The Power of Now - A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are! 

-Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany, graduated from the university of London, and worked at Cambridge university. At age 29 he went through a profound spiritual awakening, which virtually dissolved his old identity. This was followed by a period of 2 years where he was without a home, job, relationships, he had no socially defined identity, and he spent most of his time sitting on park benches in a state of intense joy. Before this all happened Eckhart Tolle was intensely unhappy, to the point where he didn't want to be alive.

Somehow all this pain and lack of meaning he felt inside lead to his spiritual enlightenment. After he spent 2 years in a state of wonder and awe of what surrounded him, he found himself with a social identity again. This time he would be a writer. He wrote his first book after his spiritual awakening called The Power of Now, which became a New York Times number one bestseller. In February 2010, 9 years after The Power of Now had first got onto the New York Times bestseller list, it was still there at number 7, and had been there for 86 weeks.

Eckhart Tolle has since gone on to write several more best selling books about the power of now and spiritual enlightenment, including A New Earth, which also made number one on the New York Times best selling list. The success of A New Earth was followed by a selection of it by Oprah Winfrey to her book club. Since then Tolle and Oprah has done a series of webinar classes about the teachings in A New Earth. Aside from being a writer, Tolle also travels for speaking engagements, seminars and retreats.

Eckhart Tolle explains in The Power of Now that the past and future is really an illusion that only exist in our minds. Have you ever experienced the past or the future? When the past happened it happened in the now. When the future happens it will happen in the now. The past and future are therefore merely constructs of the mind. We tend to identify with our thoughts; we think because we think therefore we are. But what about when we experience dreamless sleep? We don't think during dreamless sleep, yet we are still alive.

This proves that the mind is not a precondition for existence. In fact the mind can be a distraction to existence. Our minds constantly regret things that happened in the past, and it frets about the future, while existence takes place in the now. Pure being exists in the Now. Pure love exists in the now. When we identify with our minds we can't experience these things. If only we can focus our attention in the now, so many of our problems would disappear, and so many possibilities would open up for us.

It is because our minds are so preoccupied with the past and future that we can't make full use of the present moment. If we were fully present, we would see that all our needs are always met and more. To live in the past or the future is as insane as it is impossible. Yet we do it all the time. Think of the now as a source of energy. When you are fully present in the now, you have full access to that energy. But as you have regrets about the past or fret about the future, you leak that energy.

The more you are preoccupied with the past and the future, the more energy you leak, and the less you have available to live your life. If you live 100% in the present moment, you would be invincible. You would have unlimited energy. But hardly anyone ever lives fully in the now. Our minds are way too busy for that. Being fully present is also to have achieved spiritual enlightenment. When Eckhart Tolle sat on park benches for 2 years in a state of intense joy, he was being fully present. He had achieved spiritual enlightenment.

So how can we use the power of now to achieve spiritual enlightenment? Well first of all we can do it simply by becoming more present. When we are busy with an everyday activity we can immerse ourselves completely in that activity. Or we can simply notice the present moment more, whatever we are doing. But maybe the best way to become more present is through the practice of meditation. Meditation helps to calm the mind and when the mind is quiet we experience pure being, which is the same as the now.

By practicing meditation and experiencing the now, we will more and more start to experience the present moment during activity as well. When this happens your life will start to transform. You will have access to previously untapped energy sources, and you will experience an unlimited amount of energy and creativity, and finally you will achieve spiritual enlightenment, which is the goal of all goals.

The pain body is something Eckhart Tolle mentions a lot in The Power of Now. So what is the pain body? The pain body is stuck emotional energy carried over from the past. Sometimes when we experience a painful situation we don't want to face it, and we don't remain in the now. And because we don't deal with the situation fully, it remains as an emotional residue from the past. It is not our fault, it was caused by the unconsciousness of the world we were born into. The pain body is like a negative energy field that surrounds you until it is dissolved.

It has two modes, dormant and active. It can be dormant 90% of the time, or in a very unhappy person it could be active 100% of the time. In the case where it is dormant, it can be triggered by an event which is similar to the event which caused the pain body in the first place. The best way to dissolve the pain body is presence. The pain body cannot survive when you are fully present. When you become conscious of the pain body, and notice the circumstances which triggered it, you have taken a big step towards dissolving the pain body.

When you can stand back and notice your own reactions as the pain body is triggered, you can make a new choice. You don't have to be the victim of the pain body and get triggered by events that relates to the past. You always have a choice. But to make a choice you have to remain conscious. You can't make a new choice as long as you remain unconscious of your old ways of reacting. In some people the pain body is so dense though that it is not that easy to dissolve.

In these people the pain body is so dense that it is causing physical pain. If this is the case with you, it is important to remain present. Do not try to escape the pain. Instead move into the pain. By focusing on your pain like this you are shining the light of your consciousness onto it. Consciousness is a healing force and will dissolve your pain. Once you have dissolved the pain body your job is then to deal with situations as they arise by being fully present. In this way you will not activate the pain body again.