Forgiveness is a term that has been in use for 2,000 years, but most people have a very limited view of what it means. You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!
Eckhart Tolle offers a simple language question-and-answer format guide to make the reader’s journey into The Power of Now- practical advice on mindfulness, such as observing thoughts without judgment and focusing on the “here and now.” It resonates with readers seeking non-dualistic spirituality and is recommended for its ability to transform one’s perspective on happiness and self-identity.
Originally published in 1997 and a New York Times Bestseller, it is among those rare books that help readers create experience and make new discoveries in consciousness. The book in its present form originated in response to questions asked by individuals in seminars, mediation classes, and private counseling. From the first to the last page, one finds the dialogues continuously alternating between two different levels.
The author draws readers’ attention to what is false in us. Such knowledge is vital, for unless you learn to recognise the false as false – as not you – there can be no lasting transformation, and you would always end up being drawn back into illusion and into some form of pain. The author shows how the false perpetuates itself. On another level, he speaks of a profound transformation of human consciousness – not as a distant future possibility, but available now. The reader is shown how to free oneself from enslavement to the mind, enter into this enlightened state of consciousness, and sustain it in everyday life.
The mind always wants to categorise and compare, but this book will work better for you if you do not attempt to compare its terminology with that of other teachings. The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.
From the Book
“You cannot truly forgive yourself or others as long as you derive your sense of self from the past. Only through accessing the power of the Now, which is your own power, can there be true forgiveness. This renders the past powerless, and you realize deeply that nothing you ever did, or that was ever done to you, could touch, even in the slightest, the radiant essence of who you are. The whole concept of forgiveness then becomes unnecessary.”
“Since every person carries the seed of enlightenment within, I often address myself to the knower in you who dwells behind the thinker, the deeper self that immediately recognizes spiritual truth, resonates with it, and gains strength from it.”
“I use words such as “mind”, “happiness”, and “consciousness” in ways that do not necessarily correlate with other teachings. Don’t get attached to any words. They are only stepping stones, to be left behind as quickly as possible.”
“…in essence there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching, although it comes in many forms. Some of these forms, such as the ancient religions, have become so overlaid with extraneous matter that their spiritual essence has become almost completely obscured by it.”
“I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.”
“The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some super-human accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.”
“It is as it is. Observe how the mind labels it and how this labeling process, this continuous sitting in judgment, creates pain and unhappiness.”
“End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable. Remove time from the mind, and it stops – unless you choose to use it.”
“What you think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind of a former Now. When you remember the past, you reactivate a memory trace – and you do so now. The future is an imagined Now, a projection of the mind.”
