Acclaim for
 THE POWER OF NOW
 
“I h eartily recommend this pr ofoundly inspiring book to all seekers
today .”
— Lama Surya Das, author of A wakening the Buddha W ithin
“This se ems to be the ‘right boo k’ for many people at this point in time. The writing is c lear as a bell; the words ring true. T ruly an exceptional
book that promises to make a real dif ference in people’ s lives.”
— T om Oakley , Banyen Books, V ancouver , British Columbia
“The Power of Now  was introduced to me by a customer . I read only one
page and agreed that it rang true. It is a jewel of clarity and insight. The
book has become a word-of-mouth bestseller here at East W est.”
— Norman Snitkin, comanager , East W est Bookshop, Seattle
“T olle has succeeded on two  fronts: synthesizing the teachings of
masters such as Jesus and the B uddha into an easily accessible guide to
achieving spiritual consciousness and making a strong case that the
inability of humans to free themselves from dominance by the mind and
live in the present is the root cau se for misery in the world. . . . He makes
enlightenment seem attainable and necessary for both individual peace
and the health of the planet.”
— For eW or d  magazine
“I ha ve no hesit ation in recommending Eckhart T olle’ s wonderful book. Everyone I know who has picke d up a copy has ended up taking  it home. The Power of Now  sells on its own merit and by word of mouth.”
— Stephen Gawtry , Manager , W atkins Books Ltd., London
“Fresh, revealin g, current, new inspiration. Out of the many spiritual
books that cross my desk this one stands out from the flock. . . . If youare cons idering getting back in touch with your soul, this book is a great
companion.”
— Common Gr ound,  V ancouver , British Columbia
“W ith intense and compelling clarity , T olle’ s guidance holds the promise
of leading us to our own best an d highest place within, to resonate with
and reflect the ener gy of true transformation.”
— Spirit of Change  magazine
“W ith Eckhart T olle’ s growing presence on bestseller shelves usually
reserved for much lighter -weight fare, it will be interesting to see what
time has in store for this unusual modern mystic.”
— What Is Enlightenment? magazine
“. . . a guide to spiritual awaken ing from a man who is emer ging as one
of this generation’ s clearest, most inspiring teachers on the subject.”
— T ransitions Bookplace, Chicago
“The most important book in a spiritual life written in the last decade.”
— Thunderbird Bookshop, Carmel, CaliforniaT H E  P O W E R  O F
 NOWT H E  P O W E R  O F
 NOW
A GUIDE T O SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
E c k h a r t  T o l l e
 N AMASTE  P UBLISHING
 and
 N EW  W ORLD  L IBRAR Y
 N OV A T O , C ALIFORNIA 
N e w  W o r l d
L i b r a r y
 1 4  P a m a r o n  W a y
 N o v a t o ,  C A  9 4 9 4 9
and
N a m a s t e  P u b l i s h i n g
 P . O . B o x  6 2 0 8 4
 V a n c o u v e r ,  B . C . ,  C a n a d a
V 6 J  4 A 3
Copyright © 1999 by Eckhart T olle
 Preface to the paperback edition, copyright © 2004 by Eckhart T olle
 First paperback printing, September 2004
All right s reserved. This book m ay not be reproduced in whole or in part,
stored in a retrie val system, or transmitted in any form or by an y means
electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the
publisher , excep t by a reviewer , who may quote brief passages in a
review . Cover design: Jacqueline V erkley and Mary Ann Casler
 Interior design: Jacqueline V erkley
 T ypography: T ona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 T olle, Eckhart, 1948–
 The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment / Eckhart T olle. p. cm. ISBN 1-57731-480-8 (alk. paper)
 1. Spiritual life. I. T itle. B L 6 2 4 . T 6 4  1 9 9 9
 2 9 1 . 4 ' 4 — d c 2 19 9 - 4 2 3 3 6
Originally published in Canada by
 Namaste Publishing Inc., 1997
 ISBN 1-57731-480-8 Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer waste recycled paper
 
 A proud member of the Green Press Initiative
Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group W est
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Y ou are here to enable the divine
 purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are! — Eckhart T olleC O N T E N T S
Author ’ s Pr eface to the Paperback Edition
Intr oduction
The Origin of This Book
The T ruth That Is W ithin Y ou
CHAPTER ONE : Y ou Ar e Not Y our Mind
The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment
Freeing Y ourself from Y our Mind
Enlightenment: Rising above Thought
Emotion: The Body’ s Reaction to Y our Mind
CHAPTER TWO : Consciousness: The W ay Out of Pain
Create No More Pain in the Present
Past Pain: Dissolving the Pain-Body
Ego Identification with the Pain-Body
The Origin of Fear
The Ego’ s Search for Wholeness
CHAPTER THREE : Moving Deeply into the Now
Don’ t Seek Y our Self in the Mind
End the Delusion of T ime
Nothing Exists Outside the Now
The Key to the Spiritual Dimension
Accessing the Power of the Now
Letting Go of Psychological T ime
The Insanity of Psychological T ime
Negativity and Suf fering Have Their Roots in T ime
Finding the Life Underneath Y our Life Situation
All Problems Are Illusions of the Mind
A Quantum Leap in the Evolution of ConsciousnessThe Joy of Being
CHAPTER FOUR : Mind Strategies for A voiding the Now
Loss of Now: The Core Delusion
Ordinary Unconsciousness and Deep Unconsciousness
What Are They Seeking? Dissolving Ordinary Unconsciousness
Freedom from Unhappiness
Wherever Y ou Are, Be There T otally
The Inner Purpose of Y our Life’ s Journey
The Past Cannot Survive in Y our Presence
CHAPTER FIVE : The State of Pr esence
It’ s Not What Y ou Think It Is
The Esoteric Meaning of “W aiting”
Beauty Arises in the Stillness of Y our Presence
Realizing Pure Consciousness
Christ: The Reality of Y our Divine Presence
CHAPTER SIX : The Inner Body
Being Is Y our Deepest Self
Look beyond the W ords
Finding Y our Invisible and Indestructible Reality
Connecting with the Inner Body
T ransformation through the Body
Sermon on the Body
Have Deep Roots W ithin
Before Y ou Enter the Body , For give
Y our Link with the Unmanifested
Slowing Down the Aging Process
Strengthening the Immune System
Let the Breath T ake Y ou into the Body
Creative Use of Mind
The Art of Listening
CHAPTER SEVEN : Portals into the Unmanifested
Going Deeply into the Body
The Source of Chi
Dreamless Sleep
Other PortalsSilence
Space
The T rue Nature of Space and T ime
Conscious Death
CHAPTER EIGHT : Enlightened Relationships
Enter the Now from Wherever Y ou Are
Love/Hate Relationships
Addiction and the Search for Wholeness
From Addictive to Enlightened Relationships
Relationships as Spiritual Practice
Why W omen Are Closer to Enlightenment
Dissolving the Collective Female Pain-Body
Give Up the Relationship with Y ourself
CHAPTER NINE : Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness Ther e Is Peace
The Higher Good beyond Good and Bad
The End of Y our Life Drama
Impermanence and the Cycles of Life
Using and Relinquishing Negativity
The Nature of Compassion
T oward a Dif ferent Order of Reality
CHAPTER TEN : The Meaning of Surr ender
Acceptance of the Now
From Mind Ener gy to Spiritual Ener gy
Surrender in Personal Relationships
T ransforming Illness into Enlightenment
When Disaster Strikes
T ransforming Suf fering into Peace
The W ay of the Cross
The Power to Choose
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the AuthorA U T H O R ’ S  P R E F A C E  T O
 T H E  P A P E R B A C K  E D I T I O N
Six year s after it was first published, The Power of Now  continues to
play its  part in the ur gent task of the transformation o f human
consciousness. A lthough I was privileged to give birth to it, I  feel that
the book has tak en on a life and momentum of its own. It has  reached
several million readers worldwide, many of whom have written  to me to
tell of the life-c hanging ef fect it has had on them. Due to the extremely
high volume of correspondence I receive, I am regretfully no longer able
to s end personal replies, but I would like to take this oppor tunity to
express my deepest gratitude to all those who have written to me  to share
their experience s. I am moved and deeply touched by many of those
accounts, and they leave no do ubt in my mind that an unpre cedented
shift in consciousness is indeed happening on our planet. Nobody could have predicted the rapid growth of the book when
Namaste Publis hing in V ancouver published the first edition of three
thousand copies  in 1997. Durin g its first year of publication, the book
found its readers almost exclus ively through word of mouth. That was
the time when I would personally deliver a few copies every week to
some small bookstores in V ancouver , something I found enormously
satisfying, knowing that every book that I handed over had the potential
of ch anging someone’ s life. Frie nds helped by placing copies of the book
in spiritual bookstores farther afield: Calgary , Seattle, C alifornia,
London. Stephen Gawtry , the manager of W atkins, the world’ s oldest
metaphysical bookstore in London, England, wrote at the time, “I foresee
great things for this book.” He was right: by the second year The Power
of Now  had developed into an “under ground bestseller ,” as one reviewer
later cal led it. Then, after the book received a number of f avorable
reviews in various journals and  magazines, its growth accelerated andfinally b ecame explosive when Oprah W infrey , who had been deeply
af fected by the book, proceede d to tell the world about it. F ive years
after it was fir st published, it reached #1 on the New Y ork T imes
bestseller list, and it is now available in thirty languages. It has b een very
well received and become a bestseller even in India, a country
considered by many to be the birthplace of humanity’ s quest for  spiritual
enlightenment. Most of  the thousands of letter s and emails that have been sent to me
from all over the world are from ordinary men and women, but there are
also letters from Buddhist mon ks and Christian nuns, from p eople in
