The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now

7.6/102 min read

4/5/18

  • True wealth is the radiant joy of being and the deep unshakable peace that comes with it.

  • Enlightenment is your natural state of felt oneness with being.

  • The Buddha’s definition of enlightenment is the end of suffering.

  • Being is your deepest self and true nature.

  • Incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from being.

  • Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship.

  • The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity - the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity.

  • Worry is imagining things going wrong and negative outcomes.

  • A conditioned mind is the result of all your past history as well as all of the collective cultural mindset you inherited.

  • You see and judge the present through the eyes of the past and get a totally distorted view of it.

  • 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.

  • Ego is a false self created by unconscious identification with the mind.

  • To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only the past and future are considered important.

  • The body will always give you a truthful reflection of your emotion.

  • Emotion is your body’s reaction to your mind.

  • What's going on inside me at this moment?

  • Pleasure is always derived from something outside of you, whereas joy arises from within.

  • Don't seek to become free of desire or to achieve enlightenment. Become present. Be there as the observer of the mind. Be the Buddha. Be the awakened one.

  • Pain is unnecessary and is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.

  • Pain and resistance is some form of unconscious resistance or judgment of what is.

  • Now is timeless. The time is now.

  • Say yes to life and the present moment.

  • Accept then act.

  • Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.

  • Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive, inner peace does not.