Book title: The Power of Now
Translator: Cao Zhi
Publisher: CITIC Press
Statistics show that huge Work pressure leads to more than 600,000 deaths from overwork in our country every year. More and more urban white-collar workers suffer from sub-health. We are anxious and anxious, working overtime desperately to make money, saving money to buy a house and a car, but wages are still not rising as fast as The speed at which house prices rise.
Are you happy? We cannot give a definite answer to this question. Under pressure, we are very anxious. We may be happy the moment we hear about the salary increase, but then the burden of work makes us unbearable and falls into pain. Happiness is always accompanied by pain, and happiness is always accompanied by unhappiness. Sometimes we feel that our entire body has been hollowed out, but we do not have enough power to eliminate the impact of pain on us.
The author of this book, Eckhart Tolle, has been living with anxiety in the past, and sometimes he was so depressed that he wanted to end his life. His life was full of pain. At the age of 29, he couldn't bear it any more, so he had to give up fighting the pain and let himself fall into it. What he never expected was that after giving up the fight against pain, his long-standing depression and despair miraculously disappeared, and he gained the power of inner peace and happiness. He realized that pain comes from within us and that what we have to do is accept the pain. Later, he became a world-class spiritual teacher and wrote his experiences into books. "The Power of Now" I am going to explain to you today is one of them. Miraculously, this book seems to have its own energy. Many readers said that after reading this book carefully, their lives became happier.
Okay, let's take a look at the specific content of this book. , feel the energy of this book. Let's first explore the causes of pain with the author and understand why pain always lingers in our lives. Then, we prescribe the right medicine to find a way out of the pain and change our inner state. Finally, I will lead you to gain the power of the moment and feel the happiness of every moment.
Let’s first look at the causes of pain. Why do we always feel pain? Here I want to talk about three reasons.
The French thinker Pascal has a famous saying: "Man is a reed with thoughts." Although our lives are as fragile as reeds, we are still nobler than other creatures. Much more because we have souls that can think. Thinking is one of our characteristics. We have loved thinking about questions and asking a hundred thousand whys since we were children. It is the process of asking and thinking that enriches our knowledge and allows us to grow. The brain likes to throw out one question after another. This behavior is similar to an instinct, just like cell division. It is born and is beyond our control.
It sounds quite ironic. Our brains are obviously grown in our heads, but our thinking is not under our control. When we watch TV, if we press the pause button, the TV will stop playing. At this time, the initiative is in our hands. But if we are asked to press a button to pause thinking, we cannot do it. After all, the process of thinking about how to stop thinking is also a kind of thinking. The button to pause or continue thinking is never in our hands.
On the contrary, thinking always controls our behavior. We think we have brains because we come up with many innovative ideas. But in fact, more often than not, our thinking is constantly producing harmful information, and we are willing to accept these negative information and let it affect us.
Why do you say this? If you write down what you think about every day, you will find that most of what you think about is repeated. I have to work overtime with so much work today. When can I Promotion, salary increase, these negative thoughts linger in your mind every day. Your brain is only so big. If you have too many negative thoughts, you won’t be able to hold other things. Your mind seems to have become a vegetable market, where a bunch of thoughts are noisy and you have no way to calm down. And you have to block this noise every day in order to work with peace of mind. For example, tell yourself, I can't be so depressed, I still have to Well done, this uses up a lot of energy.
The author points out that thinking includes not only thinking, but also your emotions and reactions to emotions. If you complain that you have to work overtime again today, the emotion of complaining will affect your body unconsciously. Also, you feel that your boss is too unfair for not giving you a promotion and salary increase despite working so hard. Aggressive thoughts like this will gather angry energy in your body. Before you know it, you become furious and want to argue with your boss and say, I quit. But you can't really lose your job. You endure it in pain. Like this, you are controlled by your thoughts and immersed in pain.
We resist the existing situation, and our inability to accept it creates pain. We continue to create pain in the present moment. Maybe you don’t realize it, but you are resisting the present moment and causing pain.
I want to talk about a word here, called ego. What is the ego? It is another version of ourselves that we outline in the process of thinking. It is a manager created out of thin air by our minds to control our behavior.
Because the ego does not actually exist, it is afraid of being exposed and seen through. Think about it, if you knew that the person in charge of you since childhood was not your father, but a statue of your father, would you still listen to it? Obviously not. Therefore, the ego is very afraid of letting you see its true face. It deliberately misleads you, making you unable to see the present and letting you indulge in the pain of the past. So you will find that when you are in pain, you will unconsciously think of those painful experiences in the past, which are all caused by the ego.