prison or facing a life-threatening illness or imminent death. Psychotherapists have written t o say that they recommend the book to
their patients or incorporate the teachings in their practice. Many of those
letters and emails mention a les sening or even a complete disap pearance
of suf fer ing and  problem-makin g in people’ s lives as a result of reading
The Pow er of Now  and putting the teachings into practice in everyday
life. There is frequent mention of the amazing and beneficial ef fects of
inner body awareness, the sense of freedom that comes from letting go of
self-identification with one’ s pe rsonal history and life-situation, and a
newfound inner peace that arises as one learns to r elinquish
mental/emotional resistance to the “suchness” of the present moment. Many pe ople ha ve read the book  more than once, and they comment that
the text loses none of its freshne ss upon subsequent readings, indeed that
the book’ s transformative power remains not only undiminished, but
actually becomes intensified. The mo re the dysfunction of the human mind plays itself out on the
world stage, clearly visible to everyone in the daily television news
reports, the greater the number of people who realize the ur gent need for
a rad ical change in human con sciousness if humanity is not to  destroy
both itse lf and the planet. This need, as well as readiness in millions of
people for the arising of a new consciousness, is the contex t within
which the “success” of The Power of Now  must be seen and understood. This doe s not mean, of course, that everyone responds favorab ly to the
book. In many people, as well as in most of the political and e conomic
structures and the greater part of the media, the old consciousness is still
deeply entrench ed. Anyone who is still totally identified with the voice
in th eir head — the stream of in voluntary and incessant thinkin g — willinevitably fail to see what The Power of Now  is all about. Some
enthusiastic readers gave a copy of the book to a friend or relative and
were surprised and disappointed when the recipient found it quite
meaningless and could not get beyond the first few pages. “Mumbo
jumbo” was all that T ime  magazine could see in a book that countless
people around the globe found life-changing. Furthermore, any teaching
that puts the spotlight of attention on the workings of the ego will
necessarily provoke egoic reaction, resistance, and attack. However , despite a certain amount of misunderstanding and critical
dissent, the response to the book around the globe has been
overwhelmingly positive. I feel confident that in the years to come
millions more will be drawn t o it, and that The Power of Now  will
continue to make a vital contribution to the arising of  a new
consciousness and a more enlightened humanity . — Eckhart T olle
 V ancouver , B.C. April 19, 2004T H E  P O W E R  O F
 NOWI N T R O D U C T I O N
THE ORIGIN OF THIS BOOK
I ha ve little use for the past and  rarely think about it; however , I would
briefly like to tell you how I cam e to be a spiritual teacher and how this
book came into existence. Until m y thirtie th year , I lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety
interspersed wit h periods of sui cidal depression. It feels now a s if I am
talking about some past lifetime or somebody else’ s life. One night not lo ng after my twenty-ninth birthday , I woke up in the early
hours w ith a feeling of absolu te dread. I had woken up with such a
feeling m any times before, but this time it was more intense th an it had
ever been. The silence of the night, the vague outlines of the fu rniture in
the dark  room, the distant noise  of a passing train — everything felt so
alien, so hostile, and so utterly meaningless that it created in me a deep
loathing of the w orld. The most loathsome thing of all, however , was my
own exi stence. W hat was the po int in continuing to live with this burden
of m isery? Why carry on with t his continuous struggle? I could feel that
a deep longing for annihilation , for nonexistence, was now becoming
much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live. “I canno t live with myself any longer .” This was the thought that kept
repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a
peculiar thought  it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with  myself,
there must be two of me: the ‘I’  and the ‘self ’ that ‘I’ cannot li ve with.”
“Maybe,” I thought, “only one of them is real.”
I was so stunned  by this strange  realization that my mind stopp ed. I was
fully con scious, but there were n o more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into
what seemed like a vortex of en er gy . It was a slow movement at first andthen accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear , and my body started to
shake. I heard the words “resist nothing,” as if spoken inside m y chest. I
could feel myself being sucked into a void. It felt as if the void was
inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly , there was no more fear , and
I l et myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what h appened
after that. I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window . I had never
heard su ch a sound before. My  eyes were still closed, and I saw the
image of a preci ous diamond. Y es, if a diamond could make a so und, this
is what it would  be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of d awn was
filtering through  the curtains. W ithout any thought, I felt, I knew , that
there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity
filtering through  the curtains wa s love itself. T ears came into my eyes. I
got up and walk ed around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I
knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and
pristine, as if it had just come in to existence. I picked up things, a pencil,
an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all. That day I walk ed around the city in utter amazement at the m iracle of
life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world. For the next five months, I live d in a state of uninterrupted deep peace
and bliss. After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity , or perhaps it
just seem ed to because it became my natural state. I could still  function
in the world, alt hough I realized that nothing I ever did  could possibly
add anything to what I already had. I k new , of cours e, that something profoundly significant had happened to
me, but I didn’ t  understand it at all. It wasn’ t until several years later ,
after I had read spiritual texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that
I r ealized that w hat everybody was looking for had already happened to
me. I understood that the inten se pressure of suf fering that night must
have forced my consciousness to withdraw from its identification with
the u nhappy and deeply fearful self, which is ultimately a fiction of the
mind. T his withdrawal must have been so complete that this false,
suf fering self immediately collapsed, just as if a plug had been pulled out
of a n inflatable toy . What was left then was my true nature as the ever -
present I am:  consciousness in its pure state prior to identification with
form. L ater I also learned to g o into that inner timeless and deathlessrealm that I had originally p erceived as a void and rem ain fully
conscious. I dwelt in states of such indescribable bliss and sa credness
that even  the original experience I just described pales in comparison. A
time cam e when , for a while, I was left with nothing on the physical
plane. I  had no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined
identity . I spent almost two year s sitting on park benches in a st ate of the
most intense joy . But even the most beautiful experiences come and go . More
fundamental, perhaps, than any experience is the undercurrent of peace
that has  never left me since th en. Sometimes it is very strong , almost
palpable, and others can feel it to o. At other times, it is somewhere in the
background, like a distant melody . Later , pe ople wo uld occasionall y come up to me and say: “I want what
you have. Can you give it to me, or show me how to get it?” And I
would say: “Y ou have it already . Y ou just can’ t feel it because your mind
is making too much noise.” That answer later grew into the book that
you are holding in your hands. Before I knew it, I had an external identity again. I had b ecome a
spiritual teacher . THE TRUTH THA T IS WITHIN YOU
This book represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be
conveyed in words, with individuals and small groups of spiritual
seekers during the past ten years, in Europe and in North America. In
deep love and appreciation, I would like to thank those ex ceptional
people for their courage, their willingness to embrace inner change, their
challenging questions, and their  readiness to listen. This book would not
have com e into existence witho ut them. They belong to what is as yet a
small but fortunately growing m inority of spiritual pioneers: people who
are reac hing a point where they become capable of breakin g out of
inherited collective mind-patterns that have kept humans in bondage to
suf fering for eons. I t rust that this book will find its way to those who are ready for such
radical inner transformation and so act as a catalyst for it. I also hope that
it w ill reach many others w ho will find its content worthy ofconsideration, al though they may not be ready to fully live or practice it. It is possible that at a later tim e, the seed that was sown when reading
this book will m er ge with the seed of enlightenment that eac h human
being carries within, and sudde nly that seed will sprout and come alive
within them. The book in its present form originated, often spontaneously , in response
to quest ions ask ed by individuals in seminars, meditation classes, and
private counseling sessions, and  so I have kept the question-and-answer
