In Self-realization, we realize that we ARE the Now that we also refer to as Self, Pure I, Pure Awareness, Heart, Essence or Absolute Truth; among others.
This is not to be confused with the power of Now that is the appearance of the universe that we call experience. The power includes the forces of nature, the content of the present moment, our bodies, thoughts, emotions, energies, physical sensations such as shakti or others. No matter what form Pure I may take, it never loses the consciousness that is its essential nature.
Even if you perceive a certain power or vision as “other worldly,” since it is experienced, it is none other than the power of Self. The power of Now cannot be separated from the Now any more than “my” power could be separated from “me.” ”My” power is totally dependent on “me.” Without “me,” ”my” power would not be.
The Now is beyond experience and its power is the mind-body that is experience. The mind-body and its experience cannot stand alone. It is totally dependent on the Now, whereas the Now stands free of experience and the appearance of the world. For experience, the mind-body is required and that is also dependent upon the power of Now. The mind is an extraordinary power, but not the Now. “My” body is included within that power. I experience “my body” and therefore it is dependent and cannot stand alone. Everything within the field of experience is the power of Now and inseparable from the Now that I am.
This is not to say that the human being aspect of us should not be embraced. It just is not who we truly are. We ARE the Now within which the body is appearing. When we say “I” that word is pointing to the Now that is Essence. The problematic situation that causes the veil to drop is the misidentification with the body. The mind-body is the power. You are the Now.
For the Self-realized, people, things and circumstances do not appear to be separate and they are appearing from “within.” Although the mental constructs of “inside” and “outside” have been eliminated, the forever Now stands alone and beyond the world and its present moment, although not separate. The Forever Now is eternally permanent, while the impermanent forces of nature are in movement. I am the screen upon which they are appearing and also the consciousness or power that is appearing as form. I am the Totality.
With Self-realization, suffering has been realized as a delusion and therefore has been spontaneously surrendered. The pain gap between the dreaming "I" and the Heart has been extinguished.
When the subject-witness is eliminated, the void of collective suffering is also realized as a delusion and is therefore eliminated. Pure I is free of time, space and therefore separation and its suffering.
I am pure consciousness- being-bliss that is beyond the "I am" that is the foundation of all experience. Now is free of the body idea and the mind’s ever changing phenomena. The body is still sensing and functioning as it does, but it is no longer one's identity. I just can no longer separate the Now that I am from my power; the world.
Pure I is free of the doer of action. This does not mean that the body is not productive. Rather, the belief that there is a doer has been realized as false. I am Pure I during all that is being done. All that is appearing is my power and therefore is the Heart that I am. There just is no doer that is performing the action. One could say that there is pure activity that is intelligent and creative without any identification with the action or its fruits. I am free of imagining that "I am the doer" of anything. It is a false idea to consider the Heart as the doer. There simply is no doer.
Contrarily, the mind-made self that is the ego is time bound and experiences itself as the divided mind. Although an illusion, it experiences bondage. For the ego, it believes that it IS its thoughts and that it is the thinker. Lost in time, it is not conscious of the freedom that is always present.
Since it believes itself to be separate, it experiences only separation. As an illusory subject, it perceives separate objects such as other people, circumstances and things.
Because the ego believes it is separate, a personal reference point that is misidentified as the body, it also imagines that it is separate from the divine. For those who are drawn to enlightenment and curious about the Truth or longing for God, the ego begins an endless search for what is already within. It is an endless search, because the ego cannot realize the Truth. A temporary falsehood cannot meet the permanent Truth. It is itself the veil preventing Self-realization.
Through Self-inquiry and asking this question, "Who am I?" and noticing where the “I” thought arises from, the “dreaming I” is realized to be non-existent. The veil of illusion is removed and only the Self-illuminating Heart, the living Truth, remains.
While we are being Now, the conceptual “I” cannot take flight. That concept requires the mind and its time in order to separate and function. We are purely Now and its present power.
Suffering for the ego is always caused by other people and life circumstance. It therefore attempts to control and manipulate life circumstances in order to make itself relatively happy and avoid its pain. Even in this pseudo power, it is remains helpless as it is tossed about by others and life situations. It is constantly under the push and pull of its emotional state. As the ego, I AM my emotions and always under threat by some other.
Suffering for the self-observer is the body's reaction to what it believes to be its own thoughts. It eventually takes responsibility for its own emotional environment, when it realizes that it is suffering due to its own judgmental thinking. It begins experiencing emotional balance by becoming consciously present to its thoughts and emotions. By observing the thoughts and emotions, it is not as likely to be used by them.
After complete detachment from form, the witnessing consciousness emerges and being-consciousness-bliss comes to the forefront. Nonetheless, all that remains unconscious within the void of the collective continues to emerge as an overlay on the bedrock that is Truth; yet its perfume is plainly evident. This is not enlightenment, but some mistaken it as such.
