"The Power of
Now: A Book Report"
by Rev. Kimi Riegel
October 17, 2004
Reading:
“See if you can catch yourself
complaining in either speech or thought about a situation you find yourself in,
what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the
weather. To complain is always non acceptance of what is. It invariably carries
an unconscious negative charge. When you complain you make yourself a victim.
When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking
action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; then leave the situation or
accept it. All else is madness.”[1]
Sermon: Power of Now
“You can’t think about presence, and the mind can’t understand it.
Understanding presence is being present. Try a little experiment. Close your
eyes and say to yourself: ‘I wonder what my next thought is going to be?’
Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a
mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole? Try it now.
For most of us, we have to wait a good while for a thought to happen. Mr. Tolle,
author of The Power of Now, suggests that as long as we are in a state of
intense presence, that watching waiting space, we are free of thought. We are
highly alert in that place but free of thought, and thus at peace. The instant
conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The
stillness is lost, the mental noise returns.[2]
That is the Power of Now in a nut shell. It is better to be attending to
the present moment and we do that best by being very aware of ourselves. It is
the same message as Ram Dass’s Be Here Now that was so popular in the
’70s. It is the same message as the Vedas, a sacred Hindu text, written some
3,000 years ago. But it is written for this day and age. It is also written about
our age as it is probably the most anti-multi tasking book I have read, very
much in the spirit of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Miracle of Mindfulness.
Eckhart Tolle answers the question of why be in the here and now as well as how.
For him the change happened one day while listening to himself think. He
realized in that moment that there was more than a single unified and separate
him. There is who we are in our daily actions and then there is the part of us
that witnesses what we are doing, thinking and feeling. The part of us that
watches is our true self. It is the non-reactive, clear of the past, and
connected to the greater good part. One of my teachers, Helen Palmer, calls it
simply the witness. Our job as defined by many of the great teachers is to
develop that witness; that inner part that can lead us to more peace.
Descartes said, “I think therefore I am.” According to the teaching of the Power
of Now this is the most fundamental error of our time. It is what has set us
apart from each other and the rest of creation. We “think” we are somehow
separate and therefore unique; unique in our suffering, unique in our troubles,
unique in our feelings, and thus utterly alone. The moment we start watching our
thinking is the moment we realize there is more to existence then us and what we
think. We are not all there is of beauty, love, grace, creativity, joy and
peace. Thank goodness.
Have you ever given your full attention to something? Completely become absorbed
in the moment? I had a particularly powerful experience of being absorbed by the
present moment as a youth. I was in a worship service with about seventy other
young people. We were surrounded by candles and chanting together. There was a
oneness that I felt in that moment that is almost indescribable. We were one
sound, one body, one mind, one spirit. I was absorbed in it and yet I was
utterly awake and aware of myself. This is not a dreamy state or one of fuzzy
consciousness but one where often colors, sounds and smells have an intensity
that is noticeably more. For those of you whose thoughts go in this direction I
need to say this was not a drug induced state but one of being utterly sober and
completely present.
But that is not to say that this experience, this beyond our thinking place, is
only found in traditional religious settings. I remember once peeling 25 heads
of garlic. We were making Hummus for 100 people. I decided to try to do the best
job I could of peeling the garlic. I became completely absorbed in the sounds,
smells and feel of each clove as it came off the head. The time went quickly and
when I was finished rather than feeling tired I was energized for the rest of
the day. To this day peeling garlic can take me back to that moment of peace.
Maybe I need to try that with washing spinach, a time consuming task I dislike.
In all seriousness this is the key to happiness and peace described in The
Power of Now, being truly present to the moment we are in. This is the
“Showing Up” of which I have spoken before but it is more. Showing up is
being present to what is happening now, really listening to your children’s
stories, really washing the dishes or for me, really reading with those first
graders every afternoon instead of jumping into what is the next moment. But
presence, as Tolle describes it, is more in the sense of being deeper into what
he calls the Unmanifest, or Being itself, the Flow, or some might say God. This
is that place that runners get to when the running becomes effortless and the
mind is free of thought, concern or even planning.
