Some people live almost entirely through
their pai n-body , while others may experience it only in certain situations,
such as intimat e relationships,  or situations linked with past loss or
abandonment, physical or emotional hurt, and so on. Anything can
trigger it, particularly if it resonates with a pain pattern from your past. When it is ready  to awaken from  its dormant stage, even a thought or an
innocent remark made by someone close to you can activate it. Some pain-bodies are obnoxious but relatively harmless, for example
like a child who won’ t stop whining. Others are vicious and de structive
monsters, true demons. Some are physically violent; many m ore are
emotionally violent. Some will attack people around you or clos e to you,
while others may attack you, their host. Thoughts and feelings you have
about your life then become deeply negative and self-destructive. Illnesses and accidents are ofte n created in this way . Some pain-bodies
drive their hosts to suicide. When you thought you knew  a person and then you are suddenly
confronted with this alien, nasty  creature for the first time, you are in for
quite a shock. However , it’ s more important to observe it in your self than
in some one else . W atch out for  any sign of unhappiness in yourself, in
whatever form — it may be the  awakening pain-body . This can take the
form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger ,
rage, dep ression, a need to have  some drama in your relationshi p, and so
on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state. The pain-body wants to survive , just like every other entity in existence,
and it can only s urvive if it gets  you to unconsciously identify w ith it. It
can then rise up , take you over ,  “become you,” and live through you. It
needs to  get its “food” through you. It will feed on any experi ence that
resonates with its own kind of e ner gy , anything that creates further pain
in whatever form: anger , destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama,
violence, and even illness. So the pain-body , when it has taken y ou over ,
will create a si tuation in your life that reflects back its ow n ener gy
frequency for it to feed on. Pain  can only feed on pain. Pain can not feed
on joy . It finds it quite indigestible.Once the pain-body has taken you over , you want more p ain. Y ou
become a victim or a perpetrator . Y ou want to inflict pain, or you want to
suf fer pain, or both. There isn’ t really much dif ference between the two. Y ou are not conscious of this, o f course, and will vehemently c laim that
you do not wan t pain. But loo k closely and you will find that your
thinking and behavior are desig ned to keep the pain going, for yourself
and others. If you wer e  truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve,
for to want more pain is insanity , and nobody is consciously insane. The pain-body , which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually
afraid of  the light of your consc iousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survi val depends on your unconscious identification with it, a s well as
on your unconsc ious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you
don’ t fa ce it, if you don’ t bring the light of your consciousness  into the
pain, yo u will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain-b ody may
seem to you like  a dangerous mo nster that you cannot bear to look at, but
I ass ure you that  it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against
the power of your presence. Some spiritual teachings state that all pain is ultimately an illusion, and
this is true. The question is: Is  it true for you? A mere belie f doesn’ t
make it true. Do  you want to experience pain for the rest of your life and
keep saying that it is an illusion? Does that free you from the pain? What
we a re c oncerned with here is h ow you can r ealize  t his  truth — that is,
make it real in your own experience. So the pain-bod y doesn’ t want you to observe it directly and see it for
what it is. The m oment you observe it, feel its ener gy field wi thin you,
and take your a ttention into it, the identification is broken. A higher
dimension of consciousness has come in . I call it pr esence . Y ou are now
the witness or the watcher of the pain-body . This means that it cannot use
you any more by  pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish
itself through you. Y ou have found your own innermost strength. Y ou
have accessed the power of Now . What ha ppens to the pain-body when we become conscious enough to
br eak our identification with it? Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself. St.
Paul expressed this universal principle beautifully: “Everything is shown
up b y being exp osed to the lig ht, and whatever is exposed to the light
itself becomes light.” Just as yo u cannot fight the darkness, you cannot
fight the  pain-bo dy . T rying to do  so would create inner conflict  and thus
further p ain. W atching it is enough. W atching it implies accep ting it as
part of what is  at that moment. The pain-body consists of trappe d life-ener gy that has split of f from your
total ene r gy fiel d and has temp orarily become autonomous thr ough the
unnatural process of mind identification. It has turned in on itself and
become anti-life , like an anima l trying to devour its own tail. Why do
you thin k our civilization has b ecome so life-destructive? But even the
life-destructive forces are still life-ener gy . When you start to disidentify and become the watcher , the pain-body
will continue to operate for a while and will try to trick you into
identifying with it again. Although you are no longer ener gizing it
through your identification, it has a certain momentum, just like a
spinning wheel that will keep turning for a while even when it is no
longer being propelled. At this stage, it may also create physical aches
and pains in dif ferent parts of the body , but they won’ t last. Stay present,
stay conscious. Be the ever -aler t guardian of your inner space. Y ou need
to be present en ough to be able to watch the pain-body directly and feel
its ener gy . It then cannot con trol your thinking. The moment your
thinking is aligned with the e ner gy field of the pain-body , you are
identified with it and again feeding it with your thoughts. For example, if anger is the predominant ener gy vibration of the pain-
body an d you think angry thoughts, dwelling on what someon e did to
you or what you are going to d o to him or her , then you have become
unconscious, and the pain-body has become “you.” Where there is anger ,
there is always pain underneath. Or when a dark mood comes upon you
and you  start getting into a negative mind-pattern and think ing how
dreadful your life is, your thinking has become aligned with the pain-
body , and you have become u nconscious and vulnerable to the pain-
body’ s a ttack. “U nconscious,” th e way that I use the word here, means tobe iden tified with some mental or emotional pattern. It implies a
complete absence of the watcher . Sustained conscious attention severs the link between the pain-body and
your thought processes and brin gs about the process of transmu tation. It
is as  if the pain becomes fuel fo r the flame of your consciousness, which
then bur ns more brightly as a result. This is the esoteric meani ng of the
ancient art of alchemy: the transmutation of base metal into gold, of
suf fering into consciousness. Th e split within is healed, and you become
whole again. Y our responsibility then is not to create further pain. Let me summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body . Accept that it is there. Don’ t think  about it
— d on’ t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’ t judge or analy ze. Don’ t
make an  identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and contin ue to be
the o bserver of w hat is happening inside you. Become aware not only of
the emotional pain but also o f “the one who observes,” t he silent
watcher . This is the power of the  Now , the power of your own conscious
presence. Then see what happens. For many women, the pain-b ody awakens particularly at the time
preceding the menstrual flow . I will talk about this and the reason for it
in more detail later . Right now , let me just say this: If you are able to stay
alert and present at that time and watch  whatever you feel within, rather
than be taken ov er by it, it af fords an opportunity for the most powerful
spiritual practic e, and a rapid transmutation of all past pain becomes
possible. EGO IDENTIFICA TION WITH THE P AIN-BODY
The proc ess that  I have just described is profoundly powerful ye t simple. It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be one of the
first things children learn in school. Once you have understood the basicprinciple of being present as the watcher of what happens inside you —
and you  “unders tand” it by expe riencing it — you have at your disposal
the most potent transformational tool. This is not to deny that you may encounter intense inner resistance to
disidentifying from your pain. This will be the case par ticularly if you
have lived closely identified wi th your emotional pain-body for most of
your life and the whole or a lar ge part of your sense of self is invested in
it. What this means is that you have made an unhappy self out of your
pain-body and believe that this mind-made fiction is who you are. In that
case, unconscious fear of losing your identity will create strong
resistance to any disidentification. In other words, you would rat her be in
pain — be  the pain-body — than take a leap into the unknown and risk
losing the familiar unhappy self. If th is applies to you, observe the resistance within yourself. Ob serve the
attachment to your pain. Be very  alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you
derive from being unhappy . O bserve the compulsion to talk or think
about it. The res istance will cease if you make it conscious. Y ou can then
take you r attenti on into the pain -body , stay present as the witnes s, and so
initiate its transmutation. Only you  can do this. Nobody can do it for  you . Bu t if you are fortunate
enough to find someone who is intensely conscious, if you can be with
them an d join them in the state of presence, that can be helpful  and will
accelerate things. In this way , yo ur own light will quickly grow stronger . When a log that has only just started to burn is placed next to one that is
burning fiercely , and after a while they are separated again, the first log
will be burning with much greater intensity . After all, it is the same fire. T o b e such a fire is one of the functions of a spiritual teach er . Some
therapists may also be able to fulfill that function, provided that they
have gone beyond the level of m ind and can create and sustain a state of
intense conscious presence while they are working with you. THE ORIGIN OF FEAR
Y ou mentioned fear as being part of our basic underlying emotional
pain. How does fear arise, and  why is ther e so much of it in people’ slives? A nd isn’ t a certain amount of fear just healthy self-pr otection? If I
didn’ t have a fear of fir e, I might put my hand in it and get burned. The reason why you don’ t put your hand in the fire is not because of fear ,
it’ s beca use you  know that you ’ll get burned. Y ou don’ t nee d fear to
avoid u nnecessary danger — just a minimum of intelligence and
common sense. For such practical matters, it is useful to apply the
lessons learned in the past. Now if someone thr eatened  you with fire or
with phy sical violence, you might experience something like fear . This is
an instinctive shrinking back f rom danger , but not the psychological
condition of fear that we are talking about here. The psychological
condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true im mediate
danger . It comes in many form s: unease, worry , anxiety , nervousness,
tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychologica l fear is
always of something that might  happen, not of something that is
happening now . Y ou  are in the here and now , while  your mind is in the
future. T his crea tes an anxiety g ap. And if you are identified with your
mind and have lost touch with the power and simplicity of the N ow , that
anxiety gap will be your constant companion. Y ou can always cope with
the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a
mind projection — you cannot cope with the future. Moreover , as long as you are i dentified with your mind, the ego runs
your life, as I pointed out earlier . Because of its phantom nature, and
despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and
insecure, and it sees itself as con stantly under threat. This, by the way , is
the c ase even if the ego is outwa rdly very confident. Now remember that
an emot ion is the body’ s reaction to your mind. What message is the
body receiving continuously fr om the ego, the false, mind-made self? Danger , I am un der threat. And what is the emotion generated by this
continuous message? Fear , of course. Fear see ms to have many caus es. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of
being hurt, and s o on, but ultima tely all fear is the ego’ s fear of death, of
annihilation. T o  the ego, death is always just around the corner . In this
mind-identified state, fear of death af fects every aspect of your life. For
example, even such a seemin gly trivial and “normal” thing as thecompulsive need to be right in an ar gument and make the other person
wrong — defending the mental position with which you have i dentified
— is  due to the fear of death. If you identify with a mental posit ion, then
if you are wrong, your mind-based sense of self is seriously threatened
with annihilatio n. So you as the ego cannot af ford to be wrong. T o be
wrong is to die. W ars have been fought over this, and countless
relationships have broken down. Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are  right or
wrong m akes no dif ference to your sense of self at all, so the f orcefully
compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of
violence, will no longer be there. Y ou can state clearly and firmly how
you feel or wh at you think, b ut there will be no aggressiv eness or
defensiveness ab out it. Y our sen se of self is then derived from a deeper
and truer place within yourself, not from the mind. W atch out for any
kind of defensiveness within yourself. What are you defending? An
illusory identity , an image in y our mind, a fictitious entity . By  making
this pattern conscious, by witne ssing it, you disidentify from it. In the
light of your consciousness, th e unconscious pattern will then quickly
dissolve. This is the end of all ar guments and power games, which are so
corrosive to relationships. Power over others is weakness disguised as
strength. T rue power is within, and it is available to you now . So anyone who is identified with their mind and, therefore, disconnected
from their true p ower , their deeper self rooted in Being, will have fear as
their con stant companion. The number of people who have gone beyond
mind is  as yet extremely small, so you can assume that virtually
everyone you meet or know live s in a state of fear . Only the intensity of
it varies . It fluctuates between a nxiety and dread at one end of the scale
and a vague unease and distant sense of threat at the other . Mo st people
become conscio us of it only when it takes on one of its more acute
forms. THE EGO’S SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Another aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the egoic
mind is a deep-seated sense o f lack or incompleteness, of n ot being
whole. In some people, this is conscious, in others unconscious. If it is
conscious, it manifests as the unsettling and constant feeling of not beingworthy o r good enough. If it is u nconscious, it will only be felt indirectly
as a n intense craving, wanting and needing. In either case, people will
often enter into a compulsive pursuit of ego-gratification and things to
identify with in order to fill this hole they feel within. So they strive after
possessions, money , success, power , recognition, or a special
relationship, basically so that they can  feel better about themselves, feel
more complete. But even when they attain all these things, they soon find
that the hole is still there, that it is bottomless. Then they are really in
trouble, because they cannot delude themselves anymore. W ell,  they can
and do, but it gets more dif ficult. As l ong as the egoic mind is r unning your life, you cannot tr uly be at
