Forget Past and Future

A central teaching of Tolle’s enlightenment is, you guessed it, to focus on the now.

But why should we focus on the now?

Well, Tolle makes the case that lots our suffering and pain happen because we allow the past and the future to poison our present.
Which makes no sense to Tolle, because past and future don’t even exist.

The past cannot survive in your presence: it can only survive in your absence

Now is All There Is

Past and future are mental constructs that bare no reality.

Things only happen in a continuous stream of present moments.
When you feel something about the past you are feeling it now. So it’s not true that you are feeling some pain from the past: you are experiencing it in a success of present, “now moments”.

Our feelings indeed can only give you information about the now, about this specific moment.
What we call the past is nothing but a collection of once-present moments. And the future is made of present moments that have yet to materialize.

How “Now” Empowers You

Dwelling on past pains and future worries does nothing good for you.

If you deal with them in the now instead you will only be dealing with smaller problems that you will be tackling without any future worries.

For example, you might have a huge project you are running behind schedule.
Most people project the future worry of not making it on time or having to face an angry boss on the now, which does nothing good neither for them nor for the completion of their project.

If you tackle it instead in the now, you can focus on doing all the actions that need be to taken now, free of future worries.

The secret of life is dying before you die. And finding there’s no death

Pain is Focus on What You Can’t Change

Eckart Tolle says that we experience pain when are unhappy about things we have little control on.
The past for example, or future issues we don’t feel like we can fully control.

It’s because we focus too much on the past and the future but we only have the present to tackle them. And the present cannot always fully tackle future events and it can hardly rewrite the past as well (albeit Tony Robbins shares a few technique to change your past memories).

We Create Pain – And We Can Erase It

As much as past and future are our own construct, so is pain.
It might feel like external circumstances bring pain to us, but that’s not true: we create our own pain.

Unavoidable Pain

The Power of Now doesn’t deny that some pain are unavoidable.
Death of loved ones, for example, will always be painful.

Tolle says that you should accept unavoidable pain for what it is: a part of life that cannot be changed.
And you will avoid needless suffering.

Accepting means that you stop wishing it weren’t, or that you stop blaming yourself for any possible contribution.

After all, being present in the now is not strictly about avoiding, suppressing or ignoring all pain and negative feelings.
But it provides with the strength to accept them.

Accept it as if you chose it

Ego & Thinking Are The Enemy

We equate our ego with the thoughts in our mind.

The problem with that is that our mind is always projecting into the future to secure its survival.

This is why you cannot find the present moment as long as you are in your mind.
For Tolle indeed the enlightenment is to stop the incessant thinking of our mind.

He says that Rene’ Descartes got it wrong with his famous “I think therefore I am”.
He made the typical mistake of equating thinking with being and identity with thinking.

Artists Create From The Now

Tolle says that all artists, whether they are aware of it or not, create from a place of no mind (=no constant thinking).

You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold

Path to Enlightenment: Separation & Observation

To reach an enlightenment state you need to separate yourself from your constantly thinking mind and observe it as you’d observe a third party.

Tolle proposes several different ways to do that:

• Ask yourself “What will my next thought be?”

When you fully focus on that question your mind will stop its background humming for a while and you will create a gap in the flow of thinking.

• Listen to your mind without judging

Judging is an act of your mind, so when you allow your mind to judge its own thought you are allowing it free reins.

So for example if in the middle of something you feel like taking a break outside, follow that impulse instead of deeming it unrealistic.
Conversely, if you’re outside taking a break, listen if your thought says “you should be working instead of wasting time” but don’t judge it. Just acknowledge it exists.

This “listening without equating yourself to your emotions and thoughts” is the same concept of the equally spiritual book “The Untethered Soul“.

• Experience full alertness

A great to focus on the now is putting yourself in a state where you are awaiting for something important to happen.

When you in a state of tense awaiting all your body and mind is fully alert without any spare resources for worrying about the past and future.
Active waiting can also be a tool you can use to enter a state of flow, for example before an exam or before a race (for more on flow read: Grit and The Talent Code).
This is why, Tolle says, Jesus answered to the disciples who asked him how to live a good and peaceful life:

Be like a servant waiting for the return of the master

The servant, fully alert, is living in the now.

