The following are 6 key mindfulness
practices outlined by Eckhart Tolle in “The Power of Now”
1.
"WATCHING THE THINKER" - START LISTENING TO THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN.
Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns,
those old audiotapes that have been playing in your head perhaps for many
years.
2.
FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION INTO THE
NOW
You can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing
the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of
the present moment. There is one certain criterion by which you can measure
your success in this practice: And that is the degree of peace that you feel
within.
3. LOOK
AT YOUR EMOTIONS: THE BODY'S REACTION TO
YOUR MIND
The more you are identified with your thinking, your likes
and dislikes, judgments and interpretations, which is to say the less present
you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge
will be, whether you are aware of it or not.
4.
WATCH OUT FOR ANY KIND OF DEFENSIVENESS WITHIN YOURSELF.
What are you defending? An illusory identity, an image in
your mind, a fictitious entity. By making this pattern conscious, by witnessing
it, you un-identify from it. In the light of your consciousness, the
unconscious pattern will then quickly dissolve.
5. END THE DELUSION
OF TIME + LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
TIME
End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable.
Remove time from the mind and it stops - unless you choose to use it. To be
identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: The compulsion to live
almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. Step out of the time
dimension as much as possible in everyday life. If you find it hard to enter
the Now directly, start by observing the habitual tendency of your mind to want
to escape from the Now. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or
future.
6. CONNECTING WITH THE
INNER BODY
Direct your attention into the body. Feel it from within. Is
it alive? Is there life in your hands, arms, legs, and feet - in your abdomen,
your chest? Can you feel the subtle energy field that pervades the entire body
and gives vibrant life to every organ and every cell? Can you feel it
simultaneously in all parts of the body as a single field of energy? Keep
focusing on the feeling of your inner body for a few moments. Do not start to
think about it. Feel it. When your consciousness is directed outward, mind and
world arise. When it is directed inward, it realizes its own Source and returns
home into the Unmanifested. As you go about your life, don't give 100 percent
of your attention to the external world and to your mind. Keep some within.
FREEING
YOURSELF FROM YOUR MIND
HOW TO PRACTISE THE POWER
OF NOW?
1.
"WATCHING THE THINKER" - START LISTENING TO THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD AS
OFTEN AS YOU CAN.
Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns,
those old audiotapes that have been playing in your head perhaps for many
years. This is what I mean by "watching the thinker," which is
another way of saying: Listen to the voice in your head, be there as the witnessing
presence. When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. That is to
say, do not judge. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would
mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You'll soon
realize: There is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I
AM realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises
from beyond the mind. So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only
of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new
dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel
a conscious presence - your deeper self - behind or underneath the thought, as
it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides,
because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it.
Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your
consciousness grows stronger.
• This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.
• When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental stream - a gap of "no-mind."
• At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you.
• This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. • With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth.
• This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.
• When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental stream - a gap of "no-mind."
• At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you.
• This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. • With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth.
• You will also feel a subtle emanation of joy arising from
deep within: the joy of Being.
• In this state of inner connectedness, you are much more
alert, more awake than in the mind-identified state. You are fully present.
• It also raises the vibrational frequency of the energy
field that gives life to the physical body.
• As you go more deeply into this realm of no-mind, as it is
sometimes called in the East, you realize the state of pure consciousness. • In
that state, you feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that
all thinking, all emotions, your physical body, as well as the whole external
world become relatively insignificant in comparison to it. • And yet this is
not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you previously
thought of as "your self." • That presence is essentially you and at
the same time inconceivably greater than you.
2.
FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION INTO THE
NOW
You can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by
directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely
conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In
this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of
no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the
essence of meditation. In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking
any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it
'your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example,
every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay
close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totally
present. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sense
perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the
movement of your hands, the scent of the soap, and so on. Or when you get into
your car, after you close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe the
flow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence.
One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would
smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content
of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.
The single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: Learn
to un-identify from your mind.
3. LOOK
AT YOUR EMOTION : THE BODY'S REACTION TO
YOUR MIND
Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. It
includes your emotions as well as all unconscious mental-emotional reactive
patterns. Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the
body's reaction to your mind - or you might say a reflection of your mind in
the body. The more you are identified with your thinking, your likes and
dislikes, judgments and interpretations, which is to say the less present you
are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge
will be, whether you are aware of it or not. There is one certain criterion by
which you can measure your success in this practice: And that is the degree of
peace that you feel within. If you cannot feel your emotions, if you are cut
off from them, you will eventually experience them on a purely physical level,
as a physical problem or symptom. If you have difficulty feeling your emotions,
start by focusing attention on the inner energy field of your body. Feel the
body from within. This will also put you in touch with your emotions. If you
really want to know your mind, the body will always give you a truthful
reflection, so look at the emotion, or rather feel it in your body. If there is
an apparent conflict between them, the thought will be the lie, the emotion
will be the truth. Not the ultimate truth of who you are, but the relative
truth of your state of mind at that time. You may not yet be able to bring your
unconscious mind activity into awareness as thoughts, but it will always be
reflected in the body as an emotion, and of this you can become aware. To watch
an emotion in this way is basically the same as listening to or watching a
thought, which I described earlier. The only difference is that, while a
thought is in your head, an emotion has a strong physical component and so is
primarily felt in the body. You can then allow the emotion to be there without
being controlled by it. You no longer are the emotion; you are the watcher, the
observing presence. If you practice this, all that is unconscious in you will
be brought into the light of consciousness. That question will point you in the
right direction. But don't analyze, just watch. Focus your attention within.