format. I learned and received as much in those classes and sessions as
the q uestioners. Some of the que stions and answers I wrote dow n almost
verbatim. Others are generic, which is to say I combined certain types of
questions that were frequently asked into one, and extracted the essence
from dif ferent answers to form  one generic answer . Sometimes, in the
process of writing, an entirely n ew answer came that was more profound
or insigh tful than anything I had  ever uttered. Some additional questions
were ask ed by the editor so as to provide further clarification of certain
points. Y ou will find that from the first to the last page, the dialogues
continuously alternate between two dif ferent levels. On o ne level, I draw your attention to what is false  in you. I speak of the
nature of human unconsciousne ss and dysfunction as well as  its most
common behavioral manifestations, from conflict in relationships to
warfare between  tribes or nations. Such knowledge is vital, f or unless
you learn to recognize the false as false — as not you — there can be no
lasting transform ation, and you would always end up being dra wn back
into illusion and into some form of pain. On this level, I also show you
how not to make that which is false in you into a self and into a personal
problem, for that is how the false perpetuates itself. On another level, I speak of  a profound transformation of human
consciousness —  not as a distant future possibility , but available now —
no matte r who or where you a re. Y ou are shown how to free yourself
from enslaveme nt to the mind, enter into this enlightened state of
consciousness and sustain it in everyday life. On this level o f the book, the  words are not always concer ned with
information, but often designed to draw you into this new consciousnessas you read. Ag ain and again, I  endeavor to take you with me into that
timeless state of intense conscious presence in the Now , so as to  give you
a taste of enlightenment. Until you are able to experience what I speak
of, you may find those passages somewhat repetitive. As soon as you do,
however , I believe you will realize that they contain a great deal of
spiritual power , and they may b ecome for you the most reward ing parts
of t he book. Moreover , sinc e every person carries the seed of
enlightenment w ithin, I often address myself to the knower in you who
dwells b ehind the thinker , the deeper self that immediately re cognizes
spiritual truth, resonates with it, and gains strength from it. The pau se symb ol 
  af ter certain pa ssages is a suggestion that you may
want to stop reading for a mome nt, become still, and feel and experience
the truth  of what has just been sa id. There may be other places in the text
where you will do this naturally and spontaneously . As you begin reading the book, the meaning of certain words, such as
“Being” or “presence,” may not be entirely clear to you at first. Just read
on. Questions or objections may occasionally come into your mind as
you read. They will probably be  answered later in the book, or they may
turn out to be irrelevant as you go more deeply into the teachin g — and
into yourself. Don’ t read with the mind only . W atch out for any “feeling-resp onse” as
you read  and a sense of recognition from deep within. I canno t tell you
any spir itual truth that deep with in you don’ t know already . All  I can do
is remin d you of what you have for gotten. Living knowledge , ancient
and yet ever new , is then activat ed and released from within every cell of
your body . The min d always wants to categorize and compare, but this book will
work be tter for you if you do not attempt to compare its term inology
with that of ot her teachings; otherwise, you will probably  become
confused. I use words such as “mind,” “happiness,” and “consci ousness”
in w ays that do not necessarily correlate with other teachings. D on’ t get
attached to any words. They are only stepping stones, to be left b ehind as
quickly as possible. When I occasio nally quote the words of Jesus or the Buddha, from A
Course in Miracles  or from  other teachings, I do so not in order tocompare, but to draw your atte ntion to the fact that in essence  there is
and always has been only one spiritual teaching, although it comes in
many forms. Some of these forms, such as the ancient religions, have
become so overlaid with extran eous matter that their spiritual essence
has become almost completely obscured by it. T o a lar ge extent,
therefore, their deeper meaning is no longer recognized a nd their
transformative power lost. When I quote from the ancient religions or
other teachings,  it is to reveal t heir deeper meaning and thereby restore
their transformative power — particularly for those readers who are
followers of these religions or t eachings. I say to them: there is no need
to go elsewhere  for the truth. Let me show you how to go mor e deeply
into what you already have. Mostly , howeve r , I have endeav ored to use terminology that is as neutral
as p ossible in order to reach a wide range of people. This boo k can be
seen as a restatement for our time of that one timeless spiritual teaching,
the esse nce of all religions. It i s not derived from external sou rces, but
from the  one true Source within,  so it contains no theory or spec ulation. I
speak fr om inne r experience, and if at times I speak forcefully , i t is to cut
through heavy layers of mental resistance and to reach that place within
you where you already know ,  ju st as I know , and where the truth is
recognized when it is heard. There is then a feeling of exaltation and
heightened alive ness, as something within you says: “Y es. I know this is
true.”CHAPTER ONE
Y O U  A R E  N O T  Y O U R  M I N D
THE GREA TEST OBST ACLE T O ENLIGHTENMENT
Enlightenment — what is that? A be ggar had be en sitting by the side of a road for over thirty ye ars. One
day a stranger w alked by . “Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar ,
mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. “I have nothing  to give
you,” sa id the stranger . Then he asked: “What’ s that you are sit ting on?”
“Nothing,” replied the beggar . “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it
for a s lo ng as I c an remember .” “Ever looked inside?” asked the  stranger . “No,” said the beggar . “What’ s the point? There’ s nothing in there.”
“Have a  look inside,” insisted the stranger . The beggar manag ed to pry
open the  lid. W ith astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the
box was filled with gold. I am that stranger who has noth ing to give you and who is telling you to
look ins ide. Not  inside any box , as in the parable, but somewhere even
closer: inside yourself. “But I am not a beggar ,” I can hear you say . Those w ho have not found their true wealth, which is the radia nt joy of
Being a nd the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars,
even if they have great materia l wealth. They are looking ou tside for
scraps of pleasure or fulfillmen t, for validation, security , or lov e, while
they have a trea sure within that not only includes all those things but is
infinitely greater than anything the world can of fer .The wo rd enlightenment conjures up the idea of some sup erhuman
accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way , but it is simply
your natural state of felt  oneness with Being. It is a state of
connectedness with something immeasurable and indes tructible,
something that, almost paradoxi cally , is essentially you and yet  is much
greater t han you . It is finding your true nature beyond name and form. The inability to feel this conn ectedness gives rise to the illusion of
separation, from  yourself and from the world around you. Y ou then
perceive yourself, consciously or unconsciously , as an isolated fragment. Fear arises, and conflict within and without becomes the norm. I love the Buddha’ s simple definition of enlightenment as “the end of
suf fering.” There is nothing superhuman in that, is there? Of course, as a
definition, it is incomplete. It only tells you what enlightenment is not:
no suf fering. But what’ s left when there is no more suf feri ng? The
Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you’ll hav e to find
out for yourself . He uses a negative definition so that the mind cannot
make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman
accomplishment, a goal that is i mpossible for you to attain. Despite this
precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that enlightenment is
for the Buddha, not for them, at least not in this lifetime. Y ou used the wor d  Being. Can you explain what you mean by that? Being is the ete rnal, ever -presen t One Life beyond the myriad forms of
life that are su bject to birth a nd death. However , Being is not only
beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and
indestructible essence. This me ans that it is accessible to you now as
your ow n deepe st self, your true nature. But don’ t seek to grasp it with
your mind. Don’ t try to understand it. Y ou can know it only when the
mind is still. When you are pr esent, when your attention is fully and
intensely in the Now , Being can  be felt, but it can never be understood
mentally . T o regain awareness of Being and to abide in that  state of
“feeling-realization” is enlightenment.When you say  Being, ar e you talking about God? If you ar e, then why
don’ t you say it? The word God  has become empty of meaning through thousands of years
of misus e. I use it sometimes, b ut I do so sparingly . By misuse, I mean
that peo ple who  have never eve n glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the
infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they
knew what they are talking about. Or they ar gue against it, as if they
knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd
beliefs, assertion s, and egoic de lusions, such as “ My  or our  G od is the
only true God, and your  God is false,” or Nietzsche’ s famous statement
“God is dead.”