The subject-witness is a study of formlessness and the witness frees ever more subtle layers of the intellect. Those are two reference points: (1) a formless witness, who objectively is witnessing (2) formlessness (awareness aware of itself). There are not two. Nonetheless, what lies unconscious within the collective surfaces and the collective pain body is freed. It transmutes into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is.
Because the ego state of consciousness is misidentified with the physical body and its limitations, it believes that it is the doer of action and is therefore responsible for the fruits of those actions. The ego believes that it is making individual, mental decisions independently and these decisions will always be based on past experience. Its divided and conditioned intelligence thereby experiences the consequences.
Pure I is beyond this law of cause and effect and thereby free of causality. The Heart is pure intelligence and potentiality that is divinely abundant, all powerful, unconditional love and perfect peace.
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Showing posts with label power of now. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power of now. Show all posts
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Conflict or Perfect Peace by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Question:
I am looking for some type of hope or some encouraging words. As this war continues, it is depressing and disheartening. I want to be hopeful, but there is so much suffering. Do you have any advice or encouragement about how to deal with war and the related discomfort? Any message at all would help.
Katie:
Regarding your question, pointers can help you to be more present in the life situation and with this, the possibility of awakening draws near. Whether war in the world or the everyday conflict that you experience in relationships, the cause and effect are identical. In the world-mirror, we are currently noticing massive human suffering. We are able to look directly at the insanity and madness caused by ignorance and unconsciousness. Could the mirror be pointing it out and stating it any more clearly than it is?!
During this self-observation, you soon meet what Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth and Power of Now, calls the "pain body;" the apparent void of collective suffering. As Eckhart Tolle explains, when the collective pain body rises up, it uses us and feeds on more pain and therefore gains strength. Instead of fueling it, we can allow the emotion to be as it is, while resting as stillness. In this, a natural transmutation occurs as the pain is transformed into love. However, if you find yourself spiraling deeper and deeper into the suffering, invite it in to explore. I am not suggesting that you act it out, but find out whether the pain body ultimately exists in the core of your being or whether in the end, it is an illusion. Taking this as a concept is not the remedy. This discovery must be direct and the investigation is required. Otherwise, the pain body will resurface time and again to either be fueled or freed.
When you are ready to explore the absolute Truth that is prior to thought, emotion and form, we begin the exploration of what is prior to the "dreaming I" and its objects. We shift beyond awakening and enter the adventure of Self-realization. Through direct Self-inquiry, we realize who this "dreaming I" truly is. My new book, Awake Joy, guides beyond ego to the awakening, but it also completes the journey, as does Sundance's new book, Free Spirit. An Advaita expert and scholar of Advaita scriptures, Dennis Waite, shared that Sundance's presentation of Self-inquiry is the clearest and most complete guide that he has ever read.
In closing, you are not separate from that which is occurring. You are That within which the act of war or no war is occurring. By focusing on who you are, instead of taking sides, you are conscious freedom. Taking sides is part of the war. The concept of conditional peace is opposing the concept of war. In other words, hating war is the same hatred that is being acted out in the violence on the battlefield. Hate begets hate. We do not identify with either polarity. Perfect peace is transcendent of war and transcendent of relative peace. Resistance does not bring about change. Resistance perpetuates whatever you are resisting. Surrender is key.
You mentioned that you wanted to be hopeful. Honestly, hope is not required and this is the truth. Hope is a future endeavor; a better tomorrow. You do not need more time to be the perfect peace that you are right now. We have only to become conscious of what is within us now, but buried beyond all of the false ideas of the intellect. ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Vancouver Satsang, British Columbia Satsang ~ Vancouver BC Heart Family Photo Gallery ~ Organizer Lynda Cole
Vancouver Satsang and British Columbia Satsang ~ Vancouver Heart Family Photos from Katie Davis and Sundance Burke ~ Organizer Lynda Cole of Embracing the Now.
Turn your speakers on! The photo gallery is accompanied by beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD,
These photos were taken after satsangs and a satsang intensive by Katie Davis and Sundance Burke that was organized by Lynda Cole of Embracing the Now. The gallery also chronicles Sundance and Katie's travels with Eckhart Tolle. They became friends with him before the Power of Now published. When it published, they were invited to travel with him for two months on his first Power of Now tour. In fact, in 2004, it was Eckhart who encouraged Sundance and Katie to write their books Awake Joy and Free Spirit.
Other Heart friends are from Seattle, Mount Rainier, Dallas, Plano, Flagstaff, Tempe, Chandler, Chicago, Highland Park and Toronto.
More information at www.KatieDavis.org and www.SundanceBurke.org.