Feel the energy of the emotion If there is no emotion present, take your
attention more deeply into the inner energy field of your body. It is the
doorway into Being. MAKE IT A HABIT TO ASK YOURSELF: What's going on inside me
at this moment?
4.
WATCH OUT FOR ANY KIND OF DEFENSIVENESS WITHIN YOURSELF.
What are you defending? An illusory identity, an image in
your mind, a fictitious entity. By making this pattern conscious, by witnessing
it, you un-identify from it. In the light of your consciousness, the
unconscious pattern will then quickly dissolve. This is the end of all
arguments and power games, which are so corrosive to relationships. Power over
others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within, and it is
available to you now. The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from
it. The more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may
put it like this: The more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more
you are free of pain, of suffering - and free of the ego mind.
5. END THE DELUSION
OF TIME + LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
If you no longer want to create pain for yourself and
others, if you no longer want to add to the residue of past pain that still
lives on in you, then don't create any more time, or at least no more than is
necessary to deal with the practical aspects of your life. How to stop creating
time? End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable. Remove time from
the mind and it stops - unless you choose to use it. This creates an endless
preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and
acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises
because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of
salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions. The more you
are focused on time - past and future - the more you miss the Now, the most
precious thing there is. Why is it the most precious thing? Firstly, because it
is the only thing. It's all there is. The eternal present is the space within
which your whole life unfolds, the one factor that remains constant. Life is
now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.
Secondly, the Now is the only point that can take you beyond the limited
confines of the mind. It is your only point of access into the timeless and
formless realm of Being.
Have you ever experienced, done, thought, or felt anything
outside the Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything to
happen or be outside the Now? The answer is obvious, is it not? Nothing ever
happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the
future; it will happen in the Now. The essence of what I am saying here cannot
be understood by the mind. The moment you grasp it, there is a shift in
consciousness from mind to Being, from time to presence. Suddenly, everything
feels alive, radiates energy, emanates Being. Break the old pattern of
present-moment denial and present-moment resistance. 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. If you find it hard
to enter the Now directly, start by observing the habitual tendency of your
mind to want to escape from the Now. You will observe that the future is
usually imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined
future is better, it gives you hope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is
worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory. Whenever you are able to observe
your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in,
something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence. Be present as the
watcher of your mind - of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions
in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the
situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your
attention is in the past or future. To be identified with your mind is to be
trapped in time: The compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and
anticipation. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel
the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them.
You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you
observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind,
the silent watcher. Intense presence is needed when certain situations trigger
a reaction with a strong emotional charge, such as when your self-image is
threatened, a challenge comes into your life that triggers fear, things
"go wrong," or an emotional complex from the past is brought up. In
those instances, the tendency is for you to become "unconscious." The
reaction or emotion takes you over - you "become" it. You act it out.
You justify, make wrong, attack, defend ... except that it isn't you, it's the
reactive pattern, the mind in its habitual survival mode.
Identification with the mind gives it more energy;
observation of the mind withdraws energy from it., Identification with the mind
creates more time; observation of the mind opens up the dimension of the
timeless. The energy that is withdrawn from the mind turns into presence. Once
you can feel what it means to be present, it becomes much easier to simply
choose to step out of the time dimension whenever time is not needed for
practical purposes and move more deeply into the Now. This does not impair your
ability to use time - past or future - when you need to refer to it for
practical matters. Nor does it impair your ability to use your mind. In fact,
it enhances it. When you do use your mind, it will be sharper, more focused.
Learn to use time in the practical aspects of your life - we may call this
"clock time" - but immediately return to present-moment awareness
when those practical matters have been dealt with. In this way, there will be
no buildup of "psychological time," which is identification with the
past and continuous compulsive projection into the future. The enlightened
person's main focus of attention is always the Now The enlightened person's
main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally
aware of time. In other words, they continue to use clock time but are free of
psychological
6. CONNECTING WITH THE
INNER BODY
You may find it helpful to close your eyes for this
practice. Later on, when "being in the body" has become natural and
easy, this will no longer be necessary. Direct your attention into the body.