The word God  has become a closed concept. The moment the word is
uttered, a mental image is created, no longer , perhaps, of an old man with
a w hite beard, b ut still a mental representation of someone or s omething
outside you, and, yes, almost inevitably a male  someone or something. Neither God  nor Being  n or any other word can define or explain the
inef fable reality  behind the word, so the only important qu estion is
whether the word is a help or a hindrance in enabling you to experience
That toward which it points. Does it point beyond itself to that
transcendental r eality , or does it lend itself too easily to beco ming no
more than an idea in your head that you believe in, a mental idol? The word Being  explains nothing, but nor does God . Being , however , has
the adva ntage that it is an open concept. It does not reduce th e infinite
invisible to a finite entity . It is impossible to form a mental image of it. Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being. It is your very essence,
and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own
presence, the realization I am  that is prior to I am this or I am that. So it
is only a small step from the word Being  to the experience of Being. What is the gr eatest obstacle to experiencing this r eality? Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become
compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful af fliction, but
we d on’ t realize this because almost everybody is suf fering from  it, so it
is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of
inner sti llness th at is inseparable from Being. It also creates a fal se mind-
made self that c asts a shadow o f fear and suf fering. W e will look at all
that in more detail later . The philosophe r Descartes believed that he had found the most
fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: “I think,
therefore I am.” He had, in fact,  given expression to the most basic error:
to equa te thin king with Being and identity with thinking. The
compulsive thinker , which mea ns almost everyone, lives in a state of
apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous
problems and conflict, a world that reflects the ever -increasing
fragmentation of the mind. Enlightenment is a state of wholeness, of
being “at one” and therefore at peace. At one with life in its m anifested
aspect, t he world , as well as with your deepest self and life unm anifested
— a t on e with Being. Enlightenment is not only the end of suf fering and
of c ontinuous conflict within and without, but also the en d of the
dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking. What an incredible liberation
this is! Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of c oncepts,
labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true
relationship. It comes between y ou and yourself, between you and your
fellow man and woman, betwee n you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that  creates the illusion of separate ness, the
illusion that there is you and  a to tally separa te “other .” Y ou then for get
the esse ntial fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and
separate forms, you are one with all that is . By  “fo r get,” I mean that youcan no longer feel  this oneness as self-evident reality . Y ou may believe  it
to be true, but you no longer  know  it to be true. A belief may be
comforting. Only through your own experience, however , does it become
liberating. Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things g et out of
balance. For example, there is nothing wrong with cells dividing and
multiplying in the body , but when this process continues in disregard of
the total or ganism, cells proliferate and we have disease. The mind is a superb instrumen t if used rightly . Used wrongly , however ,
it becom es very  destructive. T o put it more accurately , it is not so much
that you use you r mind wrongly — you usually don’ t use it at all. It uses
you . This is the dise ase. Y ou believe that you ar e  your mind. This is the
delusion. The instrument has taken you over . I don’ t quite agr ee. It is true that I do a lot of aimless thinking, like most
people, but I can still choose to use my mind to get and accomplish
things, and I do that all the time. Just because you can solve a crossword puzzle or build an atom bomb
doesn’ t mean that you use your  mind. Just as dogs love to chew bones,
the mind loves to get its tee th into problems. That’ s why it does
crossword puzzl es and builds ato m bombs. Y ou  hav e no interest  in either . Let me ask you this: can you b e free of your mind whenever you want
to? Have you found the “of f” button? Y ou mean stop thinking altoge ther? No, I can’ t, except maybe for a
moment or two. Then the  mind is using you. Y o u are unconsciously identified with it, so
you don’ t even know that you are its slave. It’ s almost as if you were
possessed witho ut knowing it, an d so you take the possessing entity to beyourself. The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the
possessing entity — the thinker . Knowing this enables you to observe the
entity . The moment you start watching the thinker ,  a higher level of
consciousness becomes activated. Y ou then begin to realize tha t there is
a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny
aspect o f that intelligence. Y ou also realize that all the things that truly
matter — beauty , love, creativit y , joy , inner peace — arise from beyond
the mind. Y ou begin to awaken. FREEING YOURSELF FROM YOUR MIND
What exactly do you mean by “watching the thinker”? When someone goes to the doctor and says, “I hear a voice in my head,”
he or she will most likely be sent to a psychiatrist. The fact is that, in a
very similar way , virtually ever yone hears a voice, or several voices, in
their head all the time: the involuntary thought processes that y ou don’ t
realize you have the power to stop. Continuous monologues or dialogues. Y ou have probably come across “mad” people in the street incessantly
talking or muttering to themselves. W ell, that’ s not much dif ferent from
what you and all other “normal” people do, except that you don’ t do it
out loud. The voice comments, speculates, judges, compares, complains,
likes, dislikes, and so on. The  voice isn’ t necessarily relevant to the
situation you find yourself in at the time; it may be reviving the recent or
distant past or re hearsing or imagining possible future situation s. Here it
often imagines things going wrong and negative outcomes; this is called
worry . Sometim es this soundtrack is accompanied by visual images or
“mental movies. ” Even if the voice is relevant to the situation at hand, it
will interpret it i n terms of the past. This is because the voice b elongs to
your conditioned  mind, which is the result of all your past histor y as well
as o f the  collecti ve cultural mind-set you inherited. So you see a nd judgethe p resent through the eyes of the past and get a totally distorted  view of
it. It is n ot unco mmon for the voice to be a person’ s own worst enemy . Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks
and punishes them and drains them of vital ener gy . It is the cause of
untold misery and unhappiness, as well as of disease. The goo d news is that you can  free yourself from your mind. This is the
only true  liberat ion. Y ou can tak e the first step right now . Start listening
to th e voice in your head as ofte n as you can. Pay particular attention to
any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have
been playing in your head perhaps for many years. This is what I mean
by “watching the thinker ,” which is another way of saying: listen to the
voice in your head, be  there as the witnessing presence. When you listen to that voice, l isten to it impartially . That is to say , do
not judge. Do n ot judge or cond emn what you hear , for doing so would
mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door . Y ou’ll soon realize: ther e  is the voice, a nd here I am  list ening to it,
watching it. This I am  realization, this sense of your own presence, is not
a thought. It arises from beyond the mind. So when  you listen to a though t, you are aware not only of the  thought
but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of
consciousness h as come in. As  you listen to the thought, you feel a
conscious presence — your deeper self — behind or underneath the
thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and
quickly subsides , because you are no longer ener gizing the mind  through
identification wi th it. This is the beginning of the end of involun tary and
compulsive thinking. When a thought  subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental
stream —  a gap of “no-mind.” At first, the gaps will be short, a few
seconds perhaps , but gradually they will become longer . Wh en these
gaps occur , you feel a certain st illness and peace inside you. This is the
beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which isusually obscured by the mind. W ith practice, the sense of stillness and
peace w ill deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth. Y ou will also feel
a subtle emanation of joy arising from deep within: the joy of Being. It is not a trance like state. Not at all. There is no loss of consc iousness
here. Th e oppos ite is the case. If the price of peace were a low ering of
your consciousn ess, and the price of stillness a lack of vitality and
alertness, then they would not be worth having. In this state of inner
connectedness, y ou are much more alert, more awake than in the mind-
identified state. Y ou are fully present. It also raises the vibrational
frequency of the ener gy field that gives life to the physical body . As y ou go more deeply into this realm of no-mind, as it is so metimes
called in the East, you realize the state of pure consciousness. In that
state, yo u feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that
all think ing, all emotions, your physical body , as well as the whole
external world become relatively insignificant in comparison to it. And
yet t his is not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you
previously thoug ht of as “your self.” That presence is essentially you and
at the same time inconceivably  greater than you. What I am trying to
convey h ere may sound paradoxical or even contradictory , but th ere is no
other way that I can express it. Instead of “watching the thinker ,” you can also create a gap in the mind
stream s imply b y directing the f ocus of your attention into the Now . Just
become intensely conscious of  the present moment. This is a deeply
satisfying thing to do. In this way , you draw consciousness aw ay from
mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are hig hly alert
and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. In yo ur e veryday life, you can p ractice this by taking any routin e activity
that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest
attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example, every time you
walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close
attention to every step, every m ovement, even your breathing. Be totallypresent. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all t he sense
perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water ,
the mov ement o f your hands, the scent of the soap, and so on. Or when
you get into your car , after you close the door , pause for a few seconds
and observe the flow of your breath. Become aware of a s ilent but
powerful sense of presence. The re is one certain criterion by which you
can mea sure yo ur success in th is practice: the degree of peace  that you
feel within. So t he single m ost vital step on your journey toward enlighte nment is
this: learn to dis identify from your mind. Every time you create  a gap in