“The second coming of Jesus is in your enlightenment

Relationships In the Now

Living in the now can be of great help for your relationship.

It allows you to listen without ego and without judging. And you will have no need to possess and restrict your partner.

However, it can also make your relationship difficult when only one partner lives in the now.
Eckhart Tolle says that light and darkness cannot coexist.
The non-enlightened partner will always try to bring you back to the pains of the past or the worries of the future.

Only light can recognize light

Addiction & Relationships

The author says that any addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Being addicted to one person is like being addicted to any other substance.

The addictions, states the Power of Now, stems by personal refusal to address personal pain.

Relationships With(out) Yourself

When you are enlightened, says Tolle, you won’t have a relationship with yourself anymore because you move beyond equating yourself with your ego.

Mind & Body Go Together

The author says that many spirituals got it wrong in trying to transcend from the body.
Trying to repress the body is not the way to enlightenment.
Buddha only found enlightenment when he stopped his 6 years abstinence. Jesus always embraced the body: he ascended to heaven with his body and told the disciples that “your body is a temple”.

Interconnectedness of Everything

Eckhart Tolle says that he cannot tell you anything which you don’t already know, deep inside.
And when you reach a certain stage of interconnectedness you will recognize the truth when you hear it.

When you reach a high level of interconnectedness you will realize that God is everywhere around you.
That’s why Jesus said:

Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up a stone and you will find me there

Real Life Applications

• Accept it as you chose it

Ryan Holiday calls the acceptance of what we cannot “amor fati” (The Obstacle is The Way).

The Power of Now goes even one step further, suggesting you accept all that you cannot change as if you had chosen it yourself.
Very powerful.

• Use clock time

I really loved, loved, loved the idea of using “clock time” instead of “psychological time” for the future.
Such as when you need to set deadlines for the future, only treat it as clock time instead of allowing the pain and worry to take over in your present.

• Goals & Drive VS In The Now

Some people might use “The Power of Now” as an excuse not to plan, make strict goals or push themselves through suffering.

I have a different approach: keep making goals and deadline, but actively weed out all the worries the future brings into your present.
Plan in advance and enjoy your journey in the now.

CONS

• What if past and present bring positive

While Tolle mostly focuses on the past and the future as harbinger of pain, I couldn’t help but wonder: what if the past and present instead mostly brought us good feelings and sensations?

In The Power of Positive Thinking for example Norman Vincent Peale talks about the powerful benefits of positive thinking, and that can come from either past, present or future.
I think indeed that while we can leverage the power of now, we can also leverage the power of past and future, if we need so.

• We can’t stop thinking because…

… Because we believe that we stop being if we stop thinking.
I find this answer quite bogus to be honest. How can he say that for sure? I think our mind doesn’t stop because that’s how it’s biologically wired instead.

• Superficial “guilt-tripping” on humanity

Eckhart Tolle answer a question saying (I paraphrase for brevity):

Of course, there’s something wrong with you, and you are not being judged. Don’t you belong to the human race who killed over 100 million members of its own species in the 21st century alone?

I don’t like that attitude.
I find it very superficial and I don’t see what kind of value it can add.

• Superficial guilt tripping on men

The author talks about “collective female pain body” as due in large part to collective male violence and repression on women throughout the planet over the millennia.

I personally disagree, but it’s also factually wrong as patriarchal society is not “global”.
Plenty of societies have been matriarchal.

If you’re interested in the topic also check Men on Strike and The Feminist Lie (but the latter goes way overboard).
But also my reviews of The Red Pill and on Overgrowing The Red Pill.

• Poor relationship theory

Especially after having read top and scientific resources on relationships I found some relationship analysis in The Power of Now to be a bit shallow.
If you’re interested in improving your relationship, check my relationship meta-summary.

• Simplistic view on addiction

The Power of Now says that addiction is always the refusal to address personal pain.
That’s not completely true in my opinion and can be deceiving.
Today we know that some personalities are more prone to addictions than others, called addictive personalities.

PROS

Powerful Concept!
The concept of living in the now is extremely powerful.

Mouthpiece for meditation
The Power of Now, with its millions of books sold can really help people embrace a bit more spirituality in their life.
And I think that’s good.