The Power of Now
A friend introduced me to the book “The Power of Now”, by Eckhart Tolle. Here we have a book about living in the now, in the moment. About developing one’s “presence”. If I had to summarize the whole book in one line, it would be this: almost everyone lives their lives in an unconscious trance, with rare moments of lucidity; wake up from that trance!
Honestly, a lot of the book is very kooky and new-agey, too much so for my tastes. But it’s more than redeemed by the many incredibly useful concepts and practices it introduces.
My favorite concept introduced in “The Power of Now” is the concept of the “pain-body”.
The pain-body concept is a model of reality which says that we’re inhabited by a parasitic entity- the pain body- which periodically manifests itself. When the pain-body manifests itself, it does so as negative emotions, and it seeks to feed itself, seeking out more negative emotions. Almost everybody IDENTIFIES themself with their pain-body when this happens: they believe that they ARE their pain-body. Thus the pain-body effectively gains control, and the person begins sabotaging their own endeavors to feed the pain-body.
Eckhart Tolle’s solution to the pain-body is very simple. It involves no complicated exorcism techniques or anything like that. Merely become aware when the pain-body manifests, and remind yourself, “I’m not my feelings”. This disassociation shines an amazing new light on the negative feelings, and suddenly you realize you CHOOSE how you feel, and the pain-body is routed.
Of course, the “pain-body” doesn’t literally exist. The point is, it’s a very useful model of reality, just like Newtonian physics aren’t literally true but are good enough to get us to the moon.
I read “The Power of Now” because it was recommended to me simultaneously by a number of great friends and teachers. Despite the crazy hippy material, I’m really grateful I read Tolle’s book.
Buy The Power of Now. Do it now!
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For your utmost enjoyment, read these other great posts:
Book Review: Frogs into Princes
Point Focusing
Philosophy in The Silmarillion