In-joy!! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
Turn your speakers on! The photo gallery is accompanied by beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD,
These photos were taken after satsangs and a satsang intensive by Katie Davis and Sundance Burke that was organized by Lynda Cole of Embracing the Now. The gallery also chronicles Sundance and Katie's travels with Eckhart Tolle. They became friends with him before the Power of Now published. When it published, they were invited to travel with him for two months on his first Power of Now tour. In fact, in 2004, it was Eckhart who encouraged Sundance and Katie to write their books Awake Joy and Free Spirit.
Other Heart friends are from Seattle, Mount Rainier, Dallas, Plano, Flagstaff, Tempe, Chandler, Chicago, Highland Park and Toronto.
More information at www.KatieDavis.org and www.SundanceBurke.org.
In-joy!! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
Toronto Satsang, Ontario Satsang ~ Heart Family Photos ~ Organizers Paul Evans, Bharangi, Rising Sun
Ontario Satsang and Toronto Satsang ~ Heart Family Photo Gallery from Katie Davis and Sundance Burke ~ Organizer Paul Evans of Toronto Nonduality Group and Bharangi of The Rising Sun.
Turn your speakers on! The photo gallery is accompanied by beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD
Paul Evans planned a wonderful and fun day trip for us after our satsangs and satsang intensives and a few Heart friends joined us. The gallery has lovely photos of Niagra Falls with a full arch rainbow and a stop at the Butterfly Emporium was a highlight.
Also included are photos of Sundance and Katie's two month travels with Eckhart Tolle. They became friends before the Power of Now published. When the book published, they were invited to help of his first Power of Now Tour. In fact, in 2004, it was Eckhart who encouraged them to write Awake Joy and Free Spirit. The books just published.
Also chronicled are photos of our Hear friends in Seattle, Mount Rainier, Dallas, Flagstaff, Chicago and Vancouver BC.
In-joy!! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
More information at www.KatieDavis.org and www.SundanceBurke.org.
Turn your speakers on! The photo gallery is accompanied by beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD
Paul Evans planned a wonderful and fun day trip for us after our satsangs and satsang intensives and a few Heart friends joined us. The gallery has lovely photos of Niagra Falls with a full arch rainbow and a stop at the Butterfly Emporium was a highlight.
Also included are photos of Sundance and Katie's two month travels with Eckhart Tolle. They became friends before the Power of Now published. When the book published, they were invited to help of his first Power of Now Tour. In fact, in 2004, it was Eckhart who encouraged them to write Awake Joy and Free Spirit. The books just published.
Also chronicled are photos of our Hear friends in Seattle, Mount Rainier, Dallas, Flagstaff, Chicago and Vancouver BC.
In-joy!! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
More information at www.KatieDavis.org and www.SundanceBurke.org.
Chicago Satsang, Midwest Satsang ~ Illinois Heart Family Photos ~ Organizer Maggie, Charlie Wilkins, One Heart
Chicago Satsang and Midwest Satsang ~ Illinois Heart Family Photo Gallery by Katie Davis and Sundance Burke ~ Organizers, Maggie and Charlie Wilkins of One Heart Teachings.
Turn you speakers on! The photo gallery is accompanied with beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender Cd.
The gallery also chronicles Sundance and Katie's travels with Eckhart Tolle. They became friends with Eckhart before Power of Now was published and traveled with him on his first Power of Now tour. In fact, it was Eckhart Tolle who encouraged them to write Awake Joy and Free Spirit which just published. Also included are photos of the Heart Family in Dallas, Flagstaff, Sedona, Dallas, Tempe, Chandler, Toronto, Seattle and Vancouver BC.
In-joy! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
Turn you speakers on! The photo gallery is accompanied with beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender Cd.
The gallery also chronicles Sundance and Katie's travels with Eckhart Tolle. They became friends with Eckhart before Power of Now was published and traveled with him on his first Power of Now tour. In fact, it was Eckhart Tolle who encouraged them to write Awake Joy and Free Spirit which just published. Also included are photos of the Heart Family in Dallas, Flagstaff, Sedona, Dallas, Tempe, Chandler, Toronto, Seattle and Vancouver BC.
In-joy! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
Sedona Satsang, Flagstaff, Tempe, Chandler, Arizona Satsang ~ Heart Family Photos ~ Organizer Richard Sink, Changing Hands, East West
Flagstaff, Sedona, Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Arizona, Satsang ~ Heart Family Photo Gallery by Katie Davis and Sundance Burke. These events were organized by Richard and Wanda Sink with wonderful support from Reverend Janet Kinglsey and the Flagstaff Religious Science Church. The church hosted satsang and a weekend intensive and Sundance and Katie spoke at the Sunday morning service as well.
Turn on your speakers! The gallery is accompanied by beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD.
Other Arizona Heart Family Photos chronicle our events and intensives by Changing Hands in Tempe and East West Exchange in Chandler. If look carefully, you see Wanda Sink and Reverend Janet Kingsley who came down the mountain to attend another intensive with Sundance and Katie.