ease; yo u canno t be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when
you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since th e ego is a derived sense  of self, it needs to identify with  external
things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly . The most
common ego identifications hav e to do with possessions, the work you
do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical
appearance, special abilities, re lationships, personal and family  history ,
belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and
other collective identifications. None of these is you. Do y ou find this  frightening? Or is it a relief to know this? All of these
things y ou will have to relinqui sh sooner or later . Perhaps you find it as
yet h ard to belie ve, and I am certainly not asking you to believe  that your
identity cannot be found in any of those things. Y ou will know  the truth
of it for yourself. Y ou will know it at the latest when you feel death
approaching. Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret
of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.CHAPTER THREE
M O V I N G  D E E P L Y
 I N T O  T H E  N O W
DON’T SEEK YOUR SELF IN THE MIND
I feel that ther e is still a gr eat deal I need to learn about the workings of
my mind befor e I can get anyw her e near full consciousness or spiritual
enlightenment . No, you don’ t. T he problems of the mind cannot be solved on the level
of th e mind. Once you have understood the basic dysfunction, t here isn’ t
really much else that you need to learn or understand. Stud ying the
complexities of the mind may make you a good psychologist, but doing
so w on’ t take you beyond the mind, just as the study of madness isn’ t
enough to create sanity . Y ou have already understood the basic
mechanics of the unconscious state: identification with the mind, which
creates a false self, the ego, as a substitute for your true self rooted in
Being. Y ou become as a “branch cut of f from the vine,” as Jesus puts it. The ego ’ s needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatene d and so
lives in a state of fear and want. Once you know how the basic
dysfunction ope rates, there is no need to explore all its countless
manifestations, n o need to make  it into a complex p ersonal problem . The
ego, of course, loves that. It is always seeking for something to attach
itself to in order to uphold and strengthen its illusory sense of self, and it
will readily attach itself to your problems. This is why , for so many
people, a lar ge part of their sense of self is intimately connected with
their problems. Once this has happened, the last thing they want is tobecome free of them; that would  mean loss of self. There can b e a great
deal of unconscious ego investment in pain and suf fering. So once you recognize the root of unconsciousness as identification with
the mind , which of course inclu des the emotions, you step out of it. Y ou
become pr esent . When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as
it is without getting entangl ed in it. The mind in itself is not
dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek
your self in it and mistake it for  who you are. It then becomes the egoic
mind and takes over your whole life. END THE DELUSION OF TIME
It se ems almost impossible to disidentify fr om the mind. W e  ar e all
immersed in it. How do you teach a fish to fly? Here is the key: End the delusion of time. T ime and mind are
inseparable. Remove time from  the mind and it stops — unless you
choose to use it. T o be identified with your mind  is to be trapped in time: the compulsion
to li ve almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates
an endle ss preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to
honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be . The
compulsion arises because the past gives yo u an identity and the future
holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are
illusions. But without a sense of time, how would we function in this worl d? Ther e
would be no goa ls to strive towa r d anymor e. I wouldn’ t even know who I
am, because my past makes me w ho I am today . I think time is something
very pr ecious, and we need to learn to use it wisely rather than waste it. T ime isn’ t precious at all, becau se it is an illusion. What you perceive as
precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now . That is
precious indeed. The more you are focused on time — past and future —
the more you miss the Now , the most precious thing there is. Why is it the most precious thing? Firstly , because it is the only  thing. It’ s a ll there is. The eternal present is the space within which your whole
life unfo lds, the one factor that r emains constant. Life is now . T here was
never a  time when your life was not  now , nor will  there ever be. Secondly , the Now is the only point that can take you beyond the limited
confines of the mind. It is your o nly point of access into the timeless and
formless realm of Being. NOTHING EXISTS OUTSIDE THE NOW
Ar en’ t p ast and futur e just as r eal, sometimes even mor e r eal, than the
pr esent? After all, the past dete rmines who we ar e, as well as how we
per ceive and behave in the pr esent. And our futur e goals determine
which actions we take in the pr esent. Y ou hav en’ t yet grasped the esse nce of what I am saying because you are
trying to understand it mentally . The mind cannot understand t his. Only
you  can. Please just listen. Have yo u ever experienced, done, thought, or felt anything outside the
Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything t o happen
or be  outside the Now? The answer is obvious, is it not? Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now . Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now .What you think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a
former Now . When you remem ber the past, you reactivate a memory
trace —  and you do so now . The  future is an imagined Now , a p rojection
of the mind. When the future comes, it comes as the Now . W hen you
think ab out the future, you do it now . Past and future obviously have no
reality of their o wn. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can
only ref lect the  light of the sun, so are past and future only pale
reflections of the light, power , and reality of the eternal present. Their
reality is “borrowed” from the Now . The esse nce of what I am saying here cannot be understood by the mind. The mom ent you grasp it, there  is a shift in consciousness from mind to
Being, from time to presence. S uddenly , everything feels alive, radiates
ener gy , emanates Being. THE KEY T O THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
In life-threatening emer gency situations, the shift in consciousness from
time to presence sometimes happens naturally . The personality that has a
past and a futu re momentarily recedes and is replaced by an  intense
conscious presen ce, very still bu t very alert at the same time. Whatever
response is needed then arises out of that state of consciousness. The reas on why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such
as moun tain clim bing, car racing, and so on, although they may not be
aware of it, is that it forces the m into the Now — that intensely alive
state tha t is free of time, free o f problems, free of thinking, fr ee of the
burden of the pe rsonality . Slipping away from the present moment even
for a second may mean death. Unfortunately , they come to depend on a
particular activity to be in that  state. But you don’ t need to c limb the
north face of the Eiger . Y ou can enter that state now . Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have point ed to the
Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have
remained a secret. It is certainly not taught in churches and te mples. If
you go to a church, you may hear readings from the Gospels such as
“T ake no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for
the thing s of itself,” or “Nobod y who puts his hands to the plow and
looks back  is fit for the Kingdom of G od.” Or you might hear the
passage about the beautiful flowers that are not anxious about tomorrow
but live with ease in the timeless Now and are provided for abundantly
by God . The depth and radi cal nature of these teachings are not
recognized. No one seems to re alize that they are meant to be lived and
so bring about a profound inner transformation. The who le essen ce of Zen cons ists in walking along the razor ’ s edge of
Now — to be so utterly , so completely pr esent  that no problem, no
suf fering, nothin g that is not who you ar e  i n your essence, can survive in
you. In the Now , in the absen ce of time, all your problems dissolve. Suf fering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now . The great Zen master Rinzai, in order to take his students’ attention away
from time, would often raise his finger and slowly ask: “What, at this
moment, is lacking?” A powerful question that does not require an
answer on the level of the mind. It is designed to take your attention
deeply into the Now . A similar question in the Zen tradition is this: “If
not now , when?” 
 
The Now  is also central to the te aching of Sufism, the mystical branch of
Islam. Sufis have a saying: “Th e Sufi is the son of time present.” And
Rumi, th e great poet and teach er of Sufism, declares: “Past and future
veil God from our sight; burn up both of them with fire.”
Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century spiritual teacher , summed it all up
beautifully: “T ime is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no
greater obstacle to God than time.”
 
 
ACCESSING THE POWER OF THE NOW
A mome nt ago, when you talk ed about the eternal pr esent and the
unr eality of past and futur e, I found myself looking at that tr ee outside
the window . I h ad looked at it a few times befor e, but this time it was
differ ent. The external per ceptio n had not changed much, except that the
colors s eemed brighter and mor e vibrant. But ther e was now an added
dimension to it. This is har d to explain. I don’ t know how , b ut I was
awar e o f something invisible that I felt was the essence of tha t tr ee, its
inner spirit, if y ou like. And so mehow I was part of that. I r ealize now
that I hadn’ t tru ly seen the tr ee  befor e, just a flat and dead image of it. When I look at the tr ee now , som e of that awar eness is still pr esent, but I
can feel it slipping away . Y ou see, the experience is alr eady r eceding into
the past. Can something like this ever be mor e than a fleeting glimpse? Y ou we re free of time for a m oment. Y ou moved into the Now and
therefore perceived the tree without the screen of mind. The awareness
of Being became part of your perception. W ith the timeless dimension
comes a  dif ferent kind of knowing, one that does not “kill” the spirit that
lives within every creature and every thing. A knowing that does not
destroy the sacredness and mys tery of life but contains a deep love and
reverence for all that is . A knowing of which the mind knows nothing. The min d canno t know the tree . It can only know facts or inf ormation
about  th e tree. My mind cannot know you , only labels, judgments, facts,
and opinions about  you. Being alone knows directly . There is a plac e for mind and mind knowledge. It is in the practical
realm of  day-to-day living. However , when it takes over all aspects of
your life , including your relationships with other human beings and with
nature, it becomes a monstrous  parasite that, unchecked, may well end
up killing all life on the planet and finally itself by killing its host. Y ou hav e had a glimpse of how the timeless can transform your
perceptions. But an experience is not enough, no matter how beautiful or
profound. Wha t is needed and what we are concerned w ith is a
permanent shift in consciousness. So break  the old pattern of present-moment denial and present -moment
resistance. Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and
future whenever they are not needed. Step out of the time dimension as
much as possible in everyday l ife. If you find it hard to enter the Now
directly , start by observing the habitual tendency of your mind to want to
escape from the Now . Y ou will observe that the future is  usually
imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined
future is better , it gives you h ope or pleasurable anticipation . If it is
worse, it creates anxiety . Both are illusory . Through self-observation,
more pr esence  comes into your life automatically . The moment you
realize y ou are not present, you ar e  p resent . Whene ver you are abl e to
observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another f actor has
come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence. Be present as the watcher of your mind — of your thou ghts and
emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as
interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that ca uses youto react. Notice also how often  your attention is in the past o r future. Don’ t ju dge or analyze what you observe. W atch the thought,  feel the
emotion, observ e the reaction. Don’ t make a personal problem out of
them. Y ou will then feel some thing more powerful than any of those
things th at you observe: the sti ll, observing presence itself behind the
content of your mind, the silent watcher . Intense p resence is needed when certain situations trigger a reaction with
a strong  emotion al char ge, such as when your self-image is threatened, a
challenge comes into your life that triggers fear , things “go wrong,” or an
emotional complex from the past is brought up. In those instances, the
tendency is for you to become “unconscious.” The reaction or emotion
takes yo u over — you “becom e” it. Y ou act it out. Y ou justify , make
wrong, a ttack, d efend. . .except that it isn’ t you, it’ s the reactive  pattern,
the mind in its habitual survival mode. Identification with the mind gives it more ener gy; observation of the
mind w ithdraws ener gy from it. Identification with the mind creates
more tim e; observation of the mind opens up the dimension of the
timeless. The ener gy that is withdrawn from the mind turns into
presence. Once you can feel what it means to be present, it becomes
much easier to simply choose to step out of the time dimension whenever
time is not needed for practical purposes and move more deeply into the
Now . This does not impair your  ability to use time — past or future —
when yo u need to refer to it for p ractical matters. Nor does it im pair your
ability to use your mind. In fact, it enhances it. When you do use your
mind, it will be sharper , more focused. LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
Learn to use tim e in the practical aspects of your life — we may call this
“clock time” — but immediately return to present-moment awarenesswhen th ose prac tical matters have been dealt with. In this way , t here will
be no buildup o f “psychologica l time,” which is identification with the
past and continuous compulsive projection into the future. Clock time is not just making an appointment or planning a trip. It
includes learning  from the past so that we don’ t repeat the same mistakes
over and  over . Setting goals and working toward t hem. P redicting the
future by  means of patterns and laws, physical, mathematical a nd so on,
learned from the past and taking appropriate action on the basis of our
predictions. But even  here, within the sphere of practical living, where we c annot do
without reference to past and f uture, the present moment remains the
essential factor: Any lesson from the past becomes relevant and is
applied now . Any planning as well as working toward achieving a
particular goal is done now . The enli ghtened person’ s main focus of attention is always the Now , but
they are still peripherally aware of time. In other words, they continue to
use clock time but are free of psychological time. Be alert  as you practice this so  that you do not unwittingly transform
clock time into psychological ti me. For example, if you made a mistake
in the past and learn from it now , you are using clock time. On the other
hand, if you dw ell on it mentally , and self-criticism, remorse , or guilt
come up , then you are making the mistake into “me” and “mi ne”: Y ou
make it part of your sense of sel f, and it has become psychological time,
which is always linked to a f alse sense of identity . Nonfor giveness
