Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now exploded into the global consciousness in large part due to the fact that most people were not living in the present moment, and were finding the results untenable.  The actuality for many people is a life being lived for them where their actions are really more on the line of reactions.  And that is no way to live…

Most of us have heard the Socrates quotation “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well we have learned the hard way that neither is the Over-Examined life too hot either.  Living a balanced life however, is the best way of all.  Going about seeking balance has it’s own challenges that can only be overcome with Clarity of Mind.  In my experience, the best way to attain this is be associating with individuals and groups of people that have this in spades.  It isn’t even necessary for them to be people in the same fields of study and/or endeavor.  Neither do they need to be in agreement when their fields overlap, or even to agree with your own beliefs and perspectives.

If you take a look at the bottom of the sidebar of this page you will find the RSS feed to the TED YouTube channel.  TED is a group of 1,000 people that are invited each year to a summit where they speak on their own arenas of interest.  The best minds of the world from Tony Robbins to Stephen Hawking and from Rick Warren to Dan Dennett each speaker is an able speaker with an amazing mind.

If you want to stretch your mind and achieve clarity, you can do no better than to listen to these speakers.  Each segment is about 20 minutes long, and whether you agree or strongly oppose what is being said, I guarantee you will be benefited by the time you spend listening to these well thought out presentations.

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Throughout my life I would have described myself as a spiritual person.  A voracious reader, and particualrly about anything to do with the human condition, I was also given to a great deal of introspection.  And yet…

The kind of serenity described by Paul at Philippians 4:7 as “the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds” eluded me.

Like many people I took seriously the scriptural admonitions to constantly examine myself, and the secular ones as well: “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

And still the “peace of God” was nowhere to be found.

Time passed, and while my own studies continued and I learned much it wasn’t until I read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle that I came to understand that the manner that I carried out that self examination had a good deal to do with my lack of peace and serenity.  The constant replaying of events to see if I was overlooking some flaw in myself or if I was unfair to someone else was in and of itself a dysfunction that was actively stealing the very state I was seeking.

I read this book far before Mr. Tolle’s webclass with Oprah Winfrey, and am so glad I did.  This allowed me to absorb the words, tenets and principals for myself without the filter of the bruehaha that erupted when these were broadcast to such a huge audience.  And frankly I didn’t find the naysayers very convincing.

Frankly it was a bit entertaining to hear the followers of the man who asked that they disown themselves and follow him loudly decrying Eckhart Tolle’s admonition to abandon the ego.  And of course, that wasn’t what he was doing at all.  He was saying that the ego was out of balance, and that this preuoccupation with and identification with the ego’s stances, positions and ensuing drama was unhealthy and harmful.

People that have read my work before are familiar with my statement that “The longer I live the more often the answer to my questions is Balance!” So I was quite ready to accept the idea that an out of balance ego was sure to be a source of trouble.  Just as it would be detrimental for someone to abdicate all thought of self as without a balanced amount we would lack food, sleep and shelter.  So I came to understand Tolle’s words to advocate a release of the out of balance ego that centers so much of it’s identity with life’s content as opposed to our true identities comprised of our consciousness.

Once I embraced these concepts, I almost immediately began to experience the promised peace and serenity.  Not the absence of emotion predicted by Tolle’s detractors but a feeling of satisfaction from letting go of all the folderol that had kept me out of the present moment.  To put it in a way we have all heard, but few actually experienced: “Grass was greener, the sky bluer and food tasted better.” Of course, the actuality was that my consciousness was actually finally free to experience colors, sounds, tastes and textures more fully than I had experienced since I was 8 years old…

The peace that passes all understanding is actually freedom from the tyranny of that unbalanced ego.  It is freedom from the constant inner dialog as we rehash how wer were wronged, or even perhaps how we had wronged someone else.  It makes it possible to release grudges and forgive what we may have previously thought to be unforgiveable.

Most importantly, that peaceful serene tranquility gives all that reach for it a whole new life…

Thanks for reading, and please leave your thoughts below.

Jim Patterson

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I was talking with a long term client the other day, and was discussing his desire to lose twenty pounds.  When I asked what his weight currently was his response floored me!

“Oh, I won’t get on a scale so I really don’t know!”

This raised a whole new arena of questions due to the conflicts inherent to the specific situation.  Having a specific goal to lose twenty pounds while refusing to acknowledge ones current weight is self defeating from the word go, but that is not even the part that was most important to address.