the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger . One day  you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your  head, as
you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer
take the content of your mind all  that seriously , as your sense of self does
not depend on it. ENLIGHTENMENT : RISING ABOVE THOUGHT
Isn’ t thinking essential in or der to survive in this world? Y our mi nd is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a  specific
task, and when the task is comp leted, you lay it down. As it is, I would
say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’ s thinking is not only
repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative
nature, much of it is also harmf ul. Observe your mind and you  will find
this to be true. It causes a serious leakage of vital ener gy . This kind of compulsive thinking is actually an addiction. What
characterizes an addiction? Quite simply this: you no longer feel  that youhave the choice to stop. It seems stronger than you. It also giv es you a
false sense of pleasure, pleasure that invariably turns into pain. Why should we be addicted to thinking? Because you are identified wit h it, which means that you derive your
sense of  self from the content and activity of your mind. Bec ause you
believe that you would cease to be if you stopped thinking. As you grow
up, you form a m ental image of who you are, based on your personal and
cultural conditio ning. W e may c all this phantom self the ego. It consists
of mind  activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego  m eans dif ferent  things to dif ferent people, but when I use it
here it means a false self, create d by unconscious identification  with the
mind. T o the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and f uture are
considered impo rtant. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact
that in the ego m ode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always c oncerned
with keeping the past alive, because without it — who are you? It
constantly projects itself into the future to ensure its continued survival
and to seek som e kind of release or fulfillment there. It says: “One day ,
when th is, that, or the other happens, I am going to be okay , happy , at
peace.” Even when the ego seem s to be concerned with the present, it is
not t he p resent t hat it sees: It misperceives it completely becaus e it looks
at it through the eyes of the past. Or it reduces the present to a means to
an end, an end that always lie s in the mind-projected future. Observe
your mind and you’ll see that this is how it works. The pres ent mom ent holds the k ey to liberation. But you canno t find the
present moment as long as you ar e  your mind. I d on’ t want to lose my ability to analyze and discriminate. I wouldn’ t
mind learning to think mor e cle arly , in a mor e focused way , but I don’ t
want to lose my mind. The gift of thought is the most pr ecious thing we
have. W ithout it, we would just be another species of animal. The pred ominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of
consciousness. W e need to go o n to the next stage now as a matter of
ur gency; otherwise, we will be destroyed by the mind, which has grown
into a monster . I will talk about this in more detail later . Thin king and
consciousness are not synonym ous. Thinking is only a small aspect of
consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but
consciousness does not need thought. Enlightenment means rising above thought, not falling back to a level
below thought, the level of an an imal or a plant. In the enlightened state,
you still use yo ur thinking mind when needed, but in a mu ch more
focused and ef fective way than  before. Y ou use it mostly for practical
purposes, but you are free of the  involuntary internal dialogue, and there
is in ner stillness. When you do use your mind, and particularly when a
creative solutio n is needed, you oscillate every few minutes or so
between though t and stillness, b etween mind and no-mind. No-mind is
consciousness without thought. Only in that way is it possible  to think
creatively , becau se only in that way does thought have any real power . Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the much vaster
realm of consciousness, quickly becomes barren, insane, destructive. The mind is ess entially a survival machine. Attack and defense against
other minds, gathering, storing , and analyzing information — this is
what it is good at, but it is not at all creative. All true artists,  whether
they kno w it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. The min d then gives form to th e creative impulse or insight. Even the
great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came at a
time of mental quietude. The s urprising result of a nationwide inquiry
among A merica’ s most eminent mathematicians, including Einstein, to
find out their working methods, was that thinking “plays only a
subordinate part in the brief, decisive phase of the creative act itself.”1
So I would say that the simple reason why the majority of scie ntists are
not  c reative  is not because they d on’ t know how to think but because
they don’ t know how to stop thinking! It w asn’ t through the mind, through thinking, that the miracle that is life
on earth or your body was created and is being sustained. There is clearlyan intelligence at work that is far greater than the mind. How can a single
human c ell measuring 1/1,000 of an inch in diameter contain instructions
within it s DNA that would fill 1 ,000 books of 600 pages each? The more
we learn  about the workings of  the body , the more we realize just how
vast is the intelligence at work within it and how little we kno w . When
the mind reconnects with that, it becomes a most wonderful tool. It then
serves something greater than itself. EMOTION: THE BODY’S REACTION T O YOUR MIND
What ab out emo tions? I get caught up in my emotions mor e tha n I do in
my mind. Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. It includes your
emotions as well as all unconscious mental-emotional reactive patterns. Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’ s
reaction to your mind — or you might say , a reflection of your  mind in
the body . For example, an attack thought or a hostile thought will create
a buildu p of ener gy in the body  that we call anger . The body i s getting
ready to  fight. The thought that you are being threatened, physically or
psychologically , causes the body  to contract, and this is the phy sical side
of w hat we cal l fear . Research has shown that strong emoti ons even
cause changes in the biochemistry of the body . These biochemical
changes represe nt the physical or material aspect of the emo tion. Of
course, y ou are not usually conscious of all your thought patterns, and it
is of ten only through watching your emotions that you can bring them
into awareness. The more you are identified wit h your thinking, your likes and  dislikes,
judgments and interpretations, w hich is to say the less pr esent  you  are  as
the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional ener gy char ge
will be, whether you are awar e of it or not. If you cannot feel your
emotions, if you are cut of f fro m them, you will eventually ex perience
them on a purel y physical level, as a physical problem or symptom. A
great dea l has been written abou t this in recent years, so we don ’ t need to
go into it here. A strong unconscious emotional pattern may even
manifest as an external event that appears to just happen to you. Forexample, I have observed that people who carry a lot of ang er inside
without being aware of it and without expressing it are more lik ely to be
attacked, verbally or even physically , by other angry people, and often
for no apparent  reason. They have a strong emanation of anger that
certain people pick up subliminally and that triggers their own latent
anger . If you have dif f iculty feeling your emotions, start by focusing attention
on t he inner ene r gy field of you r body . Feel the body from within. This
will also  put you in touch with your emotions. W e will explo re this in
more detail later . Y ou say that a n emotion is t he mind’ s r eflection in the b ody . But
sometimes ther e  is a conflict between the two: the mind says “n o” while
the emotion says “yes,” or the other way ar ound . If yo u really want to know your mind, the body will always gi ve you a
truthful reflection, so look at the emotion, or rather feel  it in your body . If
there is an apparent conflict between them, the thought will be the lie,
the emo tion will  be the truth. Not the ultimate truth of who you are, but
the relative truth of your state of mind at that time. Conflict between surface thoughts and unconscious mental processes is
certainly commo n. Y ou may not yet be able to bring your unconscious
mind activity into awareness as thoughts , but  it will alwa ys be reflected
in th e bo dy as an emotion , and of this you can  become aware. T o watch
an emot ion in this way is basica lly the same as listening to or w atching a
thought, which I described earl ier . The only dif ference is that , while a
thought is in your head, an emotion has a strong physical component and
so is primarily felt in the body . Y ou can then allow the emotion to be
there without being controlled b y it. Y ou no longer ar e  the emotion; youare the watcher ,  the observing presence. If you practice this, all that is
unconscious in you will be brought into the light of consciousness. So observing our emotions is as important as observing our thoughts? Y es. Make it a habit to ask you rself: What’ s going on inside m e at this
moment? That question will point you in the right direction. But don’ t
analyze, just watch. Focus your  attention within. Feel the ener gy of the
emotion. If there is no emotion present, take your attention more deeply
into the inner ener gy field of your body . It is the doorway into Being. An emotion usually represents an amplified and ener gized thought
pattern, and because of its often overpowering ener getic char ge, it is not
easy ini tially to  stay present enough to be able to watch it. It wants to
take you over , and it usually succeeds — unless there is enough presence
in yo u. If you are pulled into unconscious identification with the  emotion
through lack of presence, whi ch is normal, the emotion tem porarily
becomes “you.”  Often a vicious circle builds up between your  thinking
and the emotion : they feed each other . The thought pattern creates a
magnified refle ction of itself in the form of an emotion, and the
vibrational frequ ency of the emotion keeps feeding the original thought
pattern. By dwelling mentally on the situation, event, or perso n that is
the perceived cause of the emotion, the thought feeds ener gy to the
emotion, which in turn ener gizes the thought pattern, and so on. Basically , all emotions are modifications of one pr imordial,
undif ferentiated emotion that ha s its origin in the loss of awareness of
who you are be yond name and form. Because of its undif fe rentiated
nature, it is hard to find a name that precisely describes this emotion.“Fear” c omes cl ose, but apart f rom a continuous sense of threa t, it also
includes a deep sense of aband onment and incompleteness. It may be
best to use a term that is as undif ferentiated as that basic emo tion and
simply c all it “pain.” One of the main tasks of the mind is to fight or
remove that emotional pain, wh ich is one of the reasons for its incessant
activity , but all it can ever achieve is to cover it up temporarily . In fact,
the harder the m ind struggles to get rid of the pain, the greater the pain. The mind can never find the solution, nor can it af ford to allo w you to
find the solution, because it is itself an intrinsic part of the “problem.”
