There is no tomorrow
"The more you focus on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is..."
Only this moment exists.
This moment now is the future you were waiting for in the past. Let that sink in.
If now doesn’t suffice, no future moment will.
And if you continue living like this, you’ll never be happy.
You’ll never find fulfilment. You’ll never find peace.
What, then, is the point of life if you haven’t peace or fulfilment?
What profits a man if he gains the whole world but his soul is filled with anxiety and malice?
Yet, most people spend their lives missing the present moment under the pretence that the future will be better.
They knowingly abandon this moment for a tomorrow that never arrives, only to realize, when death stands at the foot of their bed, that the peace and fulfilment they were seeking was always right before them—it was never in the future but in the now…
So a few weeks ago, I read Eckhart Tolle’s ‘Power of Now’ for episode 015. I was pleasantly surprised.
The ‘Power of Now’ reminded me of Brother Lawrence’s ‘Practice of the Presence of God’. And what a book that was.
At first, I was skeptical of Tolle… only because in a previous life I had judged Tolle’s work based on someone’s criticism of him.
So I never read him… until recently.
When I read Tolle, I found wisdom… he reminds us of the importance of cultivating stillness, learning to live in the present moment, not depending on the praises of others, and confronting and transmuting your suffering through acceptance.
If you too were like me and judged the man before reading him, I recommend reading ‘The Power of Now’.
10 Lessons from Tolle
“Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within, and it is available to you now.”
“If you cannot be 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 "goes wrong" or you are faced with difficult people or situations, with loss or the threat of loss. You will be taken over by a reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear, and pulled into deep unconsciousness. Those challenges are your tests.”
“Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever substance you are addicted to—alcohol, food, drugs, a person—you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain.”
“All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfilment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I am mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachments, and aversions, and apart from them there is no “I” except as a mere possibility, an unfulfilled potential, a seed that has not yet sprouted…”
“The more you focus 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 all there is. The eternal present is the space within which your whole life unfolds.”
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”
“Even the great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came at a time of mental quietude.”
“Not being able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal.”
“A pain-body may be dormant ninety per cent of the time; in a deeply unhappy person, though, it may be active up to one hundred per cent of the time. Some people live entirely through their pain-body, while others may experience it only in certain situations, such as intimate relationships, or situations linked with past loss or abandonment, physical or emotional hurt.”
“You may win ten million dollars but that kind of change is no more than skin deep. You would simply continue to act out the same conditioned patterns in more luxurious surroundings. 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 real change?”
There is much insight here from Tolle. I also had come across my inbox today another Substack also dealing with the "Present": https://www.newhighchurch.com/p/the-uncertain-present
It clarified for me why our society, in emphasizing "living in the moment", is still highly anxious about the present. The connection to the future presented in "The Uncertain Present" and how it impacts our ability to "live in the moment" in peace and harmony rather than anxiety was striking to me. I see these insights as complementary to Tolle's observations and furthering, in a good way, his search for "mental quietude".