Tolle describes several ways to get there. First there is dissolving time
through intense present awareness. This is what monks and nuns do as they chop
wood or cook. They become aware of the essence of life in every plant and dish.
This was me and the garlic. Jesus spoke of realizing “All that is, is holy.”
This is achieved often through intense awareness of what we are doing in the
moment; as I write this sermon feeling my fingers on the keys, hearing the sound
of the whir of my computer, aware of the sensations of the chair and my arms
resting on it – this is to be aware of the present moment. While I find this
an effective method and even essential, it is fleeting. For while I can be aware
for moments at a time there is always something that draws my mind away and I
have to gently pull it back to the present moment.
The second method described in the Power of Now is the cessation of
thinking. This is traditional meditation. One might start simply by focusing on
the breath. Our mental commentary on each moment disappears as we sit quietly
and focus on our ever present breathing. Here is where I put in a plug for our
Tuesday night meditation group. Every Tuesday, from
The third “portal to the Unmanifest” as Tolle calls it, is surrender. He
writes, “Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing
the flow of life.”[3]
Surrender is not what we think of in terms of giving up. It is purely an inner
phenomenon. Tolle uses the example of being stuck in the mud. One does not
resign oneself to being stuck in the mud. Instead one accepts that is where you
are and sets about taking action to get unstuck. What he suggests is that the
negative emotions of anger, fear and despair arise out of non-acceptance and
often block creative solutions to the problem. By focusing all our attention on
the moment, “I am stuck in the mud,” we eliminate the negative thoughts
like, “how stupid can I be” or “oh my god, is my boss going to kill me for
being late.” We are then free to think of ways out. This is perhaps best
expressed by Eastern Martial arts where the practice is “don’t resist the
opponent’s force. Yield to overcome.”[4]
It is our egos that believe that resistance is the answer. Our ego, that part of
ourselves that believes that we are separate and distinct from the rest of life,
holds on to the notion that to stay separate I must resist. It believes that
fear and anger require us to be defended. It needs to stay separate to protect
itself; the ego depends on being separate. True surrender acknowledges that
separateness is an illusion. Surrender lets us acknowledge the true nature of
the moment and thus see a clear way out. Tolle uses the image of a flashlight in
the fog. Our ego would have us believe that a flashlight will only be giving
into the fog.
These practices are very useful. They are not different than what has been
suggested by Hindus, Buddhists, Christians or even Muslims for centuries. There
is nothing really “new” in The Power of Now, but that doesn’t make
it a less great book. Colleen gave me the book more than a year ago. I
couldn’t digest the whole thing in one setting or even over several months. It
is one of the ones that will sit on my bedside for a long time. Each page is a
gentle reminder of what we already know. That fact, in and of itself, makes this
a powerful book. We “know” this stuff; we just “forget.” A gentle
reminder is a potent force in this world.
For instance, I was “reminded” by the book of the power of the illusion of
time. We believe -- I have even heard myself say -- how precious time is. When,
in fact, Tolle points out it is not time that is precious but the present
moment. It is not important to my children that I could have spent time with
them yesterday or that I might tomorrow. What they care about – what has an
effect on them -- is the now. Tolle writes: “Nothing will ever happen in the
past; it happens now. Nothing will ever happen in the future. It will happen
now.”[5]
We can all get overwhelmed by the immensity of our past or the perspective of
our future, but the here and now we can be sure of, understand and respond to.
This doesn’t mean we don’t plan, but when we are planning we don’t get
caught in the plan, we do what needs to be done now. I have been the queen of
multi-tasking since my kids were born. Yet it is those moments when I have put
all the other things away and played Tic-tac-toe with my son that I feel have
been the best and most productive of my life.
Do I pull off the power of now every day? No. But having the book on my bed
stand helps. Meditation helps. Common chores done with attention help. And being
aware of my inner world helps. Let us join now in a few moments of now. Just let
yourself be. Just listen to your breathing or watch the candles. When a thought
arises name it for what it is; plan, feeling, imagination, thought, idea and let
it go gently returning your attention to the moment. Namaste.