Imagine a chief of police trying  to find an arsonist when the arsonist is
the c hief of police. Y ou will not be free of that pain until you  cease to
derive y our sens e of self from identification with the mind, wh ich is to
say from ego. The mind is then toppled from its place of power and
Being reveals itself as your true nature. Y es, I know what you are going to ask. I was going to ask: What about positive emotions such as love and joy? They are inseparable from your natural state of inner connectedness with
Being. G limpses of love and jo y or brief moments of deep peace are
possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought. For most
people, such gaps happen rarely  and only accidentally , in mome nts when
the mind is rend ered “speechless,” sometimes triggered by grea t beauty ,
extreme physica l exertion, or even great danger . Suddenly , there is inner
stillness. And within that stillne ss there is a subtle but intense j oy , there
is love, there is peace. Usually , such moments are shor t-lived, as the mind quickly res umes its
noise-making ac tivity that we call thinking. Love, joy , and peac e cannot
flourish until you have freed y ourself from mind dominance. But they
are n ot w hat I would call emotions. They lie beyond the emoti ons, on a
much d eeper level. So you need to become fully conscious  of your
emotions and be able to feel  them before you can feel that which lies
beyond them. Emotion literally means “disturbance.” The word comes
from the Latin emover e , meaning “to disturb.”Love, joy , and p eace are deep s tates of Being, or rather three aspects of
the state of inn er connectedness with Being. As such, they have no
opposite. This is because they ar ise from beyond the mind. Emo tions, on
the other hand, b eing part of the  dualistic mind, are subject to the law of
opposites. This simply means th at you cannot have good withou t bad. So
in the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is so metimes
wrongly called joy is the usually short-lived pleasure side of the
continuously alt ernating pain/pleasure cycle. Pleasure is always derived
from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within. The very
thing th at gives  you pleasure to day will give you pain tomorr ow , or it
will leav e you, so its absence will give you pain. And what is often
referred to as lo ve may be pleas urable and exciting for a while, but it is
an addic tive clin ging, an extremely needy condition that can turn into its
opposite at the flick of a switch. Many “love” relationships, after the
initial euphoria has passed, act ually oscillate between “love” and hate,
attraction and attack. Real love doesn’ t make you suf fer . How could it? It doesn’ t suddenly
turn into  hate, nor does real joy turn into pain. As I said, even be fore you
are enlig htened — before you have freed yourself from your mind —
you may  get glimpses of true joy , true love, or of a deep inner pe ace, still
but vibr antly alive. These are aspects of your true nature, which is
usually obscured by the mind. Even within a “normal” addictive
relationship, there can be moments when the presence of something
more ge nuine, so mething incorr uptible, can be felt. But they will only be
glimpses, soon to be covered up again through mind interference. It may
then see m that you had somethin g very precious and lost it, or your mind
may convince you that it was all an illusion anyway . The truth is that it
wasn’ t a n illusion, and you cann ot lose it. It is part of your natural state,
which c an be obscured but can never be destroyed by the mi nd. Even
when the sky is  heavily overcast, the sun hasn’ t disappeared. It’ s still
there on the other side of the clouds. The Buddha says that pain or su ffering arises thr ough desir e or craving
and that to be fr ee of pain we need to cut the bonds of desir e . All crav ings are the mind seek ing salvation or fulfillment in external
things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I
am m y mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachm ents, and
aversions, and apart from them there is no “I” except as a mere
possibility , an unfulfilled potential, a seed that has not yet spr outed. In
that state, even my desire to become free or enlightened is just another
craving for fulfillment or completion in the future. So don’ t  seek to
become free of desire or “achieve” enlightenment. Become present. Be
there as the observer of the min d. Instead of quoting the Buddh a, be  the
Buddha, be  “the awakened one,” which is what the word buddha  means. Humans have been in the grip o f pain for eons, ever since they fell from
the state of grace, entered the realm of time and mind, and lost awareness
of Being. At that point, they started to perceive themselves as
meaningless fra gments in an al ien universe, unconnected to the Source
and to each other . Pain is inevitabl e as long as you are identified with your mind, which is
to sa y as  long as you are uncon scious, spiritually speaking. I am talking
here pri marily of emotional pain, which is also the main cause of
physical pain and physical disease. Resentment, hatred, self-pity , guilt,
anger , depressio n, jealousy , and so on, even the slightest irritation, are all
forms of pain. And every plea sure or emotional high contains within
itself the seed of pain: its inseparable opposite, which will ma nifest in
time. Anybody who has ever taken drugs to get “high” will know that the high
eventually turns  into a low , that the pleasure turns into some form of
pain. Ma ny peop le also know fr om their own experience how easily and
quickly an intimate relationship can turn from a source of pleasure to a
source o f pain. Seen from a high er perspective, both the negative and the
positive polariti es are faces o f the same coin, are both part of the
underlying pain that is inseparable from the mind-identified egoic state
of consciousness. There ar e two levels to your pa in: the pain that you create now , and the
pain from the pa st that still live s on in your mind and body . Ceasing to
create pa in in the present and dissolving past pain — this is wh at I want
to talk about now .CHAPTER TWO
C O N S C I O U S N E S S :
 T H E  W A Y  O U T  O F  P A I N
CREA TE NO MORE P AIN IN THE PRESENT
Nobody’ s life is entir ely fr ee of pain and sorr ow . Isn’ t it a question of
learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them? The greater part of human pain is unnecessary . It is self-created as long
as the unobserved mind runs your life. The pain that y ou create now is always some form of nonac ceptance,
some form of un conscious resis tance to what is . On  the level of thought,
the resis tance is  some form of judgment. On the emotional le vel, it is
some fo rm of negativity . The intensity of the pain depends on th e degree
of resist ance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how
strongly you are identified with  your mind. The mind always seeks to
deny the Now a nd to escape fr om it. In other words, the more you are
identified with your mind, the m ore you suf fer . Or you may put it like
this: the more y ou are able to honor and accept the Now , the m ore you
are free of pain, of suf fering — and free of the egoic mind. Why do es the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot
function and remain in control without time, which is past and f uture, so
it pe rceives the timeless Now as threatening. T ime and mind are in fact
inseparable.Imagine the Earth devoid of hu man life, inhabited only by plants and
animals. W ould it still have a pa st and a future? Could we still speak of
time in any meaningful way? The question “What time is it?” or “What’ s
the date today?” — if anybody were there to ask it — would be quite
meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a
question. “What  time?” they wo uld ask. “W ell, of course, it’ s now . The
time is now . What else is there?”