A large part of what I try to help people to achieve is centered around Awareness.  Awareness of and presence in The Now.  Living a life of presence in this moment, not looking forward or backward.  Eschewing all of the folderol that accrues when we live our lives to be happy/content/relaxed “As Soon As…”

To do this in any full sense means also being aware of what the current moment is.  And being aware of it means also accepting what is.  To it’s fullest extent this includes being at peace with what is.  That may seem a bit much to expect to many people with serious challenges in their life, but it is achievable for all…

My client wanted to change his situation without really knowing what his situation was.  Anybody see a problem here?  If you cannot accept your situation (what is) then you have no real hope of changing it.   In actuality, willful ignorance of a situation he didn’t like was keeping him from not just changing the situation but also from real peace and joy right now!

How so?  Well let’s consider what happened next!

I trotted out my faithful bathroom scale and literally forced him onto it.  The result?  He weighed more than he hoped but less than he feared.  He was also only 18 pounds from his goal wieght.  Having become aware of his actual current weight, he was able to stop the inner stammering dialog that happened every time someone inquired about his weight, whether that was his wife, a friend or even just himself…

So one less thing had the ability to take him out of the present moment and toss him back out of Awareness of The Now!

The importance of this can not be overstated.  Every time we overcome one of these issues and take away that ability we gain greater understanding and skills that will allow us to maintain a life of Awareness and  Connection with the Dynamic Energy of the Universe and it’s Creator.

Awareness then leads to Acceptance as we acknowledge the reality of a situation.  This is key to our accomplishing any desired change in that situation we may want.  But how do we come to be at peace with a situation that we are at core unhappy about.

All situations fall under one of three categories.

1. Situations that we have no control over.
2. Situations that we have  control over.
3. Situations that are a mixture of things we cannot control, and those we can.

When faced with something that falls in category one, we can legitimately give ourselves a pass.  Accepting that the situation was not of our making doesn’t always mean there is nothing we can do to change things.  So if we allow for things that we had no control over, but take what action is available now we have the perfect basis to be at peace with what is…

Categories 2 and 3 are closely related, because if we had any culpability at all in the actuality of What Is, many people just can’t seem to let themselves off the hook!  This is a forgiveness issue, and will also usually be affecting people’s ability to offer forgiveness to others.  This will further hinder the achievement of joy and peaceful living in Awareness of The Now.

Let’s face it, most things fall into these two categories as we can almost always affect a situation by our actions.  With whatever we are faced with that we are not pleased with, we either did not take action, or our actions were not effective.

The first step to overcoming negative feelings about this aspect of What Is consists of meditating on that old NLP affirmation:  Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources available to them.

This includes each and every one of us.   I challenge anyone to really meditate on this and not come away being more at peace with What Is; In The Now.

Whatever we have or have not done that added to our current predicament occurred while we were faced with other complex situations.  By no act of will can we separate out the influences of those past moments in time.  To even go back and try is to take ourselves our of the present moment. Acknowledge this, and you are most of the way to a peaceful acceptance of your own culpability and present situation.

Am I saying that retrospection is always a bad thing?  That we should never try to learn from our past mistakes and errors of omission?  Absolutely not, but I am saying that to do so in even a slightly obsessive way is not only counterproductive but dangerous, and toxic to our Awareness and Presence in The Now.

Be Aware of all aspects of your situation without denial or obfuscation.  Accept whatever your own role is in any aspect that is not to your liking, and forgive yourself.  Acknowledge that you were “Doing the best you could with the resources available to you.”

This will allow you to accept what is openly and take appropriate action while still enjoying a peaceful existence in the present moment at all times.

Please share your thoughts on this post below!

Jim

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Not long ago a new Awareness Coaching client was having a great deal of difficulty disconnecting with what Eckhart Tolle refers to as the Pain Body.  It defied her sense of logic that she could change the circumstances of her life starting with her state of mind and awareness.  She unconsciously held the belief that what happened to her on a daily basis was responsible for her “negative” mindset.

Many people struggle with this, even while trying to embrace that very path.  Getting past it means coming to grips with a fundamental misunderstanding of Cause and Effect reasoning.

This is no small thing!

Cause and Effect reasoning is a fundamental principle without which we simply cannot understand and function in the world we live in.  And yet the the laws of Cause and  Effect work exactly the opposite way that most people believe.

How could such a basic bit of reasoning become so confused?