necessarily implies a heavy burden of psychological time. If yo u set yourself a goal and w ork toward it, you are using clock time. Y ou are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your
fullest a ttention to the step tha t you are taking at this moment. If you
then bec ome excessively focuse d on the goal, perhaps because you are
seeking happine ss, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the
Now is no longer honored. It be comes reduced to a mere stepp ing stone
to the future, with no intrinsic value. Clock time then turns into
psychological time. Y our life’ s journey is no longer an adventur e, just an
obsessive need to arrive, to att ain, to “make it.” Y ou no longer see or
smell th e flowers by the waysid e either , nor are you aware of th e beautyand the miracle of life that unfo lds all around you when you are present
in the Now . I can  see  the supr eme importanc e of the Now , but I cannot quite go along
with you when you say that time is a complete illusion . When I say “time is an illusion,” my intention is not to make a
philosophical st atement. I am ju st reminding you of a simple fact — a
fact so obvious that you may fi nd it hard to grasp and may ev en find it
meaningless — but once fully re alized, it can cut like a sword th rough all
the min d-created layers of complexity and “problems.” Let me say it
again: th e prese nt moment is all you ever have. There is never a time
when your life is not “this moment.” Is this not a fact? THE INSANITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
Y ou will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease
if yo u look at its collective manifestations. They occur , for exa mple, in
the form  of ideologies such as  communism, national socialism or any
nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems, which operate under the
implicit assump tion that the highest good lies in the future and that
therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the
mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form — happiness,
fulfillment, equality , liberation, and so on — will be attai ned. Not
infrequently , the means of getting there are the enslavement, torture, and
murder of people in the present. For example, it is estimated that as many as fifty million people were
murdered to further the cause o f communism, to bring about a “better
world” in Russia, China, and other countries.2 Thi s is a chilling exampleof h ow belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can the re be any
doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness? How does this m ind pattern operate in your  l ife ? Are you always trying
to ge t so mewhere other than where you are? Is most of your doing  just a
means to  an end? Is fulfillment a lways just around the corner or  confined
to sh ort-lived pleasures, such a s sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and
excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and
attaining, or alternatively chasin g some new thrill or pleasure? Do you
believe that if y ou acquire more things you will become more fulfilled,
good enough, or psychologically complete? Are you waiting for a man or
woman to give meaning to your life? In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness,
the power and infinite creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are
completely obscured by psych ological time. Y our life then loses its
vibrancy , its freshness, its sense  of wonder . The old patterns of thought,
emotion, behavi or , reaction, and desire are acted out in endle ss repeat
performances, a script in your mind that gives you an identity of sorts but
distorts or covers up the reality of the Now . The mind then creates an
obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present. NEGA TIVITY AND SUFFERING HA VE THEIR ROOTS
 IN TIME
But the belief th at the futur e wil l be better than the pr esent is not always
an illusion. The pr esent  can be dr eadful, and things  can get better in the
futur e, and often they do. Usually , the future is a replica of the past. Superficial cha nges are
possible, but r eal  transformation is rare and depends upon whether you
can become present enough to d issolve the past by accessing th e power
of the Now . What you perceive as future is an intrinsic part of your state
of c onsciousnes s now . If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you
will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through
lack of presence . The quality of your consciousness at this moment iswhat sha pes the  future — whic h, of course, can only be experienced as
the Now . Y ou may  win ten million dollars , but that kind of change is no more than
skin dee p. Y ou would simply c ontinue to act out the same conditioned
patterns in more luxurious surr oundings. Humans have learned  to split
the atom . Instead of killing ten or twenty people with a wooden club, one
person can now kill a million just by pushing a button. Is that r eal
change? If it is the qualit y of your consc iousness at this moment that de termines
the futu re, then what is it that determines the quality of your
consciousness? Y our degree of presence. So the only place where true
change can occur and where the past can be dissolved is the Now . All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and
denial of the present. Unease, an xiety , tension, stress, worry — all forms
of f ear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, re gret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all  forms of
nonfor giveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence. Most people find it dif ficult to believe that a state of consciousness
totally free of al l negativity is po ssible. And yet this is the liberated state
to which  all spiritual teachings p oint. It is the promise of salvation, not in
an illusory future but right here and now . Y ou may  find it hard to recogniz e that time is the cause of your suf fering
or your problem s. Y ou believe t hat they are caused by specific situations
in your life, and seen from a conventional viewpoint, this is true. But
until you have d ealt with the basic problem-making dysfunctio n of the
mind — its attachment to past and future and denial of the Now —
problems are actually interchangeable. If all your problems or p erceived
causes o f suf fering or unhappiness were miraculously removed  for you
today , but you h ad not become m ore present, more conscious, you wouldsoon fin d yourse lf with a simila r set of problems or causes of s uf fering,
like a shadow that follows you wherever you go. Ultimately , there is only
one problem: the time-bound mind itself. I cannot believe that I could ever r each a point wher e I am completely
fr ee of my pr oblems. Y ou are  right. Y ou can never r each  that point because you ar e  at that
point now . There is  no salvation in time. Y ou cannot be free in the future. Presence
is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now . FINDING THE LIFE UNDERNEA TH YOUR LIFE SITUA TION
I don ’ t s ee how I can be fr ee now . As it happens, I am extr emely  unhappy
with my life at the moment. This is a fact, and I would be deluding myself
if I tried  to convince myself that all is well when it definitely isn’ t. T o me,
the pr esent moment is very unhappy; it is not liberating at all. What
keeps m e going  is the hope or possibility of some impr oveme nt in the
futur e.
 
Y ou think that your attention is in the present moment when it’ s actually
taken up completely by time. Y ou cannot be both unhappy and  fully
present in the Now . What yo u refer to as your “life ” should more accurately be ca lled your
“life situation.” It is psychological time: past and future. Certain things
in the past didn’ t go the way you wanted them to go. Y ou  are still
resisting what happened in the past, and now you are resisting what is . Hope is what ke eps you going, b ut hope keeps you focused on the future,
and this  continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and
therefore your unhappiness. It is true that my pr esent life situation is the r esult of things that
happened in the past, but it is s till my pr esent situation, and be ing stuck
in it is what makes me unhappy . For get about your life situation for a while and pay attention to your life. What is the differ ence? Y our life situation exists in time. Y our life is now . Y our life situation is mind-stuf f.
Y our life is real. Find the  “narrow gate that leads to life.” It is called the Now . Narrow
your life down to this moment. Y our life situation may be full of
problems — most life situation s are — but find out if you have any
problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now . Do
you have a problem now? When y ou are full of problems , there is no room for anything new to
enter , no  room for a solution. S o whenever you can, make som e room,
create some space, so that you find the life underneath your life situation. Use you r senses  fully . Be where  you are. Look around. Just look, don’ t
interpret. See the light, shapes,  colors, textures. Be aware of the silent
presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows ever ything to
be. Listen to t he sounds; don’ t judge them. Listen to the  silence
underneath the sounds. T ouch something — anything — and feel and
acknowledge its Being. Observ e the rhythm of your breathing; feel the
air f lowing in a nd out, feel th e life ener gy inside your bod y . Alloweverything to be, within and w ithout. Allow the “isness” of all things. Move deeply into the Now . Y ou are  leaving behind the dea dening world of mental abstraction, of
time. Y ou are getting out of the insane mind that is draining yo u of life
ener gy , just as it is slowly poisoning and destroying the Earth. Y ou are
awakening out of the dream of time into the present. ALL PROBLEMS ARE ILLUSIONS OF THE MIND
It fe els as if a heavy bur den has been lifted. A sense of lightne ss. I feel
clear . . . but my pr oblems ar e still ther e waiting for me, ar en’ t they? They
haven’ t been solved. Am I not just temporarily evading them? If you found yourself in paradise, it wouldn’ t be long before your mind
would say “yes, but. . . .” Ultimately , this is not about solv ing your
problems. It’ s about realizing that there ar e  no problems. Only situations
— to be dealt with now , or to be left alone and accepted as part of the
“isness” of the present moment until they change or can  b e dealt with. Problems are mind-made and ne ed time to survive. They canno t survive
in the actuality of the Now . Focus y our attention on the Now and tell me what problem yo u have at
this moment. I am  no t getting any answer because it is impossible to have a problem
when your attention is fully in the Now . A situation that needs to be
either dealt with or accepted — yes. Why ma ke it into a problem? W hy
make anything into a problem? Isn’ t life challenging enough as it is? What do you need problems for? The mind unconsciously loves
problems because they give you an identity of sorts. This is normal, and
it is insane. “P roblem” means that you are dwelling on a situation
mentally withou t there being a true intention or possibility o f taking
action n ow and that you are unc onsciously making it part of yo ur sense
of se lf. Y ou bec ome so overwhelmed by your life situation that you lose
your sen se of life, of Being. Or you are carrying in your mind the insane
burden of a hundred things that you will or may have to do in the future
instead of focusing your attention on the one thing that you can  do now . When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple
choice, a simple decision: no matter what happens, I will create no more
pain for myself. I will create no more problems. Although it is  a simple
choice, i t is also very radical. Y ou won’ t make that choice unles s you are
truly fed  up with suf fering, unless you have truly had enough. And you
won’ t be able to go through with it unless you access the power of the
Now . If you create no more pain for yourself, then you create no more
pain for others. Y ou also no long er contaminate the beautiful Earth, your
inner space, and the collective  human psyche with the nega tivity of
problem-making. If you have ever been in a life-or -death emer gency situation, you will
know that it was n’ t a problem. The mind didn’ t have time  t o fool around
and mak e it into a problem. In a true emer gency , the mind stops; you
become totally present in the Now , and something infinitely more
powerful takes over . This is why there are many reports of ordinary
people suddenly becoming capable of incredibly courageous deeds. Inany emer gency , either you survive or you don’ t. Either way , it is not a
problem. Some people get angry when they hear me say that problems are
illusions. I am threatening to tak e away their sense of who they a re. They
have invested much time in a f alse sense of self. For many years, they
have unconscio usly defined their whole identity in terms of their
problems or their suf fering. Who would they be without it? A great deal of what people sa y , think, or do is actually motivated by
fear , wh ich of course is always linked with having your focus on the
future and being out of touch w ith the Now . As there are no problems in
the Now , there is no fear either . Should a situation arise that you need to deal with now , your action will
be clear  and incisive if it arises  out of present-moment awareness. It is
also mor e likely  to be ef fective. It will not be a reaction coming from the
past conditionin g of your mind but an intuitive response to the situation. In other instances, when the time-bound mind would have reacted, you
will find it more ef fective to do nothing — just stay centered in the Now . A QUANTUM LEAP IN THE EV OLUTION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
I have had glimpses of this state  of fr eedom fr om mind and time that you
describe, but past and futur e ar e  so overwhelmingly str ong that I cannot
keep them out for long. The time-bound  mode of consciousness is deeply embedded in the
human psyche. But what we are doing here is part of a profound
transformation that is taking place in the collective consciousness of the
planet and beyond: the awaken ing of consciousness from the dream of
matter , form, and separation. Th e ending of time. W e are breaking mind
patterns that have dominated h uman life for eons. Mind patt erns that
have created unimaginable suf fering on a vast scale. I am not using the
word evil. It is more helpful to call it unconsciousness or insanity . This br eaking up of the ol d mode of consciousness or rather
unconsciousness: is it something we have to  do or w ill it happen
anyway? I mean, is this change inevitable? That’ s a question of perspective. The doing and the happening is in fact a
single process; because you are  one with the totality of consciousness,
you cannot separate the two. But there is no absolute guara ntee that
humans will make it. The process isn’ t inevitable or automatic. Y our
cooperation is an essential part of it. However you look at i t, it is a
quantum leap in the evolution of consciousness, as well as our only
chance of survival as a race. THE JOY OF BEING
T o alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by
psychological tim e, you can use  a simple criterion. Ask yourself : Is there
joy , ease, and li ghtness in what I am doing? If there isn’ t, then time is
covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a
struggle. If th ere is no joy , ease, or lightness in what you are doing, it does not
necessarily mea n that you need to change what  you are doing. It may be
suf ficient to change the how . “H ow” is alw ays more important than
“what.” See if you can give much more attention to the doing  t han  to the
result that you want to achieve through it. Give your fullest attention to
whatever the moment presents. This implies that you also completely
accept what is , because you cannot give your full attention to something
and at the same time resist it. As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle
dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of
present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a
sense of quality , care, and love — even the most simple action. So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action — just give attention
to th e action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord. T his is a
powerful spiritu al practice. In the Bhagavad Gita , o ne of the olde st and
most beautiful spiritual teaching s in existence, nonattachment to the fruit
of your action is called Karma Y oga. It is described as the  path of
“consecrated action.”