Y es, we need the mind as well a s time to function in this world, but there
comes a point where they take over our lives, and this is where
dysfunction, pain, and sorrow set in. The min d, to ensure that it remains in control, seeks continuously to
cover up the pre sent moment with past and future, and so, as th e vitality
and infinite creative potential o f Being, which is inseparable from the
Now , becomes covered up by t ime, your true nature becomes obscured
by the mind. An increasingly heavy burden of time has been
accumulating in  the human mind. All individuals are suf fering u nder this
burden, but they also keep add ing to it every moment whene ver they
ignore or deny th at precious moment or reduce it to a means of getting to
some fu ture moment, which only exists in the mind, never in actuality . The acc umulation of time in th e collective and individual human mind
also holds a vast amount of residual pain from the past. If you no longe r want to create  pain for yourself and others, if you no
longer w ant to add to the residu e of past pain that still lives on  in you,
then don ’ t create any more time , or at least no more than is necessary to
deal wit h the practical aspects of your life. How to stop creati ng time? Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. M ake the
Now the  primar y focus of your  life. Whereas before you dwel t in time
and paid  brief visits to the Now , have your dwelling place in the Now
and pay brief v isits to past and future when required to deal with the
practical aspects of your life situation. Always say “yes” to the present
moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to cre ate inner
resistance to something that already is ? What could be more insane than
to oppose life its elf, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is . Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for  you
rather than against you. The pr esent moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant, or awful. It is  as it is. Observe how the  mind labels it and how this labeling
process, this continuous sitting in judgment, creates pain and
unhappiness. By  watching the m echanics of the mind, you step out of its
resistance patterns, and you can then allow th e pr esent moment to b e . This wil l give you a taste of th e state of inner freedom from  external
conditions, the state of true inner peace. Then see what happens, and take
action if necessary or possible. Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if
you had chosen it. Always wo rk with it, not against it. Make it your
friend an d ally , not your enemy . This will miraculously transform your
whole life. P AST P AIN: DISSOL VING THE P AIN-BODY
As long as you  are unable to  access the power of the Now , every
emotional pain that you experie nce leaves behind a residue of pain that
lives on in you. It mer ges with t he pain from the past, which was already
there, an d becomes lodged in your mind and body . This, of course,
includes the pain you suf fered a s a child, caused by the unconsciousness
of the world into which you were born. This acc umulated pain is a nega tive ener gy field that occupies your body
and mind. If you look on it as an invisible entity in its own right, you aregetting quite close to the truth. It’ s the emotional pain-body . It has two
modes of being: dormant and active. A pain-body may be dormant 90
percent of the tim e; in a deeply unhappy person, though, it may be active
up to  10 0 percen t of the time.
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Power_of_Now__A_Guide_to_Spiritual_Enl_-_Eckhart_Tolle.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Acclaim for
 THE POWER OF NOW
 
“I h eartily recommend this pr ofoundly inspiring book to all seekers
today. ”
— Lama Surya Das, author of A wakening the Buddha W ithin
“This se ems to be the ‘right boo k’ for many people at this point in time. The writing is c lear as a bell; the words ring true. T ruly an exceptional
book that promises to make a real dif ference in people’ s lives. ”
— T om Oakley, Banyen Books, V ancouver, British Columbia
“The Power of Now  was introduced to me by a customer. I read only one
page and agreed that it rang true. It is a jewel of clarity and insight. The
book has become a word-of-mouth bestseller here at East W est. ”
— Norman Snitkin, comanager, East W est Bookshop, Seattle
“T olle has succeeded on two  fronts: synthesizing the teachings of
masters such as Jesus and the B uddha into an easily accessible guide to
achieving spiritual consciousness and making a strong case that the
inability of humans to free themselves from dominance by the mind and
live in the present is the root cau se for misery in the world. He makes
enlightenment seem attainable and necessary for both individual peace
and the health of the planet. ”
— For eW or d  magazine
“I ha ve no hesit ation in recommending Eckhart T olle’ s wonderful book. Everyone I know who has picke d up a copy has ended up taking  it home. The Power of Now  sells on its own merit and by word of mouth. ”
— Stephen Gawtry, Manager, W atkins Books Ltd. , London
“Fresh, revealin g, current, new inspiration. Out of the many spiritual
books that cross my desk this one stands out from the flock. If youare cons idering getting back in touch with your soul, this book is a great
companion. ”
— Common Gr ound,  V ancouver, British Columbia
“W ith intense and compelling clarity, T olle’ s guidance holds the promise
of leading us to our own best an d highest place within, to resonate with
and reflect the ener gy of true transformation. ”
— Spirit of Change  magazine
“W ith Eckhart T olle’ s growing presence on bestseller shelves usually
reserved for much lighter -weight fare, it will be interesting to see what
time has in store for this unusual modern mystic. ”
— What Is Enlightenment. magazine
“. a guide to spiritual awaken ing from a man who is emer ging as one
of this generation’ s clearest, most inspiring teachers on the subject. ”
— T ransitions Bookplace, Chicago
“The most important book in a spiritual life written in the last decade. ”
— Thunderbird Bookshop, Carmel, CaliforniaT H E  P O W E R  O F
 NOWT H E  P O W E R  O F
 NOW
A GUIDE T O SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
E c k h a r t  T o l l e
 N AMASTE  P UBLISHING
 and
 N EW  W ORLD  L IBRAR Y
 N OV A T O, C ALIFORNIA 
N e w  W o r l d
L i b r a r y
 1 4  P a m a r o n  W a y
 N o v a t o,  C A  9 4 9 4 9
and
N a m a s t e  P u b l i s h i n g
 P. O. B o x  6 2 0 8 4
 V a n c o u v e r,  B. C. ,  C a n a d a
V 6 J  4 A 3
Copyright © 1999 by Eckhart T olle
 Preface to the paperback edition, copyright © 2004 by Eckhart T olle
 First paperback printing, September 2004
All right s reserved. This book m ay not be reproduced in whole or in part,
stored in a retrie val system, or transmitted in any form or by an y means
electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the
publisher, excep t by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a
review. Cover design: Jacqueline V erkley and Mary Ann Casler
 Interior design: Jacqueline V erkley
 T ypography: T ona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 T olle, Eckhart, 1948–
 The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment / Eckhart T olle. p. cm. ISBN 1-57731-480-8 (alk. paper)
 1. Spiritual life. I. T itle. B L 6 2 4. T 6 4  1 9 9 9
 2 9 1. 4'4 — d c 2 19 9 - 4 2 3 3 6
Originally published in Canada by
 Namaste Publishing Inc. , 1997
 ISBN 1-57731-480-8 Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer waste recycled paper
 
 A proud member of the Green Press Initiative
Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group W est
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Y ou are here to enable the divine
 purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are. — Eckhart T olleC O N T E N T S
Author ’ s Pr eface to the Paperback Edition
Intr oduction
The Origin of This Book
The T ruth That Is W ithin Y ou
CHAPTER ONE : Y ou Ar e Not Y our Mind
The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment
Freeing Y ourself from Y our Mind
Enlightenment: Rising above Thought
Emotion: The Body’ s Reaction to Y our Mind
CHAPTER TWO : Consciousness: The W ay Out of Pain
Create No More Pain in the Present
Past Pain: Dissolving the Pain-Body
Ego Identification with the Pain-Body
The Origin of Fear
The Ego’ s Search for Wholeness
CHAPTER THREE : Moving Deeply into the Now
Don’ t Seek Y our Self in the Mind
End the Delusion of T ime
Nothing Exists Outside the Now
The Key to the Spiritual Dimension
Accessing the Power of the Now
Letting Go of Psychological T ime
The Insanity of Psychological T ime
Negativity and Suf fering Have Their Roots in T ime
Finding the Life Underneath Y our Life Situation
