The Power Of Now ....Eckhart Tolle.

 The Power of Now shows you that every minute you spend worrying about the future or regretting the past is wasted, because really all you have to do is live in the present, the now  , and you must become actionable strategies to start living every minute.

Friends, The Power Of Now provides a

 special method to end suffering and get inner peace, to live fully in the present and separate yourself from your mind.

 This book also teaches you to separate yourself from your “ego” – the part of your mind that seeks control over your thinking and behavior.  It argues that by doing so you can learn to accept the present, ease the pain of your experiences, improve your relationships, and enjoy a better life in general.

10 Lessons I Learned FromThe book The Power Of Now

1   You are not your mind

             What we think determines what                                                       happens to us

You are not your mind! its same as you are not your heart,kidney or lung. These all are tools to help you in this world. Now the question arise , What exactly mind is? Mind is a combination of memory,thoughts, opinions and emotions. Mind can be your biggest friend and at the same time your biggest enemy. Let us relate this statement with our personal experience. Recall an instance when you were very angry and in that anger you said or did some things which you otherwise might never have. similarly recall a time when you were feeling very romantic and in that state of mind you made some promises that you later regretted. so its like either you control your mind or the mind will control you. When you will control your mind ,results will always be constructive and the theory holds true for the other way around too.

2  Consciousnes -The way out of pain

     Control of consciousness determines                             the quality  of life

There is consciousness, then there is life. The energy of the conscious energy of life is infinite. It is refined through yoga, meditation and pranayama. With the practice of concentration and restraint, the conscious energy starts moving towards sattvikta.

 Indian psychology does not end with the analysis of the actions of the mind. It also finds ways to discipline, restrain and subdue them.

 There are two ways to control them - practice and non-attachment.

 With constant practice and practice of equanimity, the unsolved mysteries of Chaitanya Shakti begin to open. But all this is not a sudden process, it takes time.

3  Moving deeply into the now

    There is only now. And look! How rich                              we are in it

Being happy is the most important thing in life and we are alone and we have to live alone, and no one else can make us happy except us.  We have got this life, so why don't we welcome this life openly and go with happiness.

 Often in life you feel like no one really understands you or your problems.  At such times you should go deep within yourself.  This is the time when your inner voice becomes your best friend.  You must learn to train your inner voice and use it properly.

 Here meditation can help you.  It can make your inner voice strong, believable and meaningful. You will see that you get customized answers in different situations.

4  Mind strategies for avoiding the now

 Concentration and mental toughness are the                       margins of victory

Psychological facts are assessed by the collected psychological tests of various human beings that we see, know, feel, assess and if we find in our behavior "correct" what seems to be wrong and more wonderful.  If you do, then 'promote'.

The more you practice a new thinking habit, the more neurons connect with the same amount.  And more neurons will learn to work together.  As neuroscientists put it, neurons that fire simultaneously, those neurons wire together.  Meaning, these neurons are linked together.  And that's how you can change the wiring of your brain.  Isn't this weird?

5 The state of presence

   A wealthy mind has a healthy presence                                                              of mind” 

Living in the exact present is an awakened state of consciousness, but most people do not live in the exact present.  Being awake in imagination and thought is the state of dreams.

 When we are making any plans for the future, we go to the world of imagination, not in the present.  This world of imagination is not a reality but a kind of dream-world.  When we get lost in some memory of the past, we go to the world of memory.  This too is a different type of dream world.

 Most people die by living in the dream world, they are able to live only 10 percent of their life in the present, so living in the present is the awakened state of consciousness.

6  Any pain you feel results from                         resisting  the things you can’t change.

         Emotional pain cannot kill you, but                                           running from it can

You understand that if there is something outside, due to which you are getting only a little irritable or bored, then a thought will arise in your mind that what is all this?  There will be some trouble.  You will think, 'Let me move away from this place, or you will think that I should change this situation, or move this person out of here.' And all this will go on in the mind and no one else will even know.  ;  You sit and think!

 But if the external influence is strong and the thought deepens, then the instinct will be awakened and now the effect of this thought will start showing on your body as well.  Earlier you were just thinking, now you will find that you are getting angry, your face is turning red and if the anger keeps on increasing then your hands and feet will start trembling, fists will stop and body will start trembling – this is Vritti.  Now you will say, 'I have become emotional.'

 Emotion is nothing, feeling is just the manifestation of instinct.

7   Portals into the unmanifested

     Meditation and concentration are the                                     way to a life of serenity

Our body is made up of 5 elements – earth, water, fire, sky, air.  If there is a disorder in any one of these elements, then it starts having a negative effect on the body.  Many types of diseases surround human beings.  The mind becomes restless and anxious.  Dhyana yoga integrates all these elements.  These disorders can be overcome with the help of meditation.  But here a thought arises in the mind that what is meditation after all?  The simple answer to this is that meditation is to concentrate one's mind or mind on some thought or object. 

 It can also be in the form of listening attentively to someone, or looking at someone with gazing eyes.  Or drive carefully.  Where are your hands, where are your feet and where are you looking, it can also be kept in the category of meditation.  But when spirituality is added to it, it becomes very wide and deep.  Man's normal consciousness gets connected with his subconscious mind, which attracts him to the supreme power and gives him an incredible new power.  This power motivates man for human welfare.

8  Enlightened relationship

                  In true love, you attain freedom.

It is ego that seeks some thing based on its desires. Those who have gone beyond ego have transcended desire and transformed into a vessel for that which is most beneficial to the whole.

 In other words, enlightenment has replaced ‘seeking’ with experiential ‘awareness’.

 In this state of consciousness, all relationships serve as a reflection of the observer. It is the One recognising that it is having a relationship with itself.

 This is what it means to be whole and fulfilled. It is to be at home within oneself.

9  Beyond happiness and unhappiness               there is peace

            Happiness is a journey, not a                                         destination

Happiness and sorrow are felt through the mind.  The soul is beyond, that does not mean that it will not have any knowledge.  If there will be no knowledge (experience), then what is the difference between the soul and the inert thing (stone etc.) !!

 Beyond means that in spite of all these, there is also beyond these.  If the mind-senses etc. are fine, or if they stop working or they die, even then it is the form of knowledge (soul).  Feelings of happiness and sorrow are done through the mind, the knowledge of external things is done through the senses, but the knowledge-satta (power to know) which is there in all of these - it is from the soul itself.

 Through which everyone is getting the power to know and knowledge from all sources, where the original source of information is being filtered, it is the soul.

10  The meaning of surrender

      The greatness of the man's power is 

             the measure of his surrender

Surrender means surrendering one's mind.  Surrender means renunciation of desires, aspirations, desires.  Surrender means giving up our ego and living life according to the one to whom we have surrendered.  Surrender also in spirituality means surrendering one's soul.

 Saying this is as easy as it is difficult.  Surrender to God is also very rare in man, devotion to Guru is also rare, wife to husband, husband to wife, son to parents, it is very rare to have surrender.  

 We are not able to give up our ego all the time.  We cannot even offer anything to others without greed.