You must have come across ‘mad’ people who mutter/talk to themselves on the street. That could apply to many of us ‘normal’ people too except that we do not do it aloud. Heard a voice in your mind that keeps talking? Not just talking but also complaining. This voice comments, judges, speculates, likes, dislikes, goads, criticizes, worries and so on. Often this voice does nothing but revive the past or rehearse the future, causing either remorse, or unnecessary anxiety.
So stop this voice. Read The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle. A book that will help you realize the power to stop a clamor of voices in your head that make you miserable and instead focus your life energies into more worthwhile activities, without intending to lull you into a state of trance, or making you divert to a path of renunciation. It simply helps you live your present world more at peace, making you conscious of what one must mentally avoid going over again and again, a habit worth immediate discarding.
“Thinking has become a disease”
“Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realize this because everybody is suffering from it.”
“The compulsive thinkers live in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict”
“ 80 –90% of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Power of Now is a meticulous deconstruction of everything that inhibits our ability to see beyond the confines of our own negative thoughts of the past or future, and provokes a shift towards appreciating the beauty of life in its present moment.
On a personal note
Though I did start it with skepticism, by the time I reached somewhere at page 68 of this book I was hooked, as I found so much that applies to me. Most people I know are given to challenging the content of such books and try to prove them wrong. However, it simply depends on how much you allow yourself to submit to the author and his words. All that the author says may or may not apply to you, but an open accepting mind definitely leads one to take away much more from such a book.
As every such book, it would affect individuals by varying degrees. Though I can’t say that it has made sweeping changes in my life, but yes, it certainly does help chanellize thoughts away from the useless to the more productive, teaching you to check keep a tab on your thoughts, and as a consequence on your words and deeds. The book certainly has helped me in the following ways:-
1) For me, The Power of Now has been of immense help to mend and rectify a hitherto volatile personal relationship. It is seemingly too easy to break a relation (but only on the face of it), the real test is to see it through for the rest of your life. “If relationships energize and magnify egoic mind patterns, why not accept the fact rather than try to escape from it. Why not co-operate with it instead of continuing to pursue the phantom of an ideal partner.”
2) If you are one who gets worked up about the silliest of arguments, please read The Power of Now. Everyone who argues to simply hold on to his point of view, mostly has an exaggerated sense of self. That does not mean not to have views of your own, but one does realize the utter futility of argument and also how trivial is the need to prove yourself right and the other wrong. The forceful, compulsive, deeply unconscious need to be right is but another form of violence.
3) The book enhanced my firm belief on the unhealthiness of harboring negative, pessimistic thoughts or being amidst negative people. Who doesn’t like to be in the company of sparkling people with a positive outlook. So become one to begin with. The energy of a positive, radiant person is infectious, sublime and I love to bask under it.
4) Abandon any psychological attachment to the past and future, realizing that past and future are “mind-identified conditions” and living in them is “a form of insanity”.
=============================================
Incorprating various teachings from Advaita, Tibetan Buddhism, various schools of Zen, some of Jesus’ teachings and others from the spiritual landscape of this millennia, Tolle’s presentation is impressive and refreshing, more importantly does nowhere go into the preaching mode. The essential point, expressed over and over again in the book, is to always, no matter what the circumstance, return to the Now, return to being, where there never has been and never could be any problem whatsoever.
Tolle discusses a wide-ranging diverse spiritual topics as freedom from thoughts and emotions, relationships, death and dying, the human ego, our physical body, and sexual relationships. And through it all, The Power of Now provides access to the unmanifested dimension of life, freeing us from anything and everything that would interfere.
Eckhart Tolle’s words shine with a rare honesty displaying a wealth of experiences and clarity of thought. It is not one of those dubious books that cursorily delve into quick-fix spirituality to earn a fast buck.
This is a genuinely spiritual book and not one that tries hard to, can be easily applied and assimilated in daily life, one of the most refreshingly honest books in its genre and sparkles with authenticity. I cannot recommend it lesser to anyone.
--------------------------------------------------------------