All Problems Are Illusions of the Mind
A Quantum Leap in the Evolution of ConsciousnessThe Joy of Being
CHAPTER FOUR : Mind Strategies for A voiding the Now
Loss of Now: The Core Delusion
Ordinary Unconsciousness and Deep Unconsciousness
What Are They Seeking. Dissolving Ordinary Unconsciousness
Freedom from Unhappiness
Wherever Y ou Are, Be There T otally
The Inner Purpose of Y our Life’ s Journey
The Past Cannot Survive in Y our Presence
CHAPTER FIVE : The State of Pr esence
It’ s Not What Y ou Think It Is
The Esoteric Meaning of “W aiting”
Beauty Arises in the Stillness of Y our Presence
Realizing Pure Consciousness
Christ: The Reality of Y our Divine Presence
CHAPTER SIX : The Inner Body
Being Is Y our Deepest Self
Look beyond the W ords
Finding Y our Invisible and Indestructible Reality
Connecting with the Inner Body
T ransformation through the Body
Sermon on the Body
Have Deep Roots W ithin
Before Y ou Enter the Body, For give
Y our Link with the Unmanifested
Slowing Down the Aging Process
Strengthening the Immune System
Let the Breath T ake Y ou into the Body
Creative Use of Mind
The Art of Listening
CHAPTER SEVEN : Portals into the Unmanifested
Going Deeply into the Body
The Source of Chi
Dreamless Sleep
Other PortalsSilence
Space
The T rue Nature of Space and T ime
Conscious Death
CHAPTER EIGHT : Enlightened Relationships
Enter the Now from Wherever Y ou Are
Love/Hate Relationships
Addiction and the Search for Wholeness
From Addictive to Enlightened Relationships
Relationships as Spiritual Practice
Why W omen Are Closer to Enlightenment
Dissolving the Collective Female Pain-Body
Give Up the Relationship with Y ourself
CHAPTER NINE : Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness Ther e Is Peace
The Higher Good beyond Good and Bad
The End of Y our Life Drama
Impermanence and the Cycles of Life
Using and Relinquishing Negativity
The Nature of Compassion
T oward a Dif ferent Order of Reality
CHAPTER TEN : The Meaning of Surr ender
Acceptance of the Now
From Mind Ener gy to Spiritual Ener gy
Surrender in Personal Relationships
T ransforming Illness into Enlightenment
When Disaster Strikes
T ransforming Suf fering into Peace
The W ay of the Cross
The Power to Choose
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the AuthorA U T H O R ’ S  P R E F A C E  T O
 T H E  P A P E R B A C K  E D I T I O N
Six year s after it was first published, The Power of Now  continues to
play its  part in the ur gent task of the transformation o f human
consciousness. A lthough I was privileged to give birth to it, I  feel that
the book has tak en on a life and momentum of its own. It has  reached
several million readers worldwide, many of whom have written  to me to
tell of the life-c hanging ef fect it has had on them. Due to the extremely
high volume of correspondence I receive, I am regretfully no longer able
to s end personal replies, but I would like to take this oppor tunity to
express my deepest gratitude to all those who have written to me  to share
their experience s. I am moved and deeply touched by many of those
accounts, and they leave no do ubt in my mind that an unpre cedented
shift in consciousness is indeed happening on our planet. Nobody could have predicted the rapid growth of the book when
Namaste Publis hing in V ancouver published the first edition of three
thousand copies  in 1997. Durin g its first year of publication, the book
found its readers almost exclus ively through word of mouth. That was
the time when I would personally deliver a few copies every week to
some small bookstores in V ancouver, something I found enormously
satisfying, knowing that every book that I handed over had the potential
of ch anging someone’ s life. Frie nds helped by placing copies of the book
in spiritual bookstores farther afield: Calgary, Seattle, C alifornia,
London. Stephen Gawtry, the manager of W atkins, the world’ s oldest
metaphysical bookstore in London, England, wrote at the time, “I foresee
great things for this book. ” He was right: by the second year The Power
of Now  had developed into an “under ground bestseller,” as one reviewer
later cal led it. Then, after the book received a number of f avorable
reviews in various journals and  magazines, its growth accelerated andfinally b ecame explosive when Oprah W infrey, who had been deeply
af fected by the book, proceede d to tell the world about it. F ive years
after it was fir st published, it reached #1 on the New Y ork T imes
bestseller list, and it is now available in thirty languages. It has b een very
well received and become a bestseller even in India, a country
considered by many to be the birthplace of humanity’ s quest for  spiritual
enlightenment. Most of  the thousands of letter s and emails that have been sent to me
from all over the world are from ordinary men and women, but there are
also letters from Buddhist mon ks and Christian nuns, from p eople in
prison or facing a life-threatening illness or imminent death. Psychotherapists have written t o say that they recommend the book to
their patients or incorporate the teachings in their practice. Many of those
letters and emails mention a les sening or even a complete disap pearance
of suf fer ing and  problem-makin g in people’ s lives as a result of reading
The Pow er of Now  and putting the teachings into practice in everyday
life. There is frequent mention of the amazing and beneficial ef fects of
inner body awareness, the sense of freedom that comes from letting go of
self-identification with one’ s pe rsonal history and life-situation, and a
newfound inner peace that arises as one learns to r elinquish
mental/emotional resistance to the “suchness” of the present moment. Many pe ople ha ve read the book  more than once, and they comment that
the text loses none of its freshne ss upon subsequent readings, indeed that
the book’ s transformative power remains not only undiminished, but
actually becomes intensified. The mo re the dysfunction of the human mind plays itself out on the
world stage, clearly visible to everyone in the daily television news
reports, the greater the number of people who realize the ur gent need for
a rad ical change in human con sciousness if humanity is not to  destroy
both itse lf and the planet. This need, as well as readiness in millions of
people for the arising of a new consciousness, is the contex t within
which the “success” of The Power of Now  must be seen and understood. This doe s not mean, of course, that everyone responds favorab ly to the
book. In many people, as well as in most of the political and e conomic
structures and the greater part of the media, the old consciousness is still
deeply entrench ed. Anyone who is still totally identified with the voice
in th eir head — the stream of in voluntary and incessant thinkin g — willinevitably fail to see what The Power of Now  is all about. Some
enthusiastic readers gave a copy of the book to a friend or relative and
were surprised and disappointed when the recipient found it quite
meaningless and could not get beyond the first few pages. “Mumbo
jumbo” was all that T ime  magazine could see in a book that countless
people around the globe found life-changing. Furthermore, any teaching
that puts the spotlight of attention on the workings of the ego will
necessarily provoke egoic reaction, resistance, and attack. However, despite a certain amount of misunderstanding and critical
dissent, the response to the book around the globe has been
overwhelmingly positive. I feel confident that in the years to come
millions more will be drawn t o it, and that The Power of Now  will
continue to make a vital contribution to the arising of  a new
consciousness and a more enlightened humanity. — Eckhart T olle
 V ancouver, B.
The author states that the book has had a profound impact on many readers, with some reporting a complete disappearance of suffering and a newfound inner peace.
What is the author's opinion on the book's impact on readers?
The author's purpose is to guide readers towards spiritual enlightenment and to help them break free from the mind and live in the present.
What is the author's purpose in writing this book?
The book has been endorsed by several individuals, including Lama Surya Das, Tom Oakley, and Stephen Gawtry.
Who has endorsed this book?
The author does not identify with the concept of God, but rather uses it to illustrate a point, stating that it is not necessary to understand or believe in it to experience enlightenment.
What is the author's approach to addressing the concept of God?
The author's main message is that the key to spiritual enlightenment is to let go of the mind and become present in the moment, and that this is the only way to achieve true inner peace and freedom from suffering.
What is the author's main message?