Other photos chronicle Sundance and Katie's travels with Eckhart Tolle on his first Power of Now Tour. They became friends before Power of Now. In fact, it was Echart who encouraged them to write Awake Joy and Free Spirit. Their books just published. The gallery also includes Heart Family photos from Seattle, Mount Rainier, Dallas, Toronto, Chicago and Vancouver BC,
In-joy! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
Turn on your speakers! The gallery is accompanied by beautiful music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD.
Other Arizona Heart Family Photos chronicle our events and intensives by Changing Hands in Tempe and East West Exchange in Chandler. If look carefully, you see Wanda Sink and Reverend Janet Kingsley who came down the mountain to attend another intensive with Sundance and Katie.
Other photos chronicle Sundance and Katie's travels with Eckhart Tolle on his first Power of Now Tour. They became friends before Power of Now. In fact, it was Echart who encouraged them to write Awake Joy and Free Spirit. Their books just published. The gallery also includes Heart Family photos from Seattle, Mount Rainier, Dallas, Toronto, Chicago and Vancouver BC,
In-joy! by clicking: www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
Eckhart Tolle Photos ~ Chronicles Travels of Katie Davis, Sundance Burke, Kim Eng of Eckhart Teachings with Eckhart Tolle
Enjoy the Katie Davis and Sundance Burke Photo Gallery 2000-2008. Turn on your speakers! The gallery plays music by Kirtana from her A Deeper Surrender CD.
Katie Davis and Sundance Burke met Eckhart Tolle before the Power of Now was published. When Power of Now published, they were invited to travel with Eckhart on the first Power of Now Tour for two months in Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona.
Gallery includes: Eckhart Tolle, Katie Davis and Sundance Burke at Mount Shasta in California; Eckhart Tolle, Katie Davis and Sundance Burke during a mystical moment on a park bench in the Arizona desert; Eckhart Tolle, Katie Davis, Sundance Burke, Kim Eng of Eckhart Teachings at the Beach Cafe in Santa Monica.
Katie Davis awakened in 1986 and Sundance Burke in 1982. They have been traveling to share the awakening and point to enlightenment since 2000. In 2004, they moved to Maui to write their books, Awake Joy and Free Spirit which just published and were encouraged by Eckhart Tolle.
In-Joy! Click www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
More information at www.KatieDavis.org and www.SundanceBurke.org.
Katie Davis and Sundance Burke met Eckhart Tolle before the Power of Now was published. When Power of Now published, they were invited to travel with Eckhart on the first Power of Now Tour for two months in Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona.
Gallery includes: Eckhart Tolle, Katie Davis and Sundance Burke at Mount Shasta in California; Eckhart Tolle, Katie Davis and Sundance Burke during a mystical moment on a park bench in the Arizona desert; Eckhart Tolle, Katie Davis, Sundance Burke, Kim Eng of Eckhart Teachings at the Beach Cafe in Santa Monica.
Katie Davis awakened in 1986 and Sundance Burke in 1982. They have been traveling to share the awakening and point to enlightenment since 2000. In 2004, they moved to Maui to write their books, Awake Joy and Free Spirit which just published and were encouraged by Eckhart Tolle.
In-Joy! Click www.KatieDavis.org/PhotoGallery.html
More information at www.KatieDavis.org and www.SundanceBurke.org.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friends of the Heart May Issue by Katie Davis and Sundance Burke
The Friends of the Heart Newsletter for May is now posted at: www.KatieDavis.org/FriendsoftheHeart.html.
In This Issue:
"The New Earth is the New Heaven" by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Awake Joy was encouraged by Eckhart Tolle, Author, A New Earth and The Power of Now.
"Awake Delight" by Sundance Burke, Author, Free Spirit
Awake Joy and Free Spirit Guest Books ~ Read what others are sharing about Sundance and Katie's new books or enter your comments.
Free videos by Katie Davis, Awake Joy and Sundance Burke, Free Spirit
Video libraries on awakening, enlightenment, Advaita, Non-duality, consciousness, meditation, spirituality, Self-realization at http://www.katiedavis.org/ and http://www.sundanceburke.org/.
In This Issue:
"The New Earth is the New Heaven" by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Awake Joy was encouraged by Eckhart Tolle, Author, A New Earth and The Power of Now.
"Awake Delight" by Sundance Burke, Author, Free Spirit
Awake Joy and Free Spirit Guest Books ~ Read what others are sharing about Sundance and Katie's new books or enter your comments.
