Discover the wisdom of one of the greatest living spiritual masters.
If there is one modern book that I consider magical, it is The Power Of Now.
Reading it will blow your mind.
Here I have selected the best points of Eckhart Tolle’s thought.
I have selected three concepts for you so disturbing that I am sure they will not leave you indifferent and will change your way of seeing reality.
Let’s dive in.
1. The pain-body
“The pain-body actually fears the light of your consciousness. It is afraid that you will discover it. Its survival depends on your continuing to unconsciously identify with it.” — Eckhart Tolle.
For Eckhart Tolle, every pain you experience in life leaves a residue of suffering in your system. And this suffering/residue is cumulative.
Therefore the pain of your past (childhood, youth, middle age) generates a heavy negative load that takes over your life through your body and mind. That is the pain body.
And this pain body has its activators, different for each individual.
For example, the other day, I crossed paths with a friend from my youth, and he changed sidewalks when he saw me and looked at me over his shoulder. That activated my pain body, and I spent the day bitterly ruminating negative thoughts about what had happened.
It alienated my day. And no one gives us back the lost days.
That’s why it’s crucial to control the pain body.
Application to your life:
For the pain body to become active, it needs you to 1) identify with it, and 2) incarnate in you in thought form and physical discomfort.
Therefore the solution is to spend more time in the now. To Be aware that your pain body has been activated and aware of what is happening to awaken and interrupts the negative thought pattern and discomfort.
Example: imagine that your pain body is activated by watching the news, and you become angry about your country’s socio-political and economic situation. When this happens, remind yourself where you are, start to be aware of your present, and recognize that your pain body, through an emotional trigger, stole your consciousness and went into a loop of complaint and discomfort.
The discomfort will diminish by discovering the ego’s trick and shedding light with your awareness.
The fear-ego relationship
“All fears can be summed up in the ego’s fear of death.” — Eckhart Tolle.
The author tells us here that, for example, when we lose our reason for wanting to impose our logic on others, our ego becomes afraid and attacks.
It is as if our anthropological instinct wants to show our tribe that it is valid for the team.
Bingo!
This explains why my brother always wants to come out on top in Christmas dinner discussions; it’s not because he has something against me; he wants our tribe (family and friends) to consider him valuable.
This also happens with the fear of failure: I fear being rejected or that my tribe will see how I am dismissed. So, again, the ego fears to die, socially speaking.
And emotionally? The same thing, my ego fears being discarded by my romantic partner.
It sounds super crazy, but it makes sense. Our brains have evolved, but we still have subconscious survival instincts that date back to the stone age when we lived in caves.
Application to your life:
So you know, the next time someone you love wants to win you an argument, don’t get angry. Remember that what happens is that the person’s ego wants to prove that they are valuable to the group.
Be nice to that person, and make them feel valued. And he will relax, and then you can show him your point of view without him having to feel threatened.
When someone gets upset, they identify with their ego, embody fears, and fight back. Reassure that person’s ego, and you can get them to listen to you.
I know it’s hard sometimes, but remember that when a loved one gets big-headed, they do it to prove to you THAT THEY DESERVE TO STILL BE IN YOUR TEAM.
And that’s nice too.
That’s why we seek status, wealth, power, and success: to be accepted and perceived as valuable by our tribe.
How to get out of the Matrix
“To be identified with the mind is to be trapped in time”— Eckhart Tolle.
Eckhart Tolle wants to teach us that the past and future dominate us.
Because on the one hand, the past is our identity, and the ego does not want to lose it.
And on the other, the future is something better to aspire to, a kind of toxic hope that prevents us from thoroughly enjoying the present.
Therefore, to get out of the Matrix, we must stop compulsively identifying ourselves with the past and obsessing with the future.
Application to your life:
The longing for the past and the future make you consume all kinds of things, either out of nostalgia or the desire to achieve something in the future.
That is the Matrix.
Free yourself from temporal control by focusing on the present.
To get out of the Matrix, you must stop living in a world of mirages of pasts and futures, faults and longings, memories and daydreams, and allow REALITY to have a space in your life.
Every time you say, “I don’t want to waste time,” what you mean (even if you don’t realize it) is that you don’t want to waste the now.
So stop obsessing about the past and the future; there is only pain. Focus on the power of your now, and everything will be fine.
A virtual hug
AG