Living in the Now

[Xan]

Conversation between Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle


Eckhart: Most people are not aware that they have a voice in their head that they predominantly identify with. It is primarily an unhappy voice. It is essential to understand that the sense of self that comes from the voice in the head is a conceptual one derived from the past--it is a conditioning.

It is always a breakthrough to step out of identification with the stream of thinking. It is an aware presence, like waking up - thus the term "awakening". Waking up out of the stream of thinking is a completely new dimension of consciousness. You can recognize the voice in your head as beliefs, memories, etc. and know that it is not YOU. Who you are cannot be defined through mental knowing.

In essence, you and the present moment are One. You are the consciousness out of which everything comes. Essentially, you are the conscious aware space.

Oprah: Did it blow your mind to awaken?

E: Yes, but I didn't understand it. I was just in a state of deep inner peace. I understood three years later, when I was talking to a Zen monk. He explained that it was going beyond thinking, and the repetitive thinking was gone.

O: Isn't to think human?

E: Yes. It can be powerful and wonderful. It only becomes an affliction when one is totally identified with thinking and the "story of me".

When you realize "I am the awareness behind the thinking", you are no longer possessed by the thinking mind. It becomes a tool but not a "self". That spacious aware presence in a relationship is the greatest gift you can give a person.

Can you listen in a simple state of alertness--as a presence rather than as a person? Then there's no judgment or definition. No mental labels. Many people love pets, and they are the only area where they realize that they can communicate and relate to another being because that being is not judging them. It gives them a sense of freedom.

An animal is in a state prior to thinking. Humans can move beyond thinking. Both are awareness.

O: How can you live in that space?

E: First acknowledge and be grateful for glimpses of that space. Then you can invite space by bringing in more present moment awareness.

Bring more presence into your life with the simple things--washing hands, making coffee, waiting--be there as the still, alert presence. Bring as many spaces into life as possible. Take one half a minute to pause and become present to the moment throughout the day.

On one level, no one can argue with time - the past and future. Time is something we cannot do without. It dominates the surface level of reality. People look at time to eventually give them what they need.

There are two ways of being unhappy - getting what you want, and not getting what you want. When you are always expecting something in the next moment it means you are never fully in this one.

Many people identify their sense of self with problems. Often I say, "What problem do you have at THIS moment?" Sometimes people will wake up for a moment. You might have a challenge but it is not a problem without time and repetitive mind activity. You always have to admit that right now there is no problem.

O: Do you live this way all the time?

E: Yes. I'm always in the now. Occasionally anger arises and passes through quickly. You can't argue with what is or you suffer.

O: Does it leave you passionless to live in the moment?

E: You are more passionately alive when you are living in the present moment. Complaining and resisting is denying the present moment.

O: How do you plan for the future?

E: Enjoy your planning for the future.

Are you losing yourself in the future or using time and future on a practical level? When you say, "At some point in the future I will finally be happy", that is a projection that causes unhappiness. Psychological time is continual obsession with the past and the future.

O: Do you feel that you are straddling both worlds?

E: Yes. There is a balance between dealing with things that require time and thinking, but not being trapped by it.

There is a deeper dimension inside you that is outside that stream of thinking.

[Ninoushka]

Beautiful words. Thanks for sharing Xan :)

Thanks Xan - I really resonate with what Eckhart Tolle says. That "spacious aware presence" is so blissful, so sacred - he finds so many ways of providing maps to get there.

[fire]

In maybe two or three occasions since my early teens, I've had the fortune of re-experiencing such a moment of pure awareness / beingness. They only lasted a mere few seconds, but they were beautiful moments where the mind was silent and I was able to feel the essence of everything surrounding me. Somehow, these short-lived moments transcended the awareness of my soul; all pain just vanished.

Thankyou Xan....have a wonderful day.

[Xan]

Make peace with the universe.
Take joy in it.
It will turn to gold.
Resurrection will be now.
Every moment
a new beauty.


~ Rumi

[psychoslice]

Hi Xan, I feel that this Now isn't in time or space, so how would you yourself describe this Now, or can it not be described which I'm in more favor of.

[Xan]

how would you yourself describe this Now

This eternal Now is whole, unboundaried, silent aware presence...

but this, like any other description, falls far short.


Xan

[psychoslice]

Originally Posted by Xan

how would you yourself describe this Now

This eternal Now is whole, unboundaried, silent aware presence...

but this, like any other description, falls far short.


Xan

Yes that is how I feel also, its weird, you know what its like within, but just cannot bring it to the surface and talk about it, but only point to it, so i suppose its like the Source, or pure Essence, its here, its there, its everywhere, its the background of all there IS.

[Xan]

Indeed... There is only One, with many names for the nameless.


Xan