Free videos by Katie Davis, Awake Joy and Sundance Burke, Free Spirit
Video libraries on awakening, enlightenment, Advaita, Non-duality, consciousness, meditation, spirituality, Self-realization at http://www.katiedavis.org/ and http://www.sundanceburke.org/.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle - Katie Davis Blog
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
Book Review by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment
Powerful Clarity and Pragmatic Wisdom
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual classic, bestseller and translated into over 30 languages. It was awarded a member of Oprah's Book Club. Eckhart's newer book, A New Earth, is presently the newest addition to the Oprah Book Club. Oprah and Eckhart are currently offering a ten week online class that is accessible for free registration at Oprah's website. The first class was enjoyed by 700,000 people worldwide, from 139 countries and represented by all fifty states in the U.S.
Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany and graduated from the University of London. He became a research scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University. At 29 years old, he experienced a profound spiritual transformation that dissolved his identity as he had previously known it. This began an intense inward journey that radically changed the course of his life. He now teaches worldwide and lives in Vancouver, BC. He is not aligned with any particular religion and yet his message does not exclude any doctrine or dogma. He is communicating that there is a simple and pragmatic way out of suffering into enduring peace.
Power of Now is a guide to breaking free of the ego, the mind-made self, with all of its problems and conflicts. Eckhart Tolle finely dissects the ego's characteristics so that we become more conscious of how it operates. Who we are is beyond thought, emotion and form. Yet our body is the portal through which we enter a new reality to realize harmony, peace and joy. He encourages us to become more aware of the silence and space all around us and then points to inner space and stillness. Through becoming more conscious, we find that we can be free of psychological pain and open to our authentic power.
Power of Now is divided into 10 chapters with 191 pages. The Preface is written by Marc Allen, New World Library and the Foreword is by Russell Dicarlo, author of Towards a New World View. In the Introduction, Eckhart shares the origin of the book and that the truth of who we really are lies within us.
Chapter One is a study of the mind; the greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Through still attention, we can discover that we are not what we are thinking. He defines enlightenment as rising above thought and that emotion is the body's reaction to our thinking.
Chapter Two begins leading us out of psychological pain by pointing to consciousness. He offers keys to unlock accumulated pain of the past and introduces us to the collective pain body that is suffering and constantly trying to feed on more pain. Since the mind-made self believes that its identity lies within its individuality, it is on constant search to complete itself through people, things and circumstances. He shares that ego's entire search for happiness is really a search for wholeness.
In Chapter Three, we move deeply into the Now, the dimension that is free of time and demonstrates that nothing truly exists outside this present moment. He offers the key to the spiritual dimension and how to access the Power of Now. All suffering has its root in psychological time. Eckhart Tolle masterfully guides us in a clear and pragmatic manner into the joy of being.
Chapter Four offers the mind strategies for avoiding the now and that it is delusion to think that we can ever be apart from it. He discusses the manner in which we dissolve unhappiness and ordinary unconsciousness to discover the inner purpose of our life's journey.
In Chapter Five, Eckhart Tolle leads us to the state of presence and to realize pure consciousness; our divine Reality. Chapter Six is a journey into the inner body, where we find an invisible and indestructible reality that is beyond our thinking. He shares how we can also physiological benefit by being present; such as slowing the aging process and strenthening the immume system.
In Chapter Seven, Eckhart Tolle offers portals through which we may discover the inner unmanifest that is deep within our bodies such as dreamless sleep, silence, and space. Eckhart shifts to Enlightened Relationships in Chapter Eight and we begin to rise above relationships that cycle between relative love and hate. Our relationships and indeed our intimate partners are excellent teachers and a perfect spiritual practice to learn how to live in a deeper state of presence. He encourages you to give up the relationship with yourself, the false sense of self that is the ego.
In Chapter Nine, we discover that beyond the duality and cycling between happiness and unhappiness, there is peace. We notice the impermanence of the cycling, end the emotional drama, discover true compassion and move toward a new order of Reality. The final Chapter Ten presents the meaning of surrender so that we are able to live in acceptance of this moment just as it is. We shift from mind energy to spiritual energy, while we transform suffering into peace.
Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
Book Review by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment
Powerful Clarity and Pragmatic Wisdom
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual classic, bestseller and translated into over 30 languages. It was awarded a member of Oprah's Book Club. Eckhart's newer book, A New Earth, is presently the newest addition to the Oprah Book Club. Oprah and Eckhart are currently offering a ten week online class that is accessible for free registration at Oprah's website. The first class was enjoyed by 700,000 people worldwide, from 139 countries and represented by all fifty states in the U.S.
Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany and graduated from the University of London. He became a research scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University. At 29 years old, he experienced a profound spiritual transformation that dissolved his identity as he had previously known it. This began an intense inward journey that radically changed the course of his life. He now teaches worldwide and lives in Vancouver, BC. He is not aligned with any particular religion and yet his message does not exclude any doctrine or dogma. He is communicating that there is a simple and pragmatic way out of suffering into enduring peace.