First let’s explore how most people understand this to work in their personal lives at a very basic level.  The perception is that if if a person has a bad day ( the understood cause) then  they will experience sadness, depression or other “negative” emotions (the understood effect).  In the world today, this bit of “logic” is so pervasive that if we could wipe it out with a wave of the hand it would eliminate the need for over 75% of the AntiDepressant medications being taken daily!

The problem is getting people to understand that their perception of Cause and Effect reasoning is reversed in this case.  Most of you reading this are also holding this belief even while you read this and say to yourself:  “I know!  Our mental state is the cause, and the “Bad Day” is the effect!”

But do you really “know” this to be true?  Can you explain it in terms other than: If I maintain a “Positive” mental attitude then “good” things will happen for me.

To really root out this misunderstanding, you have to be able to grasp the basic fact that thought, whether of a positive or a negative nature is always the root cause of any effect we encounter.  This may be  an  immutable law.  I say may be since I can only speak from my own experience.  If anyone can submit an instance otherwise, then I will amend my statement. For our purposed though, understand this to mean that at root, thought (which includes emotion) is the cause of all things.

You are reading this article right now on a computer.  The computer is an effect.  Before it was built, someone had to think about the schematics in the design.  Even before that someone had thoughts before they developed the design.  Nobody could reasonably conclude that the computer sitting before you was the cause of the thought process that designed it, but that is exactly what it means when someone says that they are sad, depressed or angry because of  having a bad day.

Thoughts and feelings are the architects of our lives.  The choice that we have is whether we will take ownership of our own role in this or ride the waves of the thoughts and feelings of others and the resulting reactions from ourselves.  Remember, most people are tied into thoughts and emotions that are the random product of events.  Your life is far too important for you to trust it’s causes to something so unreliable.

This does not mean that nothing of a negative nature will ever happen within our lives.  Understanding and applying the basic principle of Cause and Effect will however allow us to experience an appropriate level of sadness, or even anger in response to an event and then to move on.  This allows you to experience these feelings in a way that is not really negative, but as the part of a rich emotional life that they were designed to be.

My mother passed from this life three years ago next month after an illness lasting over twelve years.   The sadness I felt at her passing was deep, and carried with it all of the wonderful things that our relationship entailed.  The memory of that sadness is now a cherished part of the whole memory that I carry with me at all times of my mother and all that she means to me.

I would no more want to  have missed experiencing that sadness than I would want to be consumed by it ongoing.  The mourning I went through three years ago was therefore not something that could (or should) become a Cause and Effect trigger for ongoing “bad” events.  Being aware of this at a basic level even while experiencing this type of deep sadness allows you to welcome the richness of it in a way that changes it from a negative to something of value to you in a way that nothing else can.

Some would say to this that they were just too close to a departed family member to be able to attain this type of experience from mourning their loss.  That is the ego saying “My pain is bigger than yours!” It is fighting for the life of your pain body, and for it’s place in Cause and Effect.

As always, Awareness is key…

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With so much information available now on both the Law of Attraction, and Eckhart Tolle’s insights that began with “The Power of Now” and continued in “A New Earth” it is no surprise that seeming contradictions and misunderstandings have arisen.

Many that have found their own spiritual awakening by seeking to live in the present moment feel that the concept of manifesting their desires is a denial of the present moment and therefore not harmonious to a life firmly planted in The Now.  Likewise, LOA devotees frequently state that  living in that same now doesn’t allow for their own desires to be manifested…

Is this really an either or proposition?

It needn’t be…

Eckhart Tolle referred to the manifestation process as “a fine thing to do” in his book “A New Earth: Awakening To Life’s Purpose”.  And Dr Wayne Dyer has frequently made statements to the effect that the movie “The Secret” gave a slightly skewed view of  the LOA and how it works.  This is why he was not involved in the project, although he was asked to be very early on.

Resolving these types of issues, as well as just plain exploring the principles found in both the LOA and Mr. Tolle’s work is what this blog is about, with plenty of room to delve a bit into Lao-Tzu. I may even stretch back a bit to someone like Leo Buscaglia and see if he works within today’s ideas…

Of course, everyone’s spiritual journey is their own and must be traveled at the speed of their own understanding and path.  Hopefully you will find these posts as thought provoking to read as I do writing them.  Feel free to dive in and post a comment challenging or questioning my assertions, and I will do my best to respond.

Having neither all of the answers, nor even most of the questions, all I can promise is an interesting exchange of ideas that could be useful on your own spiritual journey to enlightenment…

Jim

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