22 jul Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m gonna do it again; “The Power of Now truly is an inspiring book”. Believe it or not but it transformed my way of thinking and for those who are able to read in English, and would like an English copy for free, read and like this blog!

Let me take you on a short inspirational journey. “Our earthly self is born in time and lives in time”, one of Eckhart’s statements. Life is now, and a lot of people seem to forget about that. A lot of people seem to forget that it’s actually just that simple. Being unaware of the fact that ‘the Now’ is the most precious thing there is, makes it difficult to be the ever-alert guardian of your inner peace.

There is a lot of power hidden in your presence but the mind constantly wants to ensure that it remains in control. The mind continuously seeks to cover up the present moment with past and future.

The problem of humanity is deeply rooted in the mind itself

Eckhart constantly refers to the ego. “Identification with the mind creates a false self, the ego”, one of the sentences he wrote down in his book. Not entirely sure if this will ring any bells but to be identified with the mind, with the voice inside your head, is to be trapped in time. The majority of us has the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation and are pre-occupied with past and future, without allowing the present moment to be.

I bet some bells will start ringing when I mention ‘the voice inside your mind that comments, speculates, judges, compares, complains, likes, dislikes, and so on’. We all are familiar with ‘the voice’. But basically that voice isn’t necessarily relevant to the situation you find yourself in. All it does is reviving the recent or distant past or rehearsing or imagining the possible future.  

The ego is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it – who are you?

Wouldn’t it be amazing to just second guess things? Like for example, the mindchatter-statements. Wouldn’t it be amazing to learn to disidentify from your mind, which actually means that you just no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously. I recommend it, because your sense of self does not depend on it. So why bother?

Through self-observation, more presence automatically comes into your life. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not needed. Step out of the time dimension as much as possible in everyday life.

Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.

Bron: The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle