...
Show More
I've been aware of Tolle for a few years - but had never really had the time or motivation to read his somewhat hefty books on the 'Power of Now'.
This condensed edition is much more accessible. Important because I'd say that to get maximum benefit you really need to read its content many times - to internalise it and 'brainwash' yourself.
It's message is to me fascinating. It's general ideas resonate with Eastern philosophies (and actually the Mexican Yacqui shaman ideas) but it is not couched in mysterious or religious terms. It's much more straightforward.
My interpretation is that the book highlights a negative side effect of human brain evolution (or as Tolle puts it '3000 years of social conditioning').
Which is our assumption - perhaps addiction - that our identity, who we are, is that voice in our head. Our attention. Our Ego. And everything else is 'separate', even our own bodies.
While for most of us, most of the time this can be a source of familiarity, comfort and an ability to plan, learn, and 'succeed', it is also the SAME source of pain, anxiety, depression - The Human Condition - even suicide.
Tolle teaches that we CAN move out of this unconscious state of 'being our thoughts' and achieve a purer state of being TRULY alive and all that comes with it.
Unlike the Ego which lives exclusively in the past, future, or alternative realities (daydreaming) we should live purely in The Now.
Tolle suggests we achieve this by treating our Ego - our inner voice - as an Object like any other. It is not us. It's just an object with no meaning. In fact it's like a needy selfish child and we should acknowledge its presence but ignore it's wheedling and it's judgements.
Instead the real us - 'The Watcher' - should focus on observing and experiencing without judgement.
Watching and experiencing our bodies and their subtle physical sensations (emotions, and a low thrum of aliveness which most of us fail to even notice).
Watching and experiencing the world. Watching and experiencing our actions. Being conscious of such things but not 'thinking about' or judging them.
Tolle acknowledges that this is hard work - getting the best things in life usually are - because we live in our comfort zone fearing change. Even if that zone includes feelings of fear, anxiety and self - judgement.
This condensed edition is much more accessible. Important because I'd say that to get maximum benefit you really need to read its content many times - to internalise it and 'brainwash' yourself.
It's message is to me fascinating. It's general ideas resonate with Eastern philosophies (and actually the Mexican Yacqui shaman ideas) but it is not couched in mysterious or religious terms. It's much more straightforward.
My interpretation is that the book highlights a negative side effect of human brain evolution (or as Tolle puts it '3000 years of social conditioning').
Which is our assumption - perhaps addiction - that our identity, who we are, is that voice in our head. Our attention. Our Ego. And everything else is 'separate', even our own bodies.
While for most of us, most of the time this can be a source of familiarity, comfort and an ability to plan, learn, and 'succeed', it is also the SAME source of pain, anxiety, depression - The Human Condition - even suicide.
Tolle teaches that we CAN move out of this unconscious state of 'being our thoughts' and achieve a purer state of being TRULY alive and all that comes with it.
Unlike the Ego which lives exclusively in the past, future, or alternative realities (daydreaming) we should live purely in The Now.
Tolle suggests we achieve this by treating our Ego - our inner voice - as an Object like any other. It is not us. It's just an object with no meaning. In fact it's like a needy selfish child and we should acknowledge its presence but ignore it's wheedling and it's judgements.
Instead the real us - 'The Watcher' - should focus on observing and experiencing without judgement.
Watching and experiencing our bodies and their subtle physical sensations (emotions, and a low thrum of aliveness which most of us fail to even notice).
Watching and experiencing the world. Watching and experiencing our actions. Being conscious of such things but not 'thinking about' or judging them.
Tolle acknowledges that this is hard work - getting the best things in life usually are - because we live in our comfort zone fearing change. Even if that zone includes feelings of fear, anxiety and self - judgement.