The ego is very fragile. It is a figment of thinking. It has no entity and is not perfect, so it strives to gain more and become complete. It never knows satisfaction. It induces us to pursue wealth, power, and fame, but when we actually obtain all these, we are only satisfied at the moment of acquisition, followed by emptiness. The ego's desires are endless and we need to keep feeding it with external things, but it is never full.
To give an example of love, after God created the first man, Adam, he created the first woman from his rib and let them get married. It can be said that at the beginning of the creation of human beings, men and women were incomplete. We longed for perfection, which prompted the attraction between men and women. The ego's sense of incompleteness and dissatisfaction seems to disappear in the face of love, but this is just an illusion. One day you find that your partner is talking and laughing with others, and your ego cannot sit still. Its fear reappears, and it is afraid of losing, which makes you jealous, suspicious, distrustful of your partner, and even suspicious of your partner. behavior is criticized. The ego tries to attack your partner and hide its own pain. This is very similar to when we drink to numb ourselves. When you drink, you feel like you have forgotten everything, but you are still in deep pain after you wake up. The ego follows us all the time, causing us to resist the present moment and continue to create pain.
In addition, there are actually two types of pain we experience. One is the pain that we mentioned earlier that occurs in the present, and the other is the pain that occurred in the past but remains in your mind. , once triggered, we will fall into deep pain. We are always awakened by the pain of the past.
The author uses the concept of the pain body, which can be regarded as a container of pain. This body is filled with the pain of our past. The pain-body has two modes of existence, dormant and active. Most of the time, the pain-body lies dormant. But many times it is triggered, igniting the flames of pain. For example, if you fall out of love, you will unconsciously think of your previous partner's bad words about you, and you will unconsciously deny yourself. And once you are overcome by pain, you want more pain. You may become a victim, drinking to drown your sorrows, only to find that you suffer even more when you sober up. It is also possible that you will become a persecutor, suffering yourself, inflicting this pain on your partner, and doing some drastic actions, such as spreading rumors everywhere and ruining the other person's reputation. Only when you see his pain can you relieve your anger. Of course, you can also play the role of victim and persecutor at the same time.
The pain body has a characteristic. It can only feed on pain, but it cannot eat happiness. When anger, frustration, resentment, blame, emotional conflict, or violence occur, the pain body will absorb nutrients from it, activate its energy, and control your body so that it can survive.
Having said so much, let’s review the causes of pain. Because it is difficult for humans to stop thinking, and the ego created by thinking is never satisfied and constantly creates pain in the present moment. And we have experienced a lot of pain and already have a pain body. At a certain moment, pain is triggered, and we are controlled by pain and want more pain.
After talking about the causes of pain, we must then prescribe the right medicine to get rid of the pain. How can we get rid of pain? There are three methods.
Our thinking is that we are singing in a play alone, but you will always be brought into the play unconsciously and mistakenly think that you are also an actor. In fact, you are not an actor, you have the right and ability to stop it from continuing to act. The key to stopping it is that you clearly know what kind of play it is singing. You cannot be a person in the play, but an audience watching the play. It is difficult to get out of the drama. Here is a way. Pay special attention to the thoughts that are always playing in your mind. What you need to pay attention to is that you should not make any judgments in this process, because as soon as you judge, it will be brought into you. Thinking, those thoughts keep circulating in your mind, making you unable to calm down. You just need to remember that there is a sound there, and you are just listening to it and observing it. At this time, you don't have to think, you use feelings.
This feeling helps you realize that you are observing this kind of thinking. When you listen to this kind of thinking, you will slowly discover a more authentic yourself. And without you singing together, this kind of thinking will lose its power, and a person can no longer sing, so he has to walk away. This kind of thinking runs away. You are the only one in front of the stage and no one else is making noise. You will find that there is a blank in your thinking. Although it is short-lived, your heart is at peace at this moment.
You may be thinking, isn’t this the legendary lost soul? Lifeless and unaware of danger. No, this is not a state of confusion. Consciousness is not lost. You are still alert and focused, but you are not thinking.
What I talked about above is theoretical knowledge, but to apply it in practice, you just need to focus on your feelings. For example, when washing your hands, focus on feeling the flow of water instead of thinking about whether your hands are clean.
Through similar training to empty your mind, you will find that your awareness is stronger.
