Eckhart Tolle majestically says: “You are not your mind” … Yes! If you try consciously to watch your thoughts and realizing that you are not your mind … that simple watching activity helps you to access the higher state of awareness which can free yourself from one of the greatest sources of suffering. Eckhart Tolle presents simple, practical, and proven-effective techniques in his book ‘The Power of Now’ that can help you turn your mind into a powerful tool to improve your everyday life. He talks not only on ‘servant’, the wonderful thinking mind but on various vital elements in the transformation of human consciousness including the Ultimate, the un-manifested, and the silent watcher.
I consider that this book ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle is an excellent gift for us to understand how to stop the nonstop clamoring of our mind. We all know very well that we cannot change the past happenings according to our whims and fancies even if we devote all of our energies. Similarly, we have to accept the fact that our future is unpredictable because we never know what is going to happen absolutely to our lives in future. Still, in normal routine life, all of our minds run us mad most of the time dwelling over the past, or fussing about the future. This book, very clearly points out the significance of being in the present moment.
As per my understanding, according to Eckhart Tolle’s teachings as well as Vipassana, the famous meditation technique and the divine gift of Goutama Buddha, human mind continuously harvests thoughts. Whatever the mind is thinking will result in an emotion in the body and thus emotions are reflections of the mind in the body. Furthermore, they validate every emotion that we experience throughout our life, whether it is a pain or pleasure leaves behind a certain amount of ‘residue’ which pertinently gets lodged in the mind and the body, and which in turn colours our reactions to further experiences. Both Eckhart and Buddha regard this ‘residue’ as "an invisible entity in its own right" and call it "the emotional pain-body".
This "the emotional pain-body" is an accumulation of past emotional experiences that reside within our minds and our bodies. We carry around a heavy burden of residual pain from the past - this burden keeps getting heavier and heavier as each new emotional pain is added to it. Not being Present means not being able to let the Past go, and the pains of the past (as pain-bodies) are still causing us to suffer now. Much of the time, these hidden 'emotional pain-bodies' lay dormant, but anything, even an innocent comment that resonates with the past sufferings or discomforts can effortlessly triggers them into active mode. At that point they seem to take over us and we become prey to the situation by getting irrationally irritated, annoyed or depressed. This eventually leads to further establish immeasurable suffering.
In practice of Vipassana technique, initially we need to develop some mastery over the mind by learning to fix one's attention on the natural reality of the ever changing flow of breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. In the later phase, our mind becomes calmer and more focused, better able to observe sensations throughout the body, understanding their nature, and developing equanimity by learning not to react to them. Thus, Vipassana is a way of self-transformation aims for total eradication of all mental impurities and leading to the highest happiness of full liberation.
Similarly as I feel, Eckhart Tolle also recommends us “Pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing”. His experiment for ‘How to freeing yourself from your Mind’ says like this: “Close your eyes. Watch your thoughts. Do not judge or label the thoughts, do not resist them; watch them, allow them to be. By watching (being aware) of your thoughts, the watching consciousness comes to the fore, and the thoughts will subside into the background. There will be a break in the continuous stream of thinking. There is stillness, and it is only then that true peace can arise.”
Both of these observation-based, self-exploratory journeys together target dissolving all mental impurities, resulting into balanced minds full of love and compassion. As I understand there is abundant similarity practically and theoretically in the ultimate purpose of Vipassana and Tolle’s book. It is nothing but healing, not merely the curing of diseases, but the essential healing of human suffering. May be Vipassana, one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation rediscovered by Goutama Buddha more than 2500 years ago is incomparable with Eckhart’s ‘The Power of Now’. But I strongly believe that this magnificent book can really ignite the minds and bring spirituality into the realm of every single reader.
Actually, the task of writing views or reviewing the famous books like “The Power of Now” may be a very challenging one which can pull towards adversities like lugging of unrelated concepts or leading to wrong interpretations. I trust that my mind could overcome all such nuisances successfully in expressing my views.
Finally, I express my immense gratitude to Sri. Balaji Maddikera, the Chief Operating Officer of GMR Varalakshmi Care Hospital, Rajam for presenting me this world famous thought provoking and motivational book.
My dear friends ….. I recommend you all to go through this outstanding writing of Eckhart Tolle.
I humbly welcome your comments.