Power of Now is a guide to breaking free of the ego, the mind-made self, with all of its problems and conflicts. Eckhart Tolle finely dissects the ego's characteristics so that we become more conscious of how it operates. Who we are is beyond thought, emotion and form. Yet our body is the portal through which we enter a new reality to realize harmony, peace and joy. He encourages us to become more aware of the silence and space all around us and then points to inner space and stillness. Through becoming more conscious, we find that we can be free of psychological pain and open to our authentic power.
Power of Now is divided into 10 chapters with 191 pages. The Preface is written by Marc Allen, New World Library and the Foreword is by Russell Dicarlo, author of Towards a New World View. In the Introduction, Eckhart shares the origin of the book and that the truth of who we really are lies within us.
Chapter One is a study of the mind; the greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Through still attention, we can discover that we are not what we are thinking. He defines enlightenment as rising above thought and that emotion is the body's reaction to our thinking.
Chapter Two begins leading us out of psychological pain by pointing to consciousness. He offers keys to unlock accumulated pain of the past and introduces us to the collective pain body that is suffering and constantly trying to feed on more pain. Since the mind-made self believes that its identity lies within its individuality, it is on constant search to complete itself through people, things and circumstances. He shares that ego's entire search for happiness is really a search for wholeness.
In Chapter Three, we move deeply into the Now, the dimension that is free of time and demonstrates that nothing truly exists outside this present moment. He offers the key to the spiritual dimension and how to access the Power of Now. All suffering has its root in psychological time. Eckhart Tolle masterfully guides us in a clear and pragmatic manner into the joy of being.
Chapter Four offers the mind strategies for avoiding the now and that it is delusion to think that we can ever be apart from it. He discusses the manner in which we dissolve unhappiness and ordinary unconsciousness to discover the inner purpose of our life's journey.
In Chapter Five, Eckhart Tolle leads us to the state of presence and to realize pure consciousness; our divine Reality. Chapter Six is a journey into the inner body, where we find an invisible and indestructible reality that is beyond our thinking. He shares how we can also physiological benefit by being present; such as slowing the aging process and strenthening the immume system.
In Chapter Seven, Eckhart Tolle offers portals through which we may discover the inner unmanifest that is deep within our bodies such as dreamless sleep, silence, and space. Eckhart shifts to Enlightened Relationships in Chapter Eight and we begin to rise above relationships that cycle between relative love and hate. Our relationships and indeed our intimate partners are excellent teachers and a perfect spiritual practice to learn how to live in a deeper state of presence. He encourages you to give up the relationship with yourself, the false sense of self that is the ego.
In Chapter Nine, we discover that beyond the duality and cycling between happiness and unhappiness, there is peace. We notice the impermanence of the cycling, end the emotional drama, discover true compassion and move toward a new order of Reality. The final Chapter Ten presents the meaning of surrender so that we are able to live in acceptance of this moment just as it is. We shift from mind energy to spiritual energy, while we transform suffering into peace.
Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Over Thinking, the Primary Addiction by Katie Davis
Question:
I am an alcoholic and I have been in AA and back to recovery a few times. My family doesn't know it, but I am hiding what I am doing now. I feel so much shame and guilt. By chance, I came upon you and I am wondering if there is anything that you might suggest. Nothing has worked. I just feel so guilty and my mind is driving me crazy.
Katie:
First, I am not a recovery specialist, nor a psychologist. It is perfectly appropriate for you to return to your specialist and if you have not tried therapy, that will indeed support you within the individual identity and its story.
People usually come upon this teaching, when they are suffering and most everything has failed. Either that or they have a deep longing for the Divine or been blessed with a single instant, when they have been shaken out of the mind and its time. Perhaps, for whatever reason, you are ready to inquire more deeply into the Truth of your being. This is why we meet. Yes, addiction is of the body-mind, but there is something deeper here, right now, within you. Its discovery is the resolution of all psychological suffering. I must point that the primary addiction is compulsive thought. That is, over-thinking.
Ultimately, you are the only true answer. The past is nothing but a graveyard, let it go. Of course, we have our very endearing moments of relative happiness and then they just disappear. We are left by ourselves … or with more people that we can hardly bear … and then suffer. This is the reality of the time-based mind, its problems and endless conflicts.
The problem seems to be that people search in a horizontal manner to find some sort of happiness. They try work and it works for a little while, since the desire for work has ceased. We look for happiness in relationships and then we get one. Desire stops and we seem happy for awhile then discontentment resurfaces. Try virtually anything within in the field of every day experience meaning every person, every circumstance, every situation or activity that we THINK is going to make us happy and we find it works for a time and then once again it was only fleeting.
The problem seems to be that people search in a horizontal manner to find some sort of happiness. They try work and it works for a little while, since the desire for work has ceased. We look for happiness in relationships and then we get one. Desire stops and we seem happy for awhile then discontentment resurfaces. Try virtually anything within in the field of every day experience meaning every person, every circumstance, every situation or activity that we THINK is going to make us happy and we find it works for a time and then once again it was only fleeting.