The author mentioned two times. One is clock time, which is the actual time it takes us to complete one thing. There is also psychological time, which is the time we actually work plus the time we spend thinking about the past and the future.
For example, if you make a plan today and stipulate that these 30 minutes will be spent listening to a book and explaining the power of the present, then you will listen with me for 30 minutes, and the knowledge you gain will be the application of clock time. During clock time, you know your goal, and you are listening to my explanation with all your heart, paying attention to your current actions. After listening to my explanation for 30 minutes, you start to complete the next task.
But if you focus too much on your goals and always think that you will get rid of pain after listening to this book, you will focus on the future instead of the present, and this clock time will become psychological time. The present has lost its value and has been stepped on by you to pave the way to the future. It feels like you are constantly rushing to reach the destination quickly. You think the scenery at the destination is the best, but you don’t expect that the flowers on the road are the most beautiful and fragrant.
Also, if you keep reminding yourself that you wanted to read this book before but couldn't read it, you must listen carefully to this book now. What you focus on is the past, and you keep recalling the past. I made mistakes, criticized myself, and regretted not reading the book carefully. Now after listening to it, I feel that this book is quite interesting. It would be great if I had read it before. At this point you make the mistake part of your sense of self, and it becomes psychological time.
We mentioned earlier that the pain body is a container full of pain. In fact, its essence is the ego, the shadow cast by the fragile self. It is as afraid of being discovered as the ego. The shadow has no way to hide where there is light, so it is afraid of the light of your consciousness, afraid that you will realize that it is a fake. Our habitual avoidance of pain gives it an opportunity to exploit us. If we avoid pain and don't face it, we won't be able to discover that it is doing bad things.
The pain-body likes to drag you down into the mud and feel the pain with it. What you have to do is to get out of the quagmire and observe its every move from the perspective of a bystander. I know it's not easy to leave the quagmire, but you have to work hard to leave. Because you will only sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire and eventually be buried. Step away from it, see it for what it is, and accept its existence. Why not confrontation? Many people suppress their pain, thinking that they will not be troubled by the pain. However, suppression will only make you more painful. It is already a quagmire, and no matter how much more sand you fill it with, it will only absorb more sand and become a bigger and deeper quagmire. And when you try to change the quagmire, you spend a lot of energy. If you accidentally fall into it next time, you may not have the strength to pull out.
The book introduces an example of a woman disintegrating her pain body. Almost all women experience pain-body pain during the days leading up to their menstruation, which can be excruciating. When realizing that menstruation is about to come, women should be vigilant, be aware of pain before it is controlled, and feel its power silently, instead of being carried away by pain and suffering along with it. Later, when the pain fully awakens from its dormant state, some women may feel restless and have unexplained turmoil in their hearts. At this time, continue to pay attention to its existence and feel its power. Over time, when you realize that pain is just a thought and not real, the pain will disappear.
To summarize. There are three ways to get rid of pain. The first is to stop thinking, empty our brains, and enjoy the tranquility without the noise of thinking. The second rule is to focus on the present, don’t regret the past, and don’t dwell on the distant future and ignore the beauty of the present. The third is to recognize and accept pain from the perspective of an observer and turn it into consciousness. We can practice these methods in our daily lives.
Earlier we talked about the causes of pain and how to get rid of pain. Finally, I want to tell you how to gain the power of the present moment.
In fact, a lot of our pain is self-inflicted. We always think about the past, the future, and those imaginary things, indulge in them, and try to gain strength from them. But in fact, the most real moment is the most powerful. Here I want to introduce three rules. The first one is to connect with your inner body.
The author points out that the true self is the deepest self. It has huge energy like the sun. By feeling it, you can get more energy. You may still not understand it and want to ask for clarification, but I want to remind you not to try to understand it, but to feel it with your body. Because when you use your brain, your thinking will interfere with your feeling of its existence. Now you just need to remember this word and follow me to find it.
Now close your eyes and turn your attention to your body.
Have you felt the beating signs of life in your hands, legs, abdomen, chest and other parts of your body? Do you feel energy surging through various parts of your body? Concentrate on this energy, feel it, feel it again...then open your eyes and feel this energy. Do you feel full of vitality? You can repeat this action in your daily life to feel the energy in your body. Each feeling will increase your energy and allow you to find your true self, your deepest self.