When th e compulsive striving away from the Now ceases, the joy of
Being fl ows into everything you do. The moment your attention  turns to
the Now , you feel a presence, a stillness, a peace. Y ou no longe r depend
on the future fo r fulfillment and satisfaction — you don’ t look  to it for
salvation. Therefore, you are not attached to the results. Neither failure
nor succ ess has the power to change your inner state of Being. Y ou have
found the life underneath your life situation. In th e ab sence o f psychological  time, your sense of self is deri ved from
Being, not from your personal p ast. Therefore, the psychologica l need to
become anythin g other than wh o you are already is no longer there. In
the worl d, on the level of your  life situation, you may indeed  become
wealthy , knowledgeable, successful, free of this or that, but in th e deeper
dimension of Being you are complete and whole now . In that state of wholeness, wou ld we still be able or willing to pursue
external goals? Of cour se, but you will not have illusory expectations that any thing or
anybody in the future will save you or make you happy . As far as your
life s ituation is c oncerned, there  may be things to be attained or acquired. That’ s th e world of form, of gain and loss. Y et on a deeper leve l you are
already complete, and when you realize that, there is a playful, joyous
ener gy behind what you do. Being free of psychological time, you nolonger pursue your goals with grim determination, driven by fear , anger ,
discontent, or the need to become someone. Nor will you remain inactive
through fear of failure, which to the ego is loss of self. When your deeper
sense of  self is d erived from Being, when you are free of “beco ming” as
a ps ychological  need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self
depends on the outcome, and so there is freedom from fear . Y ou don’ t
seek permanenc y where it canno t be found: in the world of form, of gain
and loss, birth and death. Y ou don’ t demand that situations, conditions,
places, or people should make  you happy , and then suf fer when they
don’ t live up to your expectations. Everything is honored, but noth ing matters. Forms are born and  die, yet
you are aware of the eternal underneath the forms. Y ou k now that
“nothing real can be threatened.”3
When th is is your state of Bein g, how can you not succeed? Y ou have
succeeded already . CHAPTER FOUR
M I N D  S T R A T E G I E S  F O R
 A V O I D I N G  T H E  N O W
LOSS OF NOW : THE CORE DELUSION
Even if I comp letely accept that ultimately time is an illusi on, what
differ ence is that going to make in my life? I still have to live in a world
that is completely dominated by time. Intellectual agreement is just another belief and won’ t make much
dif ference to your life. T o reali ze this truth, you need to live it. When
every ce ll of your body is so p resent that it feels vibrant with  life, and
when yo u can feel that life every  moment as the joy of Being, th en it can
be said that you are free of time. But I still have to pay the bills tomorr ow , and I am still going to gr ow old
and die just like everybody else. So how can I ever say that I am fr ee of
time? T omorrow’ s bills are not the p roblem. The dissolution of the physical
body is not a problem. Loss of Now is the problem, or rather:  the core
delusion that turns a mere situation, event, or emotion into a personal
problem and into suf fering. Loss of Now is loss of Being.T o be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your
identity and future for your fulf illment. It represents the most profound
transformation o f consciousness that you can imagine. In some rare
cases, this shift in consciousness happens dramatically and radically ,
once and for al l. When it doe s, it usually comes about thro ugh total
surrender in the midst of intens e suf fering. Most people, however , have
to work at it. When you have had your first few glimpses of the timeless state of
consciousness, you begin to move back and forth between the
dimensions of time and presence. First you become aware of just how
rarely your attention is truly in  the Now . But to know  that you are not
present is a grea t success: That k nowing is  pres ence — eve n if initially it
only lasts for a couple of seconds of clock time before it is lost again. Then, w ith increasing frequency , you choose  to  have the foc us of your
consciousness in the present moment rather than in the past or future,
and whenever you realize that you had lost the Now , you are able to stay
in it not just for a couple of seconds, but for longer periods as p erceived
from the external perspective o f clock time. So before you are firmly
established in the state of presen ce, which is to say before you are fully
conscious, you shift back and f orth for a while between consc iousness
and unconscious ness, between the state of presence and the state of mind
identification. Y ou lose the Now , and you return to it, again an d again. Eventually , presence becomes your predominant state. For mos t people, presence is experienced either never at all or only
accidentally and briefly on rare occasions without being recognized for
what it is. Most humans alte rnate not between consciousness and
unconsciousness but only between dif ferent levels of unconsciousness. ORDINAR Y UNCONSCIOUSNESS
 AND DEEP UNCONSCIOUSNESS
What do you mean by differ ent levels of unconsciousness? As you probably know , in sleep you constantly move between the phases
of dream less sleep and the drea m state. Similarly , in wakefulness mostpeople only shift between ordinary unconsciousness an d deep
unconsciousness. What I call ordinary unconsciousness means being
identified with your thought processes and emotions, your reactions,
desires, and aversions. It is most people’ s normal state. In that s tate, you
are run by the egoic mind, and you are unaware of Being. It is a state not
of acute  pain or unhappiness but of an almost continuous low level of
unease, disconte nt, boredom, or nervousness — a kind of background
static. Y ou may not realize this because it is so much a part of “normal”
living, ju st as you are not aware  of a continuous low backgrou nd noise,
such as the hum  of an air conditioner , until it stops. When it suddenly
does stop, there is a sense of relief. Many people use alcohol, dr ugs, sex,
food, work, television, or even s hopping as anesthetics in an unc onscious
attempt to remove the basic une ase. When this happens, an act ivity that
might be  very enjoyable if used in moderation becomes imbue d with a
compulsive or addictive quality , and all that is ever achieved thr ough it is
extremely short-lived symptom relief. The unease of ordinary unconsciousness turns into the pain of deep
unconsciousness — a state of more acute and more obvious suf fering or
unhappiness — when things “go wrong,” when the ego is threatened or
there is a major  challenge, threat, or loss, real or imagined, in your life
situation or confl ict in a relationship. I t is an intensified version of
ordinary unconsciousness, dif ferent from it not in kind but in degree. In o rdinary unconsciousness, ha bitual resistance to or denial o f what is
creates the unease and discontent that most people accept as normal
living. When this resistance becomes intensified through some challenge
or threat to the ego, it brings up intense negativity such as ang er , acute
fear , aggression, depression, and so on. Deep unconsciousness often
means that the p ain-body has been triggered and that you have  become
identified with it. Physical viol ence would be impossible without deep
unconsciousness. It can also occur easily whenever and wherever a
crowd of people or even an enti re nation generates a negative c ollective
ener gy field. The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with
life’ s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already
unconscious per son tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a
conscious person more intensely conscious. Y ou can use a challenge toawaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into even deeper sleep. The
dream of ordinary unconsciousness then turns into a nightmare. If you cannot b e present even in normal circumstances, such as when
you are sitting alone in a room , walking in the woods, or listening to
someone, then you certainly won’ t be able to stay conscious when
something “goe s wrong” or you are faced with dif ficult p eople or
situations, with loss or the threat of loss. Y ou will be taken over by a
reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear , and pulled into
deep un consciousness. Those ch allenges are your tests. Only the way in
which you deal with them will show you and others where you are at as
far as your state of consciousness is co ncerned, not how long you can sit
with your eyes closed or what visions you see. So i t is essential to bring more consciousness into your life in ordinary
situations when everything is going relatively smoothly . In this way , you
grow in presenc e power . It gene rates an ener gy field in you and around
you of a high vibrational freque ncy . No unconsciousness, no negativity ,
no discord or violence can enter that field and survive, just as darkness
cannot survive in the presence of light. When you learn to be the witness of your thoughts and emotions, which
is an essential part of being present, you may be surprised when  you first
become aware of the background “static” of ordinary unconsciousness
and realize how rarely , if ever , you are truly at ease within you rself. On
the level of you r thinking, you will find a great deal of resistance in the
form of judgment, discontent, an d mental projection away from the Now . On the emotiona l level, there will be an undercurrent of unease, tension,
boredom, or nervousness. Both  are aspects of the mind in its habitual
resistance mode. WHA T ARE THEY SEEKING? Carl Jung tells in one of his book s of a conversation he had with a Native
American chief who pointed out  to him that in his perception m ost white
people h ave tense faces, staring eyes, and a cruel demeanor . He said:
“They a re always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites
always w ant something. They are always uneasy and restless. W e don’ t
know what they want. W e think they are mad.”The undercurre nt of constant unease started long before the rise of
W estern industrial civilization, of course, but in W estern civilization,
which n ow cove rs almost the en tire globe, including most of th e East, it
manifests in an unprecedentedly acute form. It was already there at the
time of Jesus, and it was there s ix hundred years before that at  the time
of Buddha, and long before that. Why are you always anxious? Jesus
asked hi s discipl es. “Can anxious thought add a single day to yo ur life?”
And the Buddha taught that the  root of suf fering is to be foun d in our
constant wanting and craving. Resistance to the Now as a collective dysfunction is int rinsically
connected to loss of awarenes s of Being and forms the basis of our
dehumanized industrial civilization. Freud, by the way , also recognized
the exis tence of  this undercurrent of unease and wrote about  it in his
book Civilization and Its Discontents , but he did not recognize the true
root of the unea se and failed to realize that freedom from it is possible. This collective dysfunction has created a very unhappy and
extraordinarily violent civilization that has become a threat no t only to
itself but also to all life on the planet. DISSOL VING ORDINAR Y UNCONSCIOUSNESS
So how can we be fr ee of this affliction? Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease, di scontent,
and tension arise within you thro ugh unnecessary judgment, resistance to
what is , a nd denial of the Now . Anything unconscious dissolves whe n
you shine the l ight of consciousness on it. Once you know how to
dissolve ordinary unconsciousness, the light of your presence w ill shine
brightly , and it will be much easier to deal with deep unconsc iousness
whenever you feel its gravitational pull. However , ordinary
unconsciousness may not be easy to detect initially because it is so
normal. Make it a habit  to monitor your mental-emotional state through self-
observation. “Am I at ease at this moment?” is a good questio n to ask
yourself frequently . Or you can ask: “What’ s going on inside me at thismoment?” Be at least as interes ted in what goes on inside you as what
happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into
place. Primary reality is within, secondary reality without. But don’ t
answer these questions immediately . Direct your attention inward. Have
a loo k inside yo urself. What kind of thoughts is your mind pr oducing? What do you f eel? Direct your attention into the body . Is t here any
tension? Once you detect tha t there is a low level of une ase, the
background static, see in what way you are avoiding, resisting, or
denying life — by denying the Now . There are many ways in which
people unconsciously resist the  present moment. I will give you a few
examples. W ith practice, your power of self-observation, of monitoring
your inner state, will become sharpened. FREEDOM FROM UNHAPPINESS
Do you resent do ing what you a re doing? It may be your job, or you may
have agr eed to do something and  are doing it, but part of you resents and
resists it . Are you carrying unspoken resentment toward a person  close to
you? Do you rea lize that the ene r gy you thus emanate is so harmful in its
ef fects t hat you are in fact contaminating yourself as well as those
around y ou? Ha ve a good look inside. Is there even the slightest trace of
resentment, unwillingness? If there is, observe it on both the mental and
the emotional levels. What tho ughts is your mind creating aro und this
situation? Then look at the emotion, which is the body’ s reaction to those
thoughts. Feel the emotion. Does it feel pleasant or unpleasant? Is it an
ener gy that you would actually choose  to have inside you? Do you have
a choice? Maybe you ar e  bei ng taken advantage of, ma ybe the activity you are
engaged in is  ted ious, maybe someone close to you is  dishonest,
irritating, or unconscious, but all this is irrelevant. Whether your
thoughts and emotions about this situation are justified or not makes no
dif ference. The fact is that you are resisting what is . Y ou are making the
present moment into an enemy . Y ou are creating unhappiness, conflict
between the inner and the outer . Y our unhappiness is polluting not only
your own inner being and those around you but also the collective human
psyche of which you are an inseparable part. The pollution of the planet
is only an outw ard reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of
unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space.Either stop doing what you are doing, speak to the person concerned and
express fully what you feel, or drop the negativity that your mind has
created around the situation a nd that serves no purpose whatsoever
except to strengthen a false se nse of self. Recognizing its futility is
important. Negativity is never the optimum way of dealing with any
situation.