Feel it from within. Is it alive? Is there life in your hands, arms, legs, and
feet - in your abdomen, your chest? Can you feel the subtle energy field that
pervades the entire body and gives vibrant life to every organ and every cell?
Can you feel it simultaneously in all parts of the body as a single field of
energy? Keep focusing on the feeling of your inner body for a few moments. Do
not start to think about it. Feel it. The more attention you give it, the
clearer and stronger this feeling will become. It will feel as if every cell is
becoming more alive, and if you have a strong visual sense, you may get an
image of your body becoming luminous. Although such an image can help you
temporarily, pay more attention to the feeling than to any image that may
arise. An image, no matter how beautiful or powerful, is already defined in
form, so there is less scope for penetrating more deeply. To go even more
deeply into the body, try the following meditation. Ten to fifteen minutes of
clock time should be sufficient. Make sure first that there are no external
distractions such as telephones or people who are likely to interrupt you. Sit
on a chair, but don't lean back. Keep the spine erect. Doing so will help you
to stay alert. Alternatively, choose your own favorite position for meditation.
Make sure the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Feel
yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were. Observe how it expands
and contracts slightly with each in and out breath. Then become aware of the
entire inner energy field of the body. Don't think about it - feel it. By doing
this, you reclaim consciousness from the mind. If you find it helpful, use the
"light" visualization I just described. When you can feel the inner
body clearly as a single field of energy, let go, if possible, of any visual
image and focus exclusively on the feeling. If you can, also drop any mental
image you may still have of the physical body. All that is left then is an
all-encompassing sense of presence or "beingness," and the inner body
is felt to be without a boundary. ' Through self-observation, more presence
comes into your life automatically. The moment you realize you are not present,
you are present. Then take your attention even more deeply into that feeling.
Become one with it. Merge with the energy field, so that there is no longer a
perceived duality of the observer and the observed, of you and your body. The
distinction between inner and outer also dissolves now, so there is no inner
body anymore. By going deeply into the body, you have transcended the body.
Stay in this realm of pure Being for as long as feels comfortable; then become
aware again of the physical body, your breathing and physical senses, and open
your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few minutes in a meditative way -
that is, without labeling them mentally - and continue to feel the inner body
as you do so. Having access to that formless realm is truly liberating. It
frees you from bondage to form and identification with form. We may call it the
Unmanifested, the invisible Source of all things, the Being within all beings.
It is a realm of deep stillness and peace, but also of joy and intense
aliveness. Whenever you are present, you become "transparent" to some
extent to the light, the pure consciousness that emanates from this Source. You
also realize that the light is not separate from who you are but constitutes
your very essence. When your consciousness is directed outward, mind and world
arise. When it is directed inward, it realizes its own Source and returns home
into the Unmanifested. It is quite possible to be conscious of the Unmanifested
throughout your life. You feel it as a deep sense of peace somewhere in the
background, a stillness that never leaves you, no matter what happens out here.
You become a bridge between the Unmanifested and the manifested, between God
and the world. THIS IS THE STATE OF CONNECTEDNESS WITH THE SOURCE THAT WE CALL
ENLIGHTENMENT. Then, when your consciousness comes back to the manifested
world, you reassume the form identity that you temporarily relinquished. You
have a name, a past, a life situation, a future. But in one essential respect,
you are not the same person you were before: You will have glimpsed a reality
within yourself that is not "of FREEING YOURSELF FROM YOUR MIND this
world," although it isn't separate from it, just as it isn't separate from
you. Now let your spiritual practice be this: As you go about your life, don't
give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and to your mind. Keep
some within. Feel the inner body even when engaged in everyday activities,
especially when engaged in relationships or when you are relating with nature.
Feel the stillness deep inside it. Keep the portal open. Creative use of mind
If you need to use your mind for a specific purpose, use it in conjunction with
your inner body. Only if you are able to be conscious without thought can you
use your mind creatively, and the easiest way to enter that state is through
your body. Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop
thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. Become
aware of the stillness. When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and
creative. In any thought activity, make it a habit to go back and forth every
few minutes or so between thinking and an inner kind of listening, an inner
stillness. Don't just think with your head, think with your whole body. Let the
breath take you into the body. If at any time you are finding it hard to get in
touch with the inner body, it is usually easier to focus on your breathing
first. Conscious breathing, which is a powerful meditation in its own right,
will gradually put you in touch with the body. Follow the breath with your
attention as it moves in and out of your body. Breathe into the body, and feel
your abdomen expanding and contracting slightly with each inhalation and
exhalation. If you find it easy to visualize, close your eyes and see yourself
surrounded by light or immersed in a luminous substance - a sea of
consciousness. Then breathe in that light. Feel that luminous substance filling
up your body and making it luminous also. Then gradually focus more on the
feeling. Don't get attached to any visual image. You are now in your body. You
have accessed the power of Now.EC
