Tami Simon: Your teaching about "the power of now" seems so simple. Is
that really our primary spiritual task – to fully engage the present moment?
Eckhart Tolle: Identification with thoughts and the emotions that go with those
thoughts creates a false mind-made sense of self, conditioned by the past: the
"little me" and its story. This false self is never happy or
fulfilled for long. Its normal state is one of unease, fear, insufficiency, and
nonfulfillment. It says it looks for happiness, and yet it continuously creates
conflict and unhappiness. In fact, it needs conflict and "enemies" to
sustain the sense of separateness that ensures its continued survival. Look at
all the conflict between tribes, nations, and religions. They need their
enemies, because they provide the sense of separateness on which their
collective egoic identity depends. The false self lives mainly through memory
and anticipation. Past and future are its main preoccupation. The present
moment, at best, is a means to an end, a stepping stone to the future, because
the future promises fulfillment, the future promises salvation in one form or
another. The only problem is the future never comes. Life is always now.
Whatever happens, whatever you experience, feel, think, do - it's always now.
It's all there is. And if you continuously miss the now – resist it, dislike
it, try to get away from it, reduce it to a means to an end, then you miss the essence
of your life, and you are stuck in a dream world of images, concepts, labels,
interpretations, judgments – the conditioned content of your mind that you take
to be "yourself." And so you are disconnected from the fullness of
life that is the "suchness" of this moment. When you are out of
alignment with what is, you are out of alignment with life. You are struggling
to reach a point in the future where there is greater security, aliveness,
abundance, love, joy … unaware that those things make up the essence of who you
are already. All that is required of you to have access to that essence is to
make the present moment into your friend. And you may realize that most of your
life you made the present moment into an enemy. You didn't say "yes" to
it, didn't embrace it. You were out of alignment with the now, and so life
became a struggle. It seemed so normal, because everyone around you lived in
the same way. The amazing thing is: Life, the great intelligence that pervades
the entire cosmos, becomes supportive when you say "yes" to it. Where
is life? Here. Now. The "isness" of this moment. The now seems so
small at first, a little segment between past and future, and yet all of life's
power is concealed within it. When there is spiritual awakening, you awaken
into the fullness, the aliveness, and also the sacredness of now. You were
absent, asleep, and now you are present, awake. The secret of awakening is to
unconditionally accept this moment as it is. Some people do it because they can
no longer stand the suffering that comes with nonacceptance of the isness of
this moment. They are almost forced into awakening. Others have suffered enough
and are ready to voluntarily embrace the now. When you become present in this
way, the judgments, labels, and concepts of your mind are no longer all that
important, as a greater intelligence is now operating in and through you. And
yet the mind can then be used very effectively and creatively when needed.
Now the question may arise: Would there be
anything left to strive for when you are so present in the now? Wouldn't you
become passive in that state? Many meaningless activities may fall away, but
the state of presence is the only state in which creative energy is available
to you. When your fulfillment and sense of self are no longer dependent on the
future outcome, joy flows into whatever you do. You do what you do because the
action itself is fulfilling. Whatever you do or create in that state is of high
quality. This is because it is not a means to and end, and so a loving care
flows into your doing.