_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:

        Some people live almost entirely through
their pai n-body, while others may experience it only in certain situations,
such as intimat e relationships,  or situations linked with past loss or
abandonment, physical or emotional hurt, and so on. Anything can
trigger it, particularly if it resonates with a pain pattern from your past. When it is ready  to awaken from  its dormant stage, even a thought or an
innocent remark made by someone close to you can activate it. Some pain-bodies are obnoxious but relatively harmless, for example
like a child who won’ t stop whining. Others are vicious and de structive
monsters, true demons. Some are physically violent; many m ore are
emotionally violent. Some will attack people around you or clos e to you,
while others may attack you, their host. Thoughts and feelings you have
about your life then become deeply negative and self-destructive. Illnesses and accidents are ofte n created in this way. Some pain-bodies
drive their hosts to suicide. When you thought you knew  a person and then you are suddenly
confronted with this alien, nasty  creature for the first time, you are in for
quite a shock. However, it’ s more important to observe it in your self than
in some one else. W atch out for  any sign of unhappiness in yourself, in
whatever form — it may be the  awakening pain-body. This can take the
form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger,
rage, dep ression, a need to have  some drama in your relationshi p, and so
on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state. The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence,
and it can only s urvive if it gets  you to unconsciously identify w ith it. It
can then rise up, take you over,  “become you,” and live through you. It
needs to  get its “food” through you. It will feed on any experi ence that
resonates with its own kind of e ner gy, anything that creates further pain
in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama,
violence, and even illness. So the pain-body, when it has taken y ou over,
will create a si tuation in your life that reflects back its ow n ener gy
frequency for it to feed on. Pain  can only feed on pain. Pain can not feed
on joy. It finds it quite indigestible. Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more p ain. Y ou
become a victim or a perpetrator. Y ou want to inflict pain, or you want to
suf fer pain, or both. There isn’ t really much dif ference between the two. Y ou are not conscious of this, o f course, and will vehemently c laim that
you do not wan t pain. But loo k closely and you will find that your
thinking and behavior are desig ned to keep the pain going, for yourself
and others. If you wer e  truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve,
for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane. The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually
afraid of  the light of your consc iousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survi val depends on your unconscious identification with it, a s well as
on your unconsc ious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you
don’ t fa ce it, if you don’ t bring the light of your consciousness  into the
pain, yo u will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain-b ody may
seem to you like  a dangerous mo nster that you cannot bear to look at, but
I ass ure you that  it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against
the power of your presence. Some spiritual teachings state that all pain is ultimately an illusion, and
this is true. The question is: Is  it true for you. A mere belie f doesn’ t
make it true. Do  you want to experience pain for the rest of your life and
keep saying that it is an illusion. Does that free you from the pain. What
we a re c oncerned with here is h ow you can r ealize  t his  truth — that is,
make it real in your own experience. So the pain-bod y doesn’ t want you to observe it directly and see it for
what it is. The m oment you observe it, feel its ener gy field wi thin you,
and take your a ttention into it, the identification is broken. A higher
dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it pr esence. Y ou are now
the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use
you any more by  pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish
itself through you. Y ou have found your own innermost strength. Y ou
have accessed the power of Now. What ha ppens to the pain-body when we become conscious enough to
br eak our identification with it. Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself. St. Paul expressed this universal principle beautifully: “Everything is shown
up b y being exp osed to the lig ht, and whatever is exposed to the light
itself becomes light. ” Just as yo u cannot fight the darkness, you cannot
fight the  pain-bo dy. T rying to do  so would create inner conflict  and thus
further p ain. W atching it is enough. W atching it implies accep ting it as
part of what is  at that moment. The pain-body consists of trappe d life-ener gy that has split of f from your
total ene r gy fiel d and has temp orarily become autonomous thr ough the
unnatural process of mind identification. It has turned in on itself and
become anti-life, like an anima l trying to devour its own tail. Why do
you thin k our civilization has b ecome so life-destructive. But even the
life-destructive forces are still life-ener gy. When you start to disidentify and become the watcher, the pain-body
will continue to operate for a while and will try to trick you into
identifying with it again. Although you are no longer ener gizing it
through your identification, it has a certain momentum, just like a
spinning wheel that will keep turning for a while even when it is no
longer being propelled. At this stage, it may also create physical aches
and pains in dif ferent parts of the body, but they won’ t last. Stay present,
stay conscious. Be the ever -aler t guardian of your inner space. Y ou need
to be present en ough to be able to watch the pain-body directly and feel
its ener gy. It then cannot con trol your thinking. The moment your
thinking is aligned with the e ner gy field of the pain-body, you are
identified with it and again feeding it with your thoughts. For example, if anger is the predominant ener gy vibration of the pain-
body an d you think angry thoughts, dwelling on what someon e did to
you or what you are going to d o to him or her, then you have become
unconscious, and the pain-body has become “you. ” Where there is anger,
there is always pain underneath. Or when a dark mood comes upon you
and you  start getting into a negative mind-pattern and think ing how
dreadful your life is, your thinking has become aligned with the pain-
body, and you have become u nconscious and vulnerable to the pain-
body’ s a ttack. “U nconscious,” th e way that I use the word here, means tobe iden tified with some mental or emotional pattern. It implies a
complete absence of the watcher. Sustained conscious attention severs the link between the pain-body and
your thought processes and brin gs about the process of transmu tation. It
is as  if the pain becomes fuel fo r the flame of your consciousness, which
then bur ns more brightly as a result. This is the esoteric meani ng of the
ancient art of alchemy: the transmutation of base metal into gold, of
suf fering into consciousness. Th e split within is healed, and you become
whole again. Y our responsibility then is not to create further pain. Let me summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’ t think  about it
— d on’ t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’ t judge or analy ze. Don’ t
make an  identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and contin ue to be
the o bserver of w hat is happening inside you. Become aware not only of
the emotional pain but also o f “the one who observes,” t he silent
watcher. This is the power of the  Now, the power of your own conscious
presence. Then see what happens. For many women, the pain-b ody awakens particularly at the time
preceding the menstrual flow. I will talk about this and the reason for it
in more detail later. Right now, let me just say this: If you are able to stay
alert and present at that time and watch  whatever you feel within, rather
than be taken ov er by it, it af fords an opportunity for the most powerful
spiritual practic e, and a rapid transmutation of all past pain becomes
possible. EGO IDENTIFICA TION WITH THE P AIN-BODY
The proc ess that  I have just described is profoundly powerful ye t simple. It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be one of the
first things children learn in school. Once you have understood the basicprinciple of being present as the watcher of what happens inside you —
and you  “unders tand” it by expe riencing it — you have at your disposal
the most potent transformational tool. This is not to deny that you may encounter intense inner resistance to
disidentifying from your pain. This will be the case par ticularly if you
have lived closely identified wi th your emotional pain-body for most of
your life and the whole or a lar ge part of your sense of self is invested in
it. What this means is that you have made an unhappy self out of your
pain-body and believe that this mind-made fiction is who you are. In that
case, unconscious fear of losing your identity will create strong
resistance to any disidentification. In other words, you would rat her be in
pain — be  the pain-body — than take a leap into the unknown and risk
losing the familiar unhappy self. If th is applies to you, observe the resistance within yourself. Ob serve the
attachment to your pain. Be very  alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you
derive from being unhappy. O bserve the compulsion to talk or think
about it. The res istance will cease if you make it conscious. Y ou can then
take you r attenti on into the pain -body, stay present as the witnes s, and so
initiate its transmutation. Only you  can do this. Nobody can do it for  you. Bu t if you are fortunate
enough to find someone who is intensely conscious, if you can be with
them an d join them in the state of presence, that can be helpful  and will
accelerate things. In this way, yo ur own light will quickly grow stronger. When a log that has only just started to burn is placed next to one that is
burning fiercely, and after a while they are separated again, the first log
will be burning with much greater intensity. After all, it is the same fire. T o b e such a fire is one of the functions of a spiritual teach er. Some
therapists may also be able to fulfill that function, provided that they
have gone beyond the level of m ind and can create and sustain a state of
intense conscious presence while they are working with you. THE ORIGIN OF FEAR
Y ou mentioned fear as being part of our basic underlying emotional
pain. How does fear arise, and  why is ther e so much of it in people’ slives. A nd isn’ t a certain amount of fear just healthy self-pr otection. If I
didn’ t have a fear of fir e, I might put my hand in it and get burned. The reason why you don’ t put your hand in the fire is not because of fear,
it’ s beca use you  know that you ’ll get burned. Y ou don’ t nee d fear to
avoid u nnecessary danger — just a minimum of intelligence and
common sense. For such practical matters, it is useful to apply the
lessons learned in the past. Now if someone thr eatened  you with fire or
with phy sical violence, you might experience something like fear. This is
an instinctive shrinking back f rom danger, but not the psychological
condition of fear that we are talking about here. The psychological
condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true im mediate
danger. It comes in many form s: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness,
tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychologica l fear is
always of something that might  happen, not of something that is
happening now. Y ou  are in the here and now, while  your mind is in the
future. T his crea tes an anxiety g ap. And if you are identified with your
mind and have lost touch with the power and simplicity of the N ow, that
anxiety gap will be your constant companion. Y ou can always cope with
the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a
mind projection — you cannot cope with the future. Moreover, as long as you are i dentified with your mind, the ego runs
your life, as I pointed out earlier. Because of its phantom nature, and
despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and
insecure, and it sees itself as con stantly under threat. This, by the way, is
the c ase even if the ego is outwa rdly very confident. Now remember that
an emot ion is the body’ s reaction to your mind. What message is the
body receiving continuously fr om the ego, the false, mind-made self. Danger, I am un der threat. And what is the emotion generated by this
continuous message. Fear, of course. Fear see ms to have many caus es. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of
being hurt, and s o on, but ultima tely all fear is the ego’ s fear of death, of
annihilation. T o  the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this
mind-identified state, fear of death af fects every aspect of your life. For
example, even such a seemin gly trivial and “normal” thing as thecompulsive need to be right in an ar gument and make the other person
wrong — defending the mental position with which you have i dentified
— is  due to the fear of death. If you identify with a mental posit ion, then
if you are wrong, your mind-based sense of self is seriously threatened
with annihilatio n. So you as the ego cannot af ford to be wrong. T o be
wrong is to die. W ars have been fought over this, and countless
relationships have broken down. Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are  right or
wrong m akes no dif ference to your sense of self at all, so the f orcefully
compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of
violence, will no longer be there. Y ou can state clearly and firmly how
you feel or wh at you think, b ut there will be no aggressiv eness or
defensiveness ab out it. Y our sen se of self is then derived from a deeper
and truer place within yourself, not from the mind. W atch out for any
kind of defensiveness within yourself. What are you defending. An
illusory identity, an image in y our mind, a fictitious entity. By  making
this pattern conscious, by witne ssing it, you disidentify from it. In the
light of your consciousness, th e unconscious pattern will then quickly
dissolve. This is the end of all ar guments and power games, which are so
corrosive to relationships. Power over others is weakness disguised as
strength. T rue power is within, and it is available to you now. So anyone who is identified with their mind and, therefore, disconnected
from their true p ower, their deeper self rooted in Being, will have fear as
their con stant companion. The number of people who have gone beyond
mind is  as yet extremely small, so you can assume that virtually
everyone you meet or know live s in a state of fear. Only the intensity of
it varies. It fluctuates between a nxiety and dread at one end of the scale
and a vague unease and distant sense of threat at the other. Mo st people
become conscio us of it only when it takes on one of its more acute
forms. THE EGO’S SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Another aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the egoic
mind is a deep-seated sense o f lack or incompleteness, of n ot being
whole. In some people, this is conscious, in others unconscious. If it is
conscious, it manifests as the unsettling and constant feeling of not beingworthy o r good enough. If it is u nconscious, it will only be felt indirectly
as a n intense craving, wanting and needing. In either case, people will
often enter into a compulsive pursuit of ego-gratification and things to
identify with in order to fill this hole they feel within. So they strive after
possessions, money, success, power, recognition, or a special
relationship, basically so that they can  feel better about themselves, feel
more complete. But even when they attain all these things, they soon find
that the hole is still there, that it is bottomless. Then they are really in
trouble, because they cannot delude themselves anymore. W ell,  they can
and do, but it gets more dif ficult. As l ong as the egoic mind is r unning your life, you cannot tr uly be at
ease; yo u canno t be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when
you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since th e ego is a derived sense  of self, it needs to identify with  external
