with her....However, I did promise her a response. Any ideas?

[Jeff_Ricks]

4. "Identification with your mind presents an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions. It blocks all true relationships. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God."

5. "To put it accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly, you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you! This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind, this is the delusion: the instrument has taken you over."

6. "Let me ask you this: Can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the off button? [if not] then the mind is using you, you’re unconsciously identified with it, and so you don’t even know that you are its slave. It’s almost as if you are possessed without knowing it and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself."I read the book several years ago when a friend from work recommended it. I liked it and I generally agree with the premise of the book. I think that being able to switch off your thoughts from time to time is a healthy exercise. Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert at it. I've probably only done it twice in my life but each time was a major milestone in my life that caused me to realign my thinking and the direction I was moving with my life. It didn't happen through any conscious attempts to flip the off switch, it happened when I was in a deep inner searching mode, looking for answers, and as I examined them one by one and found them wanting, and therefore set them aside one by one, I reached a point where my mind ran out of options and stopped briefly. By this I mean that normally the mind is always moving, and buzzing, like a fly on expresso. Even when you think you're not thinking you're thinking about thinking that you're not thinking plus have one or two background thoughts happening at the same time. It just won't sit still. I guess, in relation to the fly metaphor it was if my mind quit buzzing and circling and took a break--like a fly landing on the table for a bit to get its bearings. It was at that moment, both times it happened, that I felt like I could finally, truly see, allowing me to get my bearings. The first time it happened it started me questioning the Church, and the second time it caused me to leave the Church. Both times it happened to me I thought it was an encounter wih God, but I since have come to understand it as an encounter with my Self -- what I am when my thoughts... (all of which we inherit from our environment and are therefore not our true "self")...when my thoughts are still.

I think if you shift your perspective and re-read the numbered statements in your post I think you'll find that you have plenty to talk to your friend about without helping her in her apparent goal to bring you back. Notice that, according to the author the 'thing' that you hear isn't some other being somewhere in the universe, it's you--your inner self. This kind of short circuits the need for a god or holy ghostie guy. In at least one of the statements he uses the God label but prior to using it he implies that this thing that some like to label, God, is really your self, which is a part of humanity and nature, all of which exists in the here and now, not on some distant Kolob or anywhere else in the unverse.

For what its worth, those are my thoughts from this spiritual atheist kinda guy. :rolleyes: Hmmm..."spiritual atheism." I think I like the sound of that. :)

Jeff

[peter_mary]

...but that never kept me from rendering an opinion! :D

I get SOOO sick and tired of people who would have us believe that "we've lost control of our minds" and that keeps us from understanding who we really are.

Nope.

We are what we are, minds and all. It's a package deal. I just don't believe there is a "Holy Ghost" or "divine self" or any other "mysterious stuff" that is silenced by our hyperactive minds.

I DO believe in the value of learning to still the mind. Not so you can "connect" with some "higher spiritual 'other'", but so that you can simply ground yourself in the present. I DO believe in the power of being present-minded, and Zen in particular very much recommends meditation as a means for achieving present-mindedness. But not so you can achieve higher spirituality, rather just so you can clear the clutter for a while and bask in the present moment. It creates a sense of peace when you are not worried about the future, or obsessing on the past, but rather simply aware that right here, right now, I'm sitting on my ass...and that's all. There's time to let my mind work on all the other things it needs to work on later, but right here, right now...sitting. That's all. Period.

That's a good thing. I've practiced it in the past, and very much appreciated it.

But "addicted" to our minds? I don't think so. If I were talking to someone who really wanted to pursue "the power of now", I'd redirect them to the writings of someone who isn't trying to create a following of groupies in the manner of Gary Zukov for instance. I'd suggest Thich Nhat Hahn, the Vietnamese monk whose writings on present-mindedness are lucid and intelligent, without the hokum of mystery and power.

But pay little attention to me, as I've never read the book. I'll crawl back to my corner now...

[jamech]

By this I mean that normally the mind is always moving, and buzzing, like a fly on expresso. Even when you think you're not thinking you're thinking about thinking that you're not thinking plus have one or two background thoughts happening at the same time. It just won't sit still.
Jeff

Jeff,

I really appreciate what you had to say in your post and I do understand the necessity of being able to quiet your mind to receive insights from deeper inside yourself. I guess this is what meditation is all about. The Dalai Lama has written several insightful books on the subject and this concept is deeply imbedded in much of eastern thought.

I guess the thing that bugs me about "The Power of Now" is that he treats the mind like the "enemy". It's NOT! I feel that even though it's critical that we quiet the mind so that we can hear other voices, it also plays an intregal role in actually freeing us from it's own damaging contents. You can't do this by ignoring it all and going to deeper place.

Another popular book, "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz, also discusses our enslavement to the mind, but it doesn't bother me as much. He talks about all of the beliefs and predjudices we inherit throughout the generations as well as the destructive thought processes that can control us. He said somewhere along the line we agreed to these beliefs either conciously or unconciously and these make up our individual psyche's. He describes these destructive thoughts as the "Judge and the Victim" in our mind. But the area that I think he differs dramatically from Tolle's "Power of Now" is making the distinction between what is IN our minds from the actual mind itself. The following is a quote from Ruiz's book "The Four Agreements":

“The freedom we seek is to use our own mind and body, to live our own life, instead of the life of the belief system. When we discover that the mind is controlled by the Judge and the Victim and the real “us” is in the corner, we have just two choices. One choice is to keep living the way we are, to surrender to the Judge and the Victim…The second choice is to do what we do as children when parents try to domesticate us. We rebel and say “No!” We can declare a war against the parasite, a war against the Judge and the Victim, a war for our independence, a war for the right to use our own mind and our own brain.”