It is never the object that has been attained, won, achieved or intended that causes happiness … let’s call it joy, since it is deeper, caused by nothing, in need of nothing, and virtually permanent. The truth of the matter is, desire ceases, since what we wanted was claimed. Discontentment remerges and we think, “not wrong again!” So it is the lack of desire and not the object that allows true peace.
So, we have searched that way for a lifetime. Think that you have finally got it together … and poof! Then guilt comes creeping in to add more of the same old discontentment, except each time it gets a little deeper and uglier. “What's wrong with those other people!” “What’s wrong with ME?!”
Well, the thing is, you can’t just take my word for it, but it calls for curiosity. You have been conditioned since birth that you are ME and that the ME means that you are a body. Your parents taught you, just like their parents, the whole premise was totally assumed. Is it really true? Well, I never questioned these matters either. I assumed like everyone else. Everything on the ‘outside’ appeared to be perfect. I didn’t even know that I had an ‘inner world’ and inner reality. Without cause, I suddenly awakened to an entire new dimension of reality. Through happenstance alone, I directly witnessed that I was not my body, nor its thoughts, nor the emotional eclipses. Since I became aware of them, I couldn’t be them. I had to be entirely beyond them. Who in the world was that, that was aware of everything?! All of a sudden I was tossed out of a daytime dream reality of the mind to the absolute love and joy of the Heart.
I am not going to suggest that you 'do' anything. Doing is more of the thinking that is the addiction. Any ‘doing’ is only more of the mind. I am going to ask you to stop and begin watching what is really true. If you are searching for joy, you can’t find it … because you ARE joy. It is just like you can’t see your own eyeball and yet it sees. You can’t see joy, the joy that you are.
So the immediate question is then, well, where is it?! How do I find it? Well, you stop all of the escape strategies and all of the salvation ideas. You cannot escape or become what you already are. There is an awareness that is here no matter where you go or what you do. You are aware while you are driving, aware while you are working, aware always. Even while you are nighttime dreaming, you are aware. Well awakening, is really pretty much like waking from a nighttime nightmare, except you wake up even further to the daytime dream of mind. There is nothing unique or for that matter peculiar to realizing that you have spent your entire life DREAMING!!!! The matter of the fact is, awakening is NORMAL! The mind’s idea of living in conflict, identification with the body, suffering … even pleasure … is not normal by any means. When we wake up to the mind and all of its suffering thoughts … we just move into maturing wisdom that is the real nature of the human being.
Mind is tantamount to time. Mind and its thoughts require time and time is equal to suffering. Mind = suffering. Time = suffering. “ME” = suffering.
You have this beautiful awareness within you and its nature is joy. I call it the Heart. The mind-made self (“me”) walks around in a dream and wonders why it is suffering. Well, if you ever said the word “rose” to someone who does not speak English … the word is utterly meaningless. So we have been taught “I” and that “I” is the body. If you are aware of the body … you cannot be the body. So, what is the meaning of this word? If you don’t know that the word "rose" is a lovely flower with a beautiful fragrance and lovely bloom, it just seems like nonsense. Who is “I?” You begin watching within to discover the Truth for yourself. You become curious and decide for yourself to take a look. Not by mental philosophy and concepts. Concepts are only more mind.
You say that your mind is driving you crazy. That is a level of maturing wisdom. Most people still are not even really aware that thought is going on and on and on compulsively. You are aware of your thoughts. Rather than getting up and moving into activity, shift your attention to the awareness of the thoughts. Who is that who is aware? The separate sense of self, the mind made sense of self is like the very bottom layer of a chocolate cake. The bottom layer is “me and my story,” time, I am my mind, I am the body, I am the ego and I AM THE SUFFER. This level of awareness has absolutely no idea that all of the levels above it even exist.
So, we have searched that way for a lifetime. Think that you have finally got it together … and poof! Then guilt comes creeping in to add more of the same old discontentment, except each time it gets a little deeper and uglier. “What's wrong with those other people!” “What’s wrong with ME?!”
Well, the thing is, you can’t just take my word for it, but it calls for curiosity. You have been conditioned since birth that you are ME and that the ME means that you are a body. Your parents taught you, just like their parents, the whole premise was totally assumed. Is it really true? Well, I never questioned these matters either. I assumed like everyone else. Everything on the ‘outside’ appeared to be perfect. I didn’t even know that I had an ‘inner world’ and inner reality. Without cause, I suddenly awakened to an entire new dimension of reality. Through happenstance alone, I directly witnessed that I was not my body, nor its thoughts, nor the emotional eclipses. Since I became aware of them, I couldn’t be them. I had to be entirely beyond them. Who in the world was that, that was aware of everything?! All of a sudden I was tossed out of a daytime dream reality of the mind to the absolute love and joy of the Heart.