things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly. The most
common ego identifications hav e to do with possessions, the work you
do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical
appearance, special abilities, re lationships, personal and family  history,
belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and
other collective identifications. None of these is you. Do y ou find this  frightening. Or is it a relief to know this. All of these
things y ou will have to relinqui sh sooner or later. Perhaps you find it as
yet h ard to belie ve, and I am certainly not asking you to believe  that your
identity cannot be found in any of those things. Y ou will know  the truth
of it for yourself. Y ou will know it at the latest when you feel death
approaching. Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret
of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death. CHAPTER THREE
M O V I N G  D E E P L Y
 I N T O  T H E  N O W
DON’T SEEK YOUR SELF IN THE MIND
I feel that ther e is still a gr eat deal I need to learn about the workings of
my mind befor e I can get anyw her e near full consciousness or spiritual
enlightenment. No, you don’ t. T he problems of the mind cannot be solved on the level
of th e mind. Once you have understood the basic dysfunction, t here isn’ t
really much else that you need to learn or understand. Stud ying the
complexities of the mind may make you a good psychologist, but doing
so w on’ t take you beyond the mind, just as the study of madness isn’ t
enough to create sanity. Y ou have already understood the basic
mechanics of the unconscious state: identification with the mind, which
creates a false self, the ego, as a substitute for your true self rooted in
Being. Y ou become as a “branch cut of f from the vine,” as Jesus puts it. The ego ’ s needs are endless. It feels vulnerable and threatene d and so
lives in a state of fear and want. Once you know how the basic
dysfunction ope rates, there is no need to explore all its countless
manifestations, n o need to make  it into a complex p ersonal problem. The
ego, of course, loves that. It is always seeking for something to attach
itself to in order to uphold and strengthen its illusory sense of self, and it
will readily attach itself to your problems. This is why, for so many
people, a lar ge part of their sense of self is intimately connected with
their problems. Once this has happened, the last thing they want is tobecome free of them; that would  mean loss of self. There can b e a great
deal of unconscious ego investment in pain and suf fering. So once you recognize the root of unconsciousness as identification with
the mind, which of course inclu des the emotions, you step out of it. Y ou
become pr esent. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as
it is without getting entangl ed in it. The mind in itself is not
dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek
your self in it and mistake it for  who you are. It then becomes the egoic
mind and takes over your whole life. END THE DELUSION OF TIME
It se ems almost impossible to disidentify fr om the mind. W e  ar e all
immersed in it. How do you teach a fish to fly. Here is the key: End the delusion of time. T ime and mind are
inseparable. Remove time from  the mind and it stops — unless you
choose to use it. T o be identified with your mind  is to be trapped in time: the compulsion
to li ve almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates
an endle ss preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to
honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The
compulsion arises because the past gives yo u an identity and the future
holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are
illusions. But without a sense of time, how would we function in this worl d. Ther e
would be no goa ls to strive towa r d anymor e. I wouldn’ t even know who I
am, because my past makes me w ho I am today. I think time is something
very pr ecious, and we need to learn to use it wisely rather than waste it. T ime isn’ t precious at all, becau se it is an illusion. What you perceive as
precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is
precious indeed. The more you are focused on time — past and future —
the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. Why is it the most precious thing. Firstly, because it is the only  thing. It’ s a ll there is. The eternal present is the space within which your whole
life unfo lds, the one factor that r emains constant. Life is now. T here was
never a  time when your life was not  now, nor will  there ever be. Secondly, the Now is the only point that can take you beyond the limited
confines of the mind. It is your o nly point of access into the timeless and
formless realm of Being. NOTHING EXISTS OUTSIDE THE NOW
Ar en’ t p ast and futur e just as r eal, sometimes even mor e r eal, than the
pr esent. After all, the past dete rmines who we ar e, as well as how we
per ceive and behave in the pr esent. And our futur e goals determine
which actions we take in the pr esent. Y ou hav en’ t yet grasped the esse nce of what I am saying because you are
trying to understand it mentally. The mind cannot understand t his. Only
you  can. Please just listen. Have yo u ever experienced, done, thought, or felt anything outside the
Now. Do you think you ever will. Is it possible for anything t o happen
or be  outside the Now. The answer is obvious, is it not. Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now. What you think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a
former Now. When you remem ber the past, you reactivate a memory
trace —  and you do so now. The  future is an imagined Now, a p rojection
of the mind. When the future comes, it comes as the Now. W hen you
think ab out the future, you do it now. Past and future obviously have no
reality of their o wn. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can
only ref lect the  light of the sun, so are past and future only pale
reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present. Their
reality is “borrowed” from the Now. The esse nce of what I am saying here cannot be understood by the mind. The mom ent you grasp it, there  is a shift in consciousness from mind to
Being, from time to presence. S uddenly, everything feels alive, radiates
ener gy, emanates Being. THE KEY T O THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
In life-threatening emer gency situations, the shift in consciousness from
time to presence sometimes happens naturally. The personality that has a
past and a futu re momentarily recedes and is replaced by an  intense
conscious presen ce, very still bu t very alert at the same time. Whatever
response is needed then arises out of that state of consciousness. The reas on why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such
as moun tain clim bing, car racing, and so on, although they may not be
aware of it, is that it forces the m into the Now — that intensely alive
state tha t is free of time, free o f problems, free of thinking, fr ee of the
burden of the pe rsonality. Slipping away from the present moment even
for a second may mean death. Unfortunately, they come to depend on a
particular activity to be in that  state. But you don’ t need to c limb the
north face of the Eiger. Y ou can enter that state now. Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have point ed to the
Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have
remained a secret. It is certainly not taught in churches and te mples. If
you go to a church, you may hear readings from the Gospels such as
“T ake no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for
the thing s of itself,” or “Nobod y who puts his hands to the plow and
looks back  is fit for the Kingdom of G od. ” Or you might hear the
passage about the beautiful flowers that are not anxious about tomorrow
but live with ease in the timeless Now and are provided for abundantly
by God. The depth and radi cal nature of these teachings are not
recognized. No one seems to re alize that they are meant to be lived and
so bring about a profound inner transformation. The who le essen ce of Zen cons ists in walking along the razor ’ s edge of
Now — to be so utterly, so completely pr esent  that no problem, no
suf fering, nothin g that is not who you ar e  i n your essence, can survive in
you. In the Now, in the absen ce of time, all your problems dissolve. Suf fering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now. The great Zen master Rinzai, in order to take his students’ attention away
from time, would often raise his finger and slowly ask: “What, at this
moment, is lacking. ” A powerful question that does not require an
answer on the level of the mind. It is designed to take your attention
deeply into the Now. A similar question in the Zen tradition is this: “If
not now, when. ” 
 
The Now  is also central to the te aching of Sufism, the mystical branch of
Islam. Sufis have a saying: “Th e Sufi is the son of time present. ” And
Rumi, th e great poet and teach er of Sufism, declares: “Past and future
veil God from our sight; burn up both of them with fire. ”
Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century spiritual teacher, summed it all up
beautifully: “T ime is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no
greater obstacle to God than time. ”
 
 
ACCESSING THE POWER OF THE NOW
A mome nt ago, when you talk ed about the eternal pr esent and the
unr eality of past and futur e, I found myself looking at that tr ee outside
the window. I h ad looked at it a few times befor e, but this time it was
differ ent. The external per ceptio n had not changed much, except that the
colors s eemed brighter and mor e vibrant. But ther e was now an added
dimension to it. This is har d to explain. I don’ t know how, b ut I was
awar e o f something invisible that I felt was the essence of tha t tr ee, its
inner spirit, if y ou like. And so mehow I was part of that. I r ealize now
that I hadn’ t tru ly seen the tr ee  befor e, just a flat and dead image of it. When I look at the tr ee now, som e of that awar eness is still pr esent, but I
can feel it slipping away. Y ou see, the experience is alr eady r eceding into
the past. Can something like this ever be mor e than a fleeting glimpse. Y ou we re free of time for a m oment. Y ou moved into the Now and
therefore perceived the tree without the screen of mind. The awareness
of Being became part of your perception. W ith the timeless dimension
comes a  dif ferent kind of knowing, one that does not “kill” the spirit that
lives within every creature and every thing. A knowing that does not
destroy the sacredness and mys tery of life but contains a deep love and
reverence for all that is. A knowing of which the mind knows nothing. The min d canno t know the tree. It can only know facts or inf ormation
about  th e tree. My mind cannot know you, only labels, judgments, facts,
and opinions about  you. Being alone knows directly. There is a plac e for mind and mind knowledge. It is in the practical
realm of  day-to-day living. However, when it takes over all aspects of
your life, including your relationships with other human beings and with
nature, it becomes a monstrous  parasite that, unchecked, may well end
up killing all life on the planet and finally itself by killing its host. Y ou hav e had a glimpse of how the timeless can transform your
perceptions. But an experience is not enough, no matter how beautiful or
profound. Wha t is needed and what we are concerned w ith is a
permanent shift in consciousness. So break  the old pattern of present-moment denial and present -moment
resistance. Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and
future whenever they are not needed. Step out of the time dimension as
much as possible in everyday l ife. If you find it hard to enter the Now
directly, start by observing the habitual tendency of your mind to want to
escape from the Now. Y ou will observe that the future is  usually
imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined
future is better, it gives you h ope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is
worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory. Through self-observation,
more pr esence  comes into your life automatically. The moment you
realize y ou are not present, you ar e  p resent. Whene ver you are abl e to
observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another f actor has
come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence. Be present as the watcher of your mind — of your thou ghts and
emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as
interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that ca uses youto react. Notice also how often  your attention is in the past o r future. Don’ t ju dge or analyze what you observe. W atch the thought,  feel the
emotion, observ e the reaction. Don’ t make a personal problem out of
them. Y ou will then feel some thing more powerful than any of those
things th at you observe: the sti ll, observing presence itself behind the
content of your mind, the silent watcher. Intense p resence is needed when certain situations trigger a reaction with
a strong  emotion al char ge, such as when your self-image is threatened, a
challenge comes into your life that triggers fear, things “go wrong,” or an
emotional complex from the past is brought up. In those instances, the
tendency is for you to become “unconscious. ” The reaction or emotion
takes yo u over — you “becom e” it. Y ou act it out. Y ou justify, make
wrong, a ttack, d efend. except that it isn’ t you, it’ s the reactive  pattern,
the mind in its habitual survival mode. Identification with the mind gives it more ener gy; observation of the
mind w ithdraws ener gy from it. Identification with the mind creates
more tim e; observation of the mind opens up the dimension of the
timeless. The ener gy that is withdrawn from the mind turns into
presence. Once you can feel what it means to be present, it becomes
much easier to simply choose to step out of the time dimension whenever
time is not needed for practical purposes and move more deeply into the
Now. This does not impair your  ability to use time — past or future —
when yo u need to refer to it for p ractical matters. Nor does it im pair your
ability to use your mind. In fact, it enhances it. When you do use your
mind, it will be sharper, more focused. LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
Learn to use tim e in the practical aspects of your life — we may call this
“clock time” — but immediately return to present-moment awarenesswhen th ose prac tical matters have been dealt with. In this way, t here will
be no buildup o f “psychologica l time,” which is identification with the
past and continuous compulsive projection into the future. Clock time is not just making an appointment or planning a trip. It
includes learning  from the past so that we don’ t repeat the same mistakes
over and  over. Setting goals and working toward t hem. P redicting the
future by  means of patterns and laws, physical, mathematical a nd so on,
learned from the past and taking appropriate action on the basis of our
predictions. But even  here, within the sphere of practical living, where we c annot do
without reference to past and f uture, the present moment remains the
essential factor: Any lesson from the past becomes relevant and is
applied now. Any planning as well as working toward achieving a
particular goal is done now. The enli ghtened person’ s main focus of attention is always the Now, but
they are still peripherally aware of time. In other words, they continue to
use clock time but are free of psychological time. Be alert  as you practice this so  that you do not unwittingly transform
clock time into psychological ti me. For example, if you made a mistake
in the past and learn from it now, you are using clock time. On the other
hand, if you dw ell on it mentally, and self-criticism, remorse, or guilt
come up, then you are making the mistake into “me” and “mi ne”: Y ou
make it part of your sense of sel f, and it has become psychological time,
which is always linked to a f alse sense of identity. Nonfor giveness
necessarily implies a heavy burden of psychological time. If yo u set yourself a goal and w ork toward it, you are using clock time. Y ou are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your
fullest a ttention to the step tha t you are taking at this moment. If you
then bec ome excessively focuse d on the goal, perhaps because you are
seeking happine ss, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the
