posted December 06, 2004 02:52 PM         

P.S. Ha, that guy looks like an elf!

http://www.eckharttolle.com/mainpage.htm

Some quotes:

quote:

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Excerpts from: THE POWER of NOW
What is the power of Now?

None other than the power of your presence, your consciousness liberated from thought forms.

So deal with the past on the level of the present. The more attention you give to the past, the more you energize it, and the more likely you are to make a "self" out of it. Don't misunderstand: attention is essential, but not to the past. Give attention to the present; give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present. There's the past in you. If you can be present enough to watch all those things, not critically or analytically but nonjudgementally, then you are dealing with the past and dissolving it through the power of your presence. You find yourself by coming into the present.

.....So 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. ....

.....The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman 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. The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of separation, from yourself and from the world around you. You then perceive yourself, consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment. Fear arises, and conflict within and without becomes the norm. .....

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posted January 10, 2005 10:04 PM         

That's my two cents!

posted January 11, 2005 07:27 PM         

It is amazing that you said that you bought it for you father. I have a wonderful story about this book and it's teachings.

My Grandmother (a Southern Baptist) from Kanas had several strokes a few years ago. The Doctors told the family that she would not make it more than 6 months and that she would not ever be able to hold a conversation with anyone ever again.

After a few months of her getting worse and my Grandfather becoming more stressed, a nurse at the hospital told them about a series of lectures and some classes using the book and teachings of Eckhart Tolle. They went and have both been using what they learned.

I am happy to report that my Grandmother is doing better than any doctor could have hoped for, it has be 5 years. She has had a 76% recovery. And my Grandfather has not had probles with his legs since (he is a diabetic).

I just thought that this story was a wonderful thing to share.

posted February 25, 2005 06:21 PM         

I know what you mean about having a hard time not letting yourself drift to the future or the past. I am getting closer...I remind myself that there are no problems...ever! And I have to say that the teachings in this book have helped me in every area of my life....I just have to stick with it so that the time will come when I spend all of my time in the now.

Keep up the work and you will have the NOW that you need to foster great things in your life!