I am not going to suggest that you 'do' anything. Doing is more of the thinking that is the addiction. Any ‘doing’ is only more of the mind. I am going to ask you to stop and begin watching what is really true. If you are searching for joy, you can’t find it … because you ARE joy. It is just like you can’t see your own eyeball and yet it sees. You can’t see joy, the joy that you are.
So the immediate question is then, well, where is it?! How do I find it? Well, you stop all of the escape strategies and all of the salvation ideas. You cannot escape or become what you already are. There is an awareness that is here no matter where you go or what you do. You are aware while you are driving, aware while you are working, aware always. Even while you are nighttime dreaming, you are aware. Well awakening, is really pretty much like waking from a nighttime nightmare, except you wake up even further to the daytime dream of mind. There is nothing unique or for that matter peculiar to realizing that you have spent your entire life DREAMING!!!! The matter of the fact is, awakening is NORMAL! The mind’s idea of living in conflict, identification with the body, suffering … even pleasure … is not normal by any means. When we wake up to the mind and all of its suffering thoughts … we just move into maturing wisdom that is the real nature of the human being.
Mind is tantamount to time. Mind and its thoughts require time and time is equal to suffering. Mind = suffering. Time = suffering. “ME” = suffering.
You have this beautiful awareness within you and its nature is joy. I call it the Heart. The mind-made self (“me”) walks around in a dream and wonders why it is suffering. Well, if you ever said the word “rose” to someone who does not speak English … the word is utterly meaningless. So we have been taught “I” and that “I” is the body. If you are aware of the body … you cannot be the body. So, what is the meaning of this word? If you don’t know that the word "rose" is a lovely flower with a beautiful fragrance and lovely bloom, it just seems like nonsense. Who is “I?” You begin watching within to discover the Truth for yourself. You become curious and decide for yourself to take a look. Not by mental philosophy and concepts. Concepts are only more mind.
You say that your mind is driving you crazy. That is a level of maturing wisdom. Most people still are not even really aware that thought is going on and on and on compulsively. You are aware of your thoughts. Rather than getting up and moving into activity, shift your attention to the awareness of the thoughts. Who is that who is aware? The separate sense of self, the mind made sense of self is like the very bottom layer of a chocolate cake. The bottom layer is “me and my story,” time, I am my mind, I am the body, I am the ego and I AM THE SUFFER. This level of awareness has absolutely no idea that all of the levels above it even exist.
Most people identify with their thoughts. “I feel so guilty.” Those thoughts are like photographs and mental images. It is like looking at the same dull and boring photos over and over again. Through some grace, we finally get sick of them and begin observing who is that who is aware of them.
1. Shift your attention from thought and start observing the awareness. This begins an inward journey and ends in the discovery of an indestructible joy that you will realize that has always been here. (“not me, this is too weird, I can’t do this, surely there must be something else.”) This is the only way out that is truly lasting and the beauty is that it is already here. We just dust off the concepts of the mind and we see that it is simply already radiant.
2. Go buy Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now, http://www.eckharttolle.com/. The book is masterful at dissecting the concepts of mind, the ego and its idea of time. Can you show me the past? It isn’t here other than a thought. Thought includes mental images (photos of the mind). Events in your life are nothing more than notches on a chronological dateline. Yet, we maintain an emotional relationship with them. Simply, we cannot maintain our painful story and get rid of the pain. Makes sense doesn’t it? Retelling the painful story perpetuates pain.
3. Accept nothing unless you directly look and find it to be true. Even then, it is only true temporarily. Keep observing deeper within you and deeper yet. Each time letting go of old beliefs and assumptions.
1. Shift your attention from thought and start observing the awareness. This begins an inward journey and ends in the discovery of an indestructible joy that you will realize that has always been here. (“not me, this is too weird, I can’t do this, surely there must be something else.”) This is the only way out that is truly lasting and the beauty is that it is already here. We just dust off the concepts of the mind and we see that it is simply already radiant.
2. Go buy Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now, http://www.eckharttolle.com/. The book is masterful at dissecting the concepts of mind, the ego and its idea of time. Can you show me the past? It isn’t here other than a thought. Thought includes mental images (photos of the mind). Events in your life are nothing more than notches on a chronological dateline. Yet, we maintain an emotional relationship with them. Simply, we cannot maintain our painful story and get rid of the pain. Makes sense doesn’t it? Retelling the painful story perpetuates pain.
3. Accept nothing unless you directly look and find it to be true. Even then, it is only true temporarily. Keep observing deeper within you and deeper yet. Each time letting go of old beliefs and assumptions.
And by all means, get the help that is presently required to help you live within the circumstances in a balanced manner. In the end however, you are the only answering.
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
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