I decided I was going to trip my friend up in her own game by finding scripture references, quotes from the prophets etc about the virtues of the mind. I took Helemon's suggestion and bought a subscription to GospelLink.com and did some searches on: mind, learning, reason, etc. Guess what? I was dismally disappointed. There was no place that I found we were actually encouraged to use our minds! It was all "Learning is good unless it leads you away from the teachings of the Gospel" mumbo jumbo. This is scary! It's EXACTLY how power is gained over people. I believe Tolle was really trying to help people in his book, but it really does irk me how so many, many people demonize the mind and exhalt the heart. :rant:

[Jeff_Ricks]

I really appreciate what you had to say in your post and I do understand the necessity of being able to quiet your mind to receive insights from deeper inside yourself. I guess this is what meditation is all about. The Dalai Lama has written several insightful books on the subject and this concept is deeply imbedded in much of eastern thought.

I guess the thing that bugs me about "The Power of Now" is that he treats the mind like the "enemy".

...I believe Tolle was really trying to help people in his book, but it really does irk me how so many, many people demonize the mind and exhalt the heart. :rant:I don't like the mind-demon concept either, and to be honest with you, I've never thought of it in that way. It's been long enough since I read the Power of Now that I'm probably no longer a good one to say what it's about. The one thing I do remember is what's implied in the title: the benefit of being in the now, setting aside all thoughts at least for a moment and realigning your perspective (the turn the switch back on and turn it loose again :) ). Beyond that, I don't remember much about the book.

With regard to your friend, if she tries to use the book to "bring you back" then I'd recommend that you point out how the book is leaving little place for God or a holy ghost, not lending support for them. If the holy ghost is a "still small voice," the book isn't saying listen to him, I think it's saying to tell him to shut up already! ;)

Jeff

[free thinker]

Jamech

I am learning to find balance between emotion and reason. I have found use for both. I think this will be a lifelong adventure.


ft

[Born Free]

Qualifier!

I started reading the Power of Now at the strong recommendation of several friends. I baulked at the point that I believed an ego-bash commenced. I have not recommenced reading to double-check if my perception was valid.

Many 'new-age' writers are keen on mind-bashing. One writer who I got a lot from, argues that the body-bashing of many Judeo-Christian religions was replaced with mind or ego-bashing in the new-age. As the body was the weakest link for Satan to attack in the old religions, so the mind became the element to target in the new age.

I am in violent agreement with several opinions here that stilling the mind can be extremely valuable, and I probably need that more than most. That acknowledged, many people who seem impressed by the mind-bash philosophies, have failed to really think through the implications of becoming mindless.

The book I referred to above, is one I have made reference to previously, entitled Cows Don't Have Egos. It points out how many people grab elements of the work pioneered by Freud, and then use and abuse it at will, to serve spurious or even malicious purposes.

To oversimplify for those not familiar with Freud's basic concepts, he argues that we function on 3 basic levels: Id, Super-Ego and Ego.

The Id is the child or animal part of us, which would have all our impulses and desires fulfilled instantly. This is the part that would have us, for instance, engage our sexual appetites wherever and whenever the urge arose.

The Super-ego is the taught function, which we acquire from without, from family, and our culture. That part is basically "Nice people do/don't"

The Ego is that part that mediates between the two and using logic and intelligence assesses the contextual need and chooses accordingly.

The EGo-bashers would have us believe that there is some magical way of operating without the Ego/Mind. They never quite get around to discussing this in my opinion.

Melany Wise's book does argue that ego-less, we would be like cows.

Nathaniel Brandon has an interesting chapter in his book Living Consciously headed Spirituality. He argues the problematic nature of the notion of being self-less from a philosophical perspective, then goes ahead to speak of his personal experience of people who most noisily espoused that line of thinking. He spoke of several guru-types he had some dealings with when he first to moved to California from New York. One suddenly showed great interest in Branden's wife, when he found out she had been a model and had some movie/commercial roles. This sudden interest in the external alerted both Branden and his wife. They were later to find out this guru had the 'bad habit' of sexually exploiting followers.

Sound familiar? Shades of our old mate :lftl: ?

If you want people as putty in your hand, you need first get them to distrust their own intelligence, which includes their instincts. Religion still does it; they call if Faith. Many new-agers do it, but they call it 'trusting your feelings' (aka think what I tell you to think).

Now I have no doubt whatsoever that we can be overly analytical. There is definitely a place for noting and listening to 'feelings'. But what are those in reality? They are frequently the unconscious mind tracking clues that something is not right, that the conscious mind has missed.

From long personal experience (and pain), I regard extremely cautiously any person or philosophy that espouses becoming 'mindless'. If anything, I argue we need become more mindful, but be prepared to massively widen our definition of what that means. Over many years and many expensive lessons, I slowly learnt that the women in my life possessed an intelligence that I either did not have, or had as yet not developed. I tend towards the latter, but also acknowledge that science now shows us that women tend to 'parallel-process' much better than men, and that the increased traffic between the left and right hemispheres of the brain is very likely a significant part of that.

My sense is that what I have said above has a lot in common with what P_M and Jeff have said.

For me, in my mid fifties, this is the major chunk of what wisdom is about now.

Daryl