Another way to feel your inner energy is to use your body to listen to what others are saying. Don't think about whether what the other person says is right or wrong, just listen to the other person's voice, listen to its tone of voice, and feel the power of what it says. In the process of listening, you will also gain strength. This exchange of energy will unconsciously enhance the relationship between you and the other person. The two energies will collide and merge with each other, and the seeds of love will begin to sprout.
In addition, it is also important to learn to listen to silence and create a peaceful sky.
Sound can be heard by us, so we can easily notice it, but then we think about it, how would we know silence if there is no movement, and how would we hear the sound without silence.
The author mentioned the unmanifest state, which is the state of being unable to see or hear. It is the state of being, the most peaceful and peaceful state.
It is very mysterious, and it is difficult for us to feel its existence, but in the process of listening to the sound, it still leaves some traces, and silence is one of them. When we speak, we will pause. Just like what I am explaining now, the pause between words hides the power of silence. When listening to a song, the pause between each note is also silence. Listen to such silence and feel the energy of the unmanifested state. This silence will flow into your body and make your heart peaceful. You may think this is too mysterious, but the fact is that we are easily affected by the external environment. When the surroundings are quiet, your mind will feel calmer. If there is too much noise around you, you will feel restless. So listening to silence will create a peaceful sky in your heart.
In addition to feeling the silence, finally accept the present moment.
The author mentions "surrender", that is, acceptance, many times in the book, which sounds very fatalistic. You may want to say, if we give up resistance and accept failure, we will not work hard to improve the current situation, so do we still have to accept it?
You must know that "surrender" does not mean that you surrender and become a captive of failure, and whatever the other party says will be whatever it is, but that it allows you to give up your inner resistance to the present moment.
For example, if you meet a leader at work, he treats you like a child and always tells you that what you are doing is wrong and that you should do something first before doing it. What. You feel aggrieved when you hear this, I'm not a child, do I still need you to teach me what to do? If you are controlled by anger at this time and say these words, you will definitely be fired. What you have to do is accept the fact that the leader treats you like a child, and think from a different perspective. The leader educating me means that he likes me and wants to train me, although the method is not very good. However, you can't keep being aggrieved and just accept whatever the boss says, otherwise you will be treated like a child next time. You need to find an opportunity to talk to the leader privately and tell him that when you talk to me, you make me feel like an untrustworthy child. This makes me very sad. I hope you can respect me more.
Instead of saying "Okay, whatever the leader says is right" on the surface, it says on the face that if it weren't for the fact that you are the leader, I would have scolded you. This duplicitous reaction is still resistance, but it is expressed more tactfully.
This is surrendering to the present moment, which does not allow you to distinguish between right and wrong, but allows you to accept the facts of the moment, allowing you to let go of your fighting mentality and not be controlled by your emotions. It is difficult to truly achieve this, but if you can feel very relaxed and peaceful no matter what bad situation you encounter, this is true surrender.
In short, we can think and listen through our bodies, feel the power of the moment, we can also listen to silence, feel the unmanifest state, and integrate the external tranquility we hear with our inner tranquility. . Also, when a conflict occurs and you realize that you are being controlled by your emotions, learn to surrender, let go of the fight, and return to peace.
We always fall into pain and lose power unconsciously. What exactly makes us suffer? How can we get rid of pain? How can we gain more strength in the present moment when we have already expended a lot of energy in pain?
The book "The Power of Now" provides an in-depth analysis of the causes of pain. It turns out that thinking is the culprit in creating pain. From this, the author prescribes the right medicine and gives a good way to get rid of pain, helping us get rid of pain and gain inner peace and happiness. The author also guides us to discover that all we have is the present, not the past and the future. He guides us to gain strength from the present, feel the happiness of every moment, and embrace our true self.
We have learned that it is difficult for us to stop thinking, and that the ego created by thinking is never satisfied and continues to create pain in the present moment. We have experienced a lot of pain and already have a pain body. At some point, pain is triggered, and we are controlled by pain and want more pain.
The first of the three ways to get rid of pain is to stop thinking, empty our brains, and enjoy the tranquility without the noise of thinking. The second rule is to focus on the present, don’t regret the past, and don’t dwell on the distant future and ignore the beauty of the present. The third is to recognize and accept pain from the perspective of an observer and turn it into consciousness. We can think and listen through our bodies, feeling the power of the present moment, or we can listen to silence, feel the unmanifest state, and merge the external tranquility we hear with our inner tranquility. Also, when conflicts arise and we are controlled by our emotions, we must learn to surrender, let go of the fight, and return to tranquility.