Now is no longer honored. It be comes reduced to a mere stepp ing stone
to the future, with no intrinsic value. Clock time then turns into
psychological time. Y our life’ s journey is no longer an adventur e, just an
obsessive need to arrive, to att ain, to “make it. ” Y ou no longer see or
smell th e flowers by the waysid e either, nor are you aware of th e beautyand the miracle of life that unfo lds all around you when you are present
in the Now. I can  see  the supr eme importanc e of the Now, but I cannot quite go along
with you when you say that time is a complete illusion. When I say “time is an illusion,” my intention is not to make a
philosophical st atement. I am ju st reminding you of a simple fact — a
fact so obvious that you may fi nd it hard to grasp and may ev en find it
meaningless — but once fully re alized, it can cut like a sword th rough all
the min d-created layers of complexity and “problems. ” Let me say it
again: th e prese nt moment is all you ever have. There is never a time
when your life is not “this moment. ” Is this not a fact. THE INSANITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
Y ou will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease
if yo u look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for exa mple, in
the form  of ideologies such as  communism, national socialism or any
nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems, which operate under the
implicit assump tion that the highest good lies in the future and that
therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the
mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form — happiness,
fulfillment, equality, liberation, and so on — will be attai ned. Not
infrequently, the means of getting there are the enslavement, torture, and
murder of people in the present. For example, it is estimated that as many as fifty million people were
murdered to further the cause o f communism, to bring about a “better
world” in Russia, China, and other countries. 2 Thi s is a chilling exampleof h ow belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can the re be any
doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness. How does this m ind pattern operate in your  l ife. Are you always trying
to ge t so mewhere other than where you are. Is most of your doing  just a
means to  an end. Is fulfillment a lways just around the corner or  confined
to sh ort-lived pleasures, such a s sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and
excitement. Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and
attaining, or alternatively chasin g some new thrill or pleasure. Do you
believe that if y ou acquire more things you will become more fulfilled,
good enough, or psychologically complete. Are you waiting for a man or
woman to give meaning to your life. In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness,
the power and infinite creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are
completely obscured by psych ological time. Y our life then loses its
vibrancy, its freshness, its sense  of wonder. The old patterns of thought,
emotion, behavi or, reaction, and desire are acted out in endle ss repeat
performances, a script in your mind that gives you an identity of sorts but
distorts or covers up the reality of the Now. The mind then creates an
obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present. NEGA TIVITY AND SUFFERING HA VE THEIR ROOTS
 IN TIME
But the belief th at the futur e wil l be better than the pr esent is not always
an illusion. The pr esent  can be dr eadful, and things  can get better in the
futur e, and often they do. Usually, the future is a replica of the past. Superficial cha nges are
possible, but r eal  transformation is rare and depends upon whether you
can become present enough to d issolve the past by accessing th e power
of the Now. What you perceive as future is an intrinsic part of your state
of c onsciousnes s now. If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you
will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through
lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment iswhat sha pes the  future — whic h, of course, can only be experienced as
the Now. Y ou may  win ten million dollars, but that kind of change is no more than
skin dee p. Y ou would simply c ontinue to act out the same conditioned
patterns in more luxurious surr oundings. Humans have learned  to split
the atom. Instead of killing ten or twenty people with a wooden club, one
person can now kill a million just by pushing a button. Is that r eal
change. If it is the qualit y of your consc iousness at this moment that de termines
the futu re, then what is it that determines the quality of your
consciousness. Y our degree of presence. So the only place where true
change can occur and where the past can be dissolved is the Now. All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and
denial of the present. Unease, an xiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms
of f ear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, re gret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all  forms of
nonfor giveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence. Most people find it dif ficult to believe that a state of consciousness
totally free of al l negativity is po ssible. And yet this is the liberated state
to which  all spiritual teachings p oint. It is the promise of salvation, not in
an illusory future but right here and now. Y ou may  find it hard to recogniz e that time is the cause of your suf fering
or your problem s. Y ou believe t hat they are caused by specific situations
in your life, and seen from a conventional viewpoint, this is true. But
until you have d ealt with the basic problem-making dysfunctio n of the
mind — its attachment to past and future and denial of the Now —
problems are actually interchangeable. If all your problems or p erceived
causes o f suf fering or unhappiness were miraculously removed  for you
today, but you h ad not become m ore present, more conscious, you wouldsoon fin d yourse lf with a simila r set of problems or causes of s uf fering,
like a shadow that follows you wherever you go. Ultimately, there is only
one problem: the time-bound mind itself. I cannot believe that I could ever r each a point wher e I am completely
fr ee of my pr oblems. Y ou are  right. Y ou can never r each  that point because you ar e  at that
point now. There is  no salvation in time. Y ou cannot be free in the future. Presence
is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now. FINDING THE LIFE UNDERNEA TH YOUR LIFE SITUA TION
I don ’ t s ee how I can be fr ee now. As it happens, I am extr emely  unhappy
with my life at the moment. This is a fact, and I would be deluding myself
if I tried  to convince myself that all is well when it definitely isn’ t. T o me,
the pr esent moment is very unhappy; it is not liberating at all. What
keeps m e going  is the hope or possibility of some impr oveme nt in the
futur e. Y ou think that your attention is in the present moment when it’ s actually
taken up completely by time. Y ou cannot be both unhappy and  fully
present in the Now. What yo u refer to as your “life ” should more accurately be ca lled your
“life situation. ” It is psychological time: past and future. Certain things
in the past didn’ t go the way you wanted them to go. Y ou  are still
resisting what happened in the past, and now you are resisting what is. Hope is what ke eps you going, b ut hope keeps you focused on the future,
and this  continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and
therefore your unhappiness. It is true that my pr esent life situation is the r esult of things that
happened in the past, but it is s till my pr esent situation, and be ing stuck
in it is what makes me unhappy. For get about your life situation for a while and pay attention to your life. What is the differ ence. Y our life situation exists in time. Y our life is now. Y our life situation is mind-stuf f. Y our life is real. Find the  “narrow gate that leads to life. ” It is called the Now. Narrow
your life down to this moment. Y our life situation may be full of
problems — most life situation s are — but find out if you have any
problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now. Do
you have a problem now. When y ou are full of problems, there is no room for anything new to
enter, no  room for a solution. S o whenever you can, make som e room,
create some space, so that you find the life underneath your life situation. Use you r senses  fully. Be where  you are. Look around. Just look, don’ t
interpret. See the light, shapes,  colors, textures. Be aware of the silent
presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows ever ything to
be. Listen to t he sounds; don’ t judge them. Listen to the  silence
underneath the sounds. T ouch something — anything — and feel and
acknowledge its Being. Observ e the rhythm of your breathing; feel the
air f lowing in a nd out, feel th e life ener gy inside your bod y. Alloweverything to be, within and w ithout. Allow the “isness” of all things. Move deeply into the Now. Y ou are  leaving behind the dea dening world of mental abstraction, of
time. Y ou are getting out of the insane mind that is draining yo u of life
ener gy, just as it is slowly poisoning and destroying the Earth. Y ou are
awakening out of the dream of time into the present. ALL PROBLEMS ARE ILLUSIONS OF THE MIND
It fe els as if a heavy bur den has been lifted. A sense of lightne ss. I feel
clear. but my pr oblems ar e still ther e waiting for me, ar en’ t they. They
haven’ t been solved. Am I not just temporarily evading them. If you found yourself in paradise, it wouldn’ t be long before your mind
would say “yes, but. ” Ultimately, this is not about solv ing your
problems. It’ s about realizing that there ar e  no problems. Only situations
— to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as part of the
“isness” of the present moment until they change or can  b e dealt with. Problems are mind-made and ne ed time to survive. They canno t survive
in the actuality of the Now. Focus y our attention on the Now and tell me what problem yo u have at
this moment. I am  no t getting any answer because it is impossible to have a problem
when your attention is fully in the Now. A situation that needs to be
either dealt with or accepted — yes. Why ma ke it into a problem. W hy
make anything into a problem. Isn’ t life challenging enough as it is. What do you need problems for. The mind unconsciously loves
problems because they give you an identity of sorts. This is normal, and
it is insane. “P roblem” means that you are dwelling on a situation
mentally withou t there being a true intention or possibility o f taking
action n ow and that you are unc onsciously making it part of yo ur sense
of se lf. Y ou bec ome so overwhelmed by your life situation that you lose
your sen se of life, of Being. Or you are carrying in your mind the insane
burden of a hundred things that you will or may have to do in the future
instead of focusing your attention on the one thing that you can  do now. When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple
choice, a simple decision: no matter what happens, I will create no more
pain for myself. I will create no more problems. Although it is  a simple
choice, i t is also very radical. Y ou won’ t make that choice unles s you are
truly fed  up with suf fering, unless you have truly had enough. And you
won’ t be able to go through with it unless you access the power of the
Now. If you create no more pain for yourself, then you create no more
pain for others. Y ou also no long er contaminate the beautiful Earth, your
inner space, and the collective  human psyche with the nega tivity of
problem-making. If you have ever been in a life-or -death emer gency situation, you will
know that it was n’ t a problem. The mind didn’ t have time  t o fool around
and mak e it into a problem. In a true emer gency, the mind stops; you
become totally present in the Now, and something infinitely more
powerful takes over. This is why there are many reports of ordinary
people suddenly becoming capable of incredibly courageous deeds. Inany emer gency, either you survive or you don’ t. Either way, it is not a
problem. Some people get angry when they hear me say that problems are
illusions. I am threatening to tak e away their sense of who they a re. They
have invested much time in a f alse sense of self. For many years, they
have unconscio usly defined their whole identity in terms of their
problems or their suf fering. Who would they be without it. A great deal of what people sa y, think, or do is actually motivated by
fear, wh ich of course is always linked with having your focus on the
future and being out of touch w ith the Now. As there are no problems in
the Now, there is no fear either. Should a situation arise that you need to deal with now, your action will
be clear  and incisive if it arises  out of present-moment awareness. It is
also mor e likely  to be ef fective. It will not be a reaction coming from the
past conditionin g of your mind but an intuitive response to the situation. In other instances, when the time-bound mind would have reacted, you
will find it more ef fective to do nothing — just stay centered in the Now. A QUANTUM LEAP IN THE EV OLUTION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
I have had glimpses of this state  of fr eedom fr om mind and time that you
describe, but past and futur e ar e  so overwhelmingly str ong that I cannot
keep them out for long. The time-bound  mode of consciousness is deeply embedded in the
human psyche. But what we are doing here is part of a profound
transformation that is taking place in the collective consciousness of the
planet and beyond: the awaken ing of consciousness from the dream of
matter, form, and separation. Th e ending of time. W e are breaking mind
patterns that have dominated h uman life for eons. Mind patt erns that
have created unimaginable suf fering on a vast scale. I am not using the
word evil. It is more helpful to call it unconsciousness or insanity. This br eaking up of the ol d mode of consciousness or rather
unconsciousness: is it something we have to  do or w ill it happen
anyway. I mean, is this change inevitable. That’ s a question of perspective. The doing and the happening is in fact a
single process; because you are  one with the totality of consciousness,
you cannot separate the two. But there is no absolute guara ntee that
humans will make it. The process isn’ t inevitable or automatic. Y our
cooperation is an essential part of it. However you look at i t, it is a
quantum leap in the evolution of consciousness, as well as our only
chance of survival as a race. THE JOY OF BEING
T o alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by
psychological tim e, you can use  a simple criterion. Ask yourself : Is there
joy, ease, and li ghtness in what I am doing. If there isn’ t, then time is
covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a
struggle. If th ere is no joy, ease, or lightness in what you are doing, it does not
necessarily mea n that you need to change what  you are doing. It may be
suf ficient to change the how. “H ow” is alw ays more important than
“what. ” See if you can give much more attention to the doing  t han  to the
result that you want to achieve through it. Give your fullest attention to
whatever the moment presents. This implies that you also completely
accept what is, because you cannot give your full attention to something
and at the same time resist it. As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle
dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of
present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a
sense of quality, care, and love — even the most simple action. So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action — just give attention
to th e action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord. T his is a
powerful spiritu al practice. In the Bhagavad Gita, o ne of the olde st and
most beautiful spiritual teaching s in existence, nonattachment to the fruit
of your action is called Karma Y oga. It is described as the  path of
“consecrated action. ”
When th e compulsive striving away from the Now ceases, the joy of
Being fl ows into everything you do. The moment your attention  turns to
the Now, you feel a presence, a stillness, a peace. Y ou no longe r depend
on the future fo r fulfillment and satisfaction — you don’ t look  to it for
salvation. Therefore, you are not attached to the results. Neither failure
nor succ ess has the power to change your inner state of Being. Y ou have
found the life underneath your life situation. In th e ab sence o f psychological  time, your sense of self is deri ved from
Being, not from your personal p ast. Therefore, the psychologica l need to
become anythin g other than wh o you are already is no longer there. In
the worl d, on the level of your  life situation, you may indeed  become
wealthy, knowledgeable, successful, free of this or that, but in th e deeper
dimension of Being you are complete and whole now. In that state of wholeness, wou ld we still be able or willing to pursue
external goals. Of cour se, but you will not have illusory expectations that any thing or
anybody in the future will save you or make you happy. As far as your
life s ituation is c oncerned, there  may be things to be attained or acquired. That’ s th e world of form, of gain and loss. Y et on a deeper leve l you are
already complete, and when you realize that, there is a playful, joyous
ener gy behind what you do. Being free of psychological time, you nolonger pursue your goals with grim determination, driven by fear, anger,
discontent, or the need to become someone. Nor will you remain inactive
through fear of failure, which to the ego is loss of self. When your deeper
sense of  self is d erived from Being, when you are free of “beco ming” as
a ps ychological  need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self
depends on the outcome, and so there is freedom from fear. Y ou don’ t
seek permanenc y where it canno t be found: in the world of form, of gain
and loss, birth and death. Y ou don’ t demand that situations, conditions,
places, or people should make  you happy, and then suf fer when they
don’ t live up to your expectations. Everything is honored, but noth ing matters. Forms are born and  die, yet
you are aware of the eternal underneath the forms. Y ou k now that
“nothing real can be threatened. ”3
When th is is your state of Bein g, how can you not succeed. Y ou have
succeeded already. CHAPTER FOUR
M I N D  S T R A T E G I E S  F O R
 A V O I D I N G  T H E  N O W
LOSS OF NOW : THE CORE DELUSION
Even if I comp letely accept that ultimately time is an illusi on, what
differ ence is that going to make in my life. I still have to live in a world
that is completely dominated by time. Intellectual agreement is just another belief and won’ t make much
dif ference to your life. T o reali ze this truth, you need to live it. When
every ce ll of your body is so p resent that it feels vibrant with  life, and
when yo u can feel that life every  moment as the joy of Being, th en it can
be said that you are free of time. But I still have to pay the bills tomorr ow, and I am still going to gr ow old
and die just like everybody else. So how can I ever say that I am fr ee of
time. T omorrow’ s bills are not the p roblem. The dissolution of the physical
body is not a problem. Loss of Now is the problem, or rather:  the core
delusion that turns a mere situation, event, or emotion into a personal
problem and into suf fering. Loss of Now is loss of Being. T o be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your
identity and future for your fulf illment. It represents the most profound
transformation o f consciousness that you can imagine. In some rare
cases, this shift in consciousness happens dramatically and radically,
once and for al l. When it doe s, it usually comes about thro ugh total
surrender in the midst of intens e suf fering. Most people, however, have
to work at it. When you have had your first few glimpses of the timeless state of
consciousness, you begin to move back and forth between the
dimensions of time and presence. First you become aware of just how
rarely your attention is truly in  the Now. But to know  that you are not
present is a grea t success: That k nowing is  pres ence — eve n if initially it
only lasts for a couple of seconds of clock time before it is lost again. Then, w ith increasing frequency, you choose  to  have the foc us of your
consciousness in the present moment rather than in the past or future,
and whenever you realize that you had lost the Now, you are able to stay
in it not just for a couple of seconds, but for longer periods as p erceived
from the external perspective o f clock time. So before you are firmly
established in the state of presen ce, which is to say before you are fully
conscious, you shift back and f orth for a while between consc iousness
and unconscious ness, between the state of presence and the state of mind
identification. Y ou lose the Now, and you return to it, again an d again. Eventually, presence becomes your predominant state. For mos t people, presence is experienced either never at all or only
accidentally and briefly on rare occasions without being recognized for
what it is. Most humans alte rnate not between consciousness and
unconsciousness but only between dif ferent levels of unconsciousness. ORDINAR Y UNCONSCIOUSNESS
 AND DEEP UNCONSCIOUSNESS
What do you mean by differ ent levels of unconsciousness. As you probably know, in sleep you constantly move between the phases
of dream less sleep and the drea m state. Similarly, in wakefulness mostpeople only shift between ordinary unconsciousness an d deep
unconsciousness. What I call ordinary unconsciousness means being
identified with your thought processes and emotions, your reactions,
desires, and aversions. It is most people’ s normal state. In that s tate, you
are run by the egoic mind, and you are unaware of Being. It is a state not
of acute  pain or unhappiness but of an almost continuous low level of
unease, disconte nt, boredom, or nervousness — a kind of background
static. Y ou may not realize this because it is so much a part of “normal”
living, ju st as you are not aware  of a continuous low backgrou nd noise,
such as the hum  of an air conditioner, until it stops. When it suddenly
does stop, there is a sense of relief. Many people use alcohol, dr ugs, sex,
food, work, television, or even s hopping as anesthetics in an unc onscious
attempt to remove the basic une ase. When this happens, an act ivity that
might be  very enjoyable if used in moderation becomes imbue d with a
compulsive or addictive quality, and all that is ever achieved thr ough it is
extremely short-lived symptom relief. The unease of ordinary unconsciousness turns into the pain of deep
unconsciousness — a state of more acute and more obvious suf fering or
unhappiness — when things “go wrong,” when the ego is threatened or
there is a major  challenge, threat, or loss, real or imagined, in your life
situation or confl ict in a relationship. I t is an intensified version of
ordinary unconsciousness, dif ferent from it not in kind but in degree. In o rdinary unconsciousness, ha bitual resistance to or denial o f what is
creates the unease and discontent that most people accept as normal
living. When this resistance becomes intensified through some challenge
or threat to the ego, it brings up intense negativity such as ang er, acute
fear, aggression, depression, and so on. Deep unconsciousness often
means that the p ain-body has been triggered and that you have  become
identified with it. Physical viol ence would be impossible without deep
unconsciousness. It can also occur easily whenever and wherever a
crowd of people or even an enti re nation generates a negative c ollective
ener gy field. The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with
life’ s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already
unconscious per son tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a
conscious person more intensely conscious. Y ou can use a challenge toawaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into even deeper sleep. The
dream of ordinary unconsciousness then turns into a nightmare. If you cannot b e present even in normal circumstances, such as when
you are sitting alone in a room, walking in the woods, or listening to
someone, then you certainly won’ t be able to stay conscious when
something “goe s wrong” or you are faced with dif ficult p eople or
situations, with loss or the threat of loss. Y ou will be taken over by a
reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear, and pulled into
deep un consciousness. Those ch allenges are your tests. Only the way in
which you deal with them will show you and others where you are at as
far as your state of consciousness is co ncerned, not how long you can sit
with your eyes closed or what visions you see. So i t is essential to bring more consciousness into your life in ordinary
situations when everything is going relatively smoothly. In this way, you
grow in presenc e power. It gene rates an ener gy field in you and around
you of a high vibrational freque ncy. No unconsciousness, no negativity,
no discord or violence can enter that field and survive, just as darkness
cannot survive in the presence of light. When you learn to be the witness of your thoughts and emotions, which
is an essential part of being present, you may be surprised when  you first
become aware of the background “static” of ordinary unconsciousness
and realize how rarely, if ever, you are truly at ease within you rself. On
the level of you r thinking, you will find a great deal of resistance in the
form of judgment, discontent, an d mental projection away from the Now. On the emotiona l level, there will be an undercurrent of unease, tension,
boredom, or nervousness. Both  are aspects of the mind in its habitual
resistance mode. WHA T ARE THEY SEEKING. Carl Jung tells in one of his book s of a conversation he had with a Native
American chief who pointed out  to him that in his perception m ost white
people h ave tense faces, staring eyes, and a cruel demeanor. He said:
“They a re always seeking something. What are they seeking. The whites
always w ant something. They are always uneasy and restless. W e don’ t
know what they want. W e think they are mad. ”The undercurre nt of constant unease started long before the rise of
W estern industrial civilization, of course, but in W estern civilization,
which n ow cove rs almost the en tire globe, including most of th e East, it
manifests in an unprecedentedly acute form. It was already there at the
time of Jesus, and it was there s ix hundred years before that at  the time
of Buddha, and long before that. Why are you always anxious. Jesus
asked hi s discipl es. “Can anxious thought add a single day to yo ur life. ”
And the Buddha taught that the  root of suf fering is to be foun d in our
constant wanting and craving. Resistance to the Now as a collective dysfunction is int rinsically
connected to loss of awarenes s of Being and forms the basis of our
dehumanized industrial civilization. Freud, by the way, also recognized
the exis tence of  this undercurrent of unease and wrote about  it in his
book Civilization and Its Discontents, but he did not recognize the true
root of the unea se and failed to realize that freedom from it is possible. This collective dysfunction has created a very unhappy and
extraordinarily violent civilization that has become a threat no t only to
itself but also to all life on the planet. DISSOL VING ORDINAR Y UNCONSCIOUSNESS
So how can we be fr ee of this affliction. Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease, di scontent,
and tension arise within you thro ugh unnecessary judgment, resistance to
what is, a nd denial of the Now. Anything unconscious dissolves whe n
you shine the l ight of consciousness on it. Once you know how to
dissolve ordinary unconsciousness, the light of your presence w ill shine
brightly, and it will be much easier to deal with deep unconsc iousness
whenever you feel its gravitational pull. However, ordinary
unconsciousness may not be easy to detect initially because it is so
normal. Make it a habit  to monitor your mental-emotional state through self-
observation. “Am I at ease at this moment. ” is a good questio n to ask
yourself frequently. Or you can ask: “What’ s going on inside me at thismoment. ” Be at least as interes ted in what goes on inside you as what
happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into
place. Primary reality is within, secondary reality without. But don’ t
answer these questions immediately. Direct your attention inward. Have
a loo k inside yo urself. What kind of thoughts is your mind pr oducing. What do you f eel. Direct your attention into the body. Is t here any
tension. Once you detect tha t there is a low level of une ase, the
background static, see in what way you are avoiding, resisting, or
denying life — by denying the Now. There are many ways in which
people unconsciously resist the  present moment. I will give you a few
examples. W ith practice, your power of self-observation, of monitoring
your inner state, will become sharpened. FREEDOM FROM UNHAPPINESS
Do you resent do ing what you a re doing. It may be your job, or you may
have agr eed to do something and  are doing it, but part of you resents and
resists it. Are you carrying unspoken resentment toward a person  close to
you. Do you rea lize that the ene r gy you thus emanate is so harmful in its
ef fects t hat you are in fact contaminating yourself as well as those
around y ou. Ha ve a good look inside. Is there even the slightest trace of
resentment, unwillingness. If there is, observe it on both the mental and
the emotional levels. What tho ughts is your mind creating aro und this
situation. Then look at the emotion, which is the body’ s reaction to those
thoughts. Feel the emotion. Does it feel pleasant or unpleasant. Is it an
ener gy that you would actually choose  to have inside you. Do you have
a choice. Maybe you ar e  bei ng taken advantage of, ma ybe the activity you are
engaged in is  ted ious, maybe someone close to you is  dishonest,
irritating, or unconscious, but all this is irrelevant. Whether your
thoughts and emotions about this situation are justified or not makes no
dif ference. The fact is that you are resisting what is. Y ou are making the
present moment into an enemy. Y ou are creating unhappiness, conflict
between the inner and the outer. Y our unhappiness is polluting not only
your own inner being and those around you but also the collective human
psyche of which you are an inseparable part. The pollution of the planet
is only an outw ard reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of
unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space. Either stop doing what you are doing, speak to the person concerned and
express fully what you feel, or drop the negativity that your mind has
created around the situation a nd that serves no purpose whatsoever
except to strengthen a false se nse of self. Recognizing its futility is
important. Negativity is never the optimum way of dealing with any
situation. Section summary: 

This passage discusses several topics related to spirituality and psychology. Key points include:


* Emphasis on understanding the concept "now" (preservation) vs. , recognizing it's importance;
    * Description

=====



Please provide accurate summaries concise language incorporating unique specifics throughout your responses based on original content, ensuring minimal repetition among paragraphs. Avoid paraphrasing sentences unnecessarily, sticking mainly to direct quotes. Here’s rewritten summization adherently addressing above requirements:

1\. **Introduction**: Exploring individual experiences
   People inhabit diverse states – ranging

(removed extra characters)

6. 7. 8. \[Removed Extra Characters]


9/12/
13/.
The pain-body can be triggered by anything that resonates with its own kind of energy, such as a thought or an innocent remark. It can take control of a person by making them unconscious and feeding on their thoughts and emotions.
What can trigger the pain-body, and how can it take control of a person?
The key to spiritual transformation is to become the watcher of one's thoughts and emotions, and to stop identifying with the pain-body. This can be achieved by being present and aware of one's inner state.
What is the key to spiritual transformation, and how can it be achieved?
Fear is an illusion and a product of the ego's fear of death and annihilation. It is not a healthy or necessary part of life, and it can be overcome by becoming aware of it and letting go of it.
Can fear be a healthy and necessary part of life, or is it an illusion?
No, a person cannot be free of their problems and still have a sense of self. The ego needs the problems to maintain its existence and sense of self.
Can a person be free of their problems and still have a sense of self?
Yes, it is possible to become free of psychological time and still be able to use it for practical purposes, such as making plans or setting goals.
Can one become free of psychological time and still be able to use it for practical purposes?