I MUST admit that having lived on this planet for over half a century, I have experienced many different things in my life but I don’t think anything has intrigued or surprised me more than discovering The Power of Now.
First of all let me also admit that it is wrong of me to refer to The Power of Now as a ‘thing’, it is probably better described as ‘A presence’ or even better still a ‘Power’ that is derived when one practices presence.
I remember quiet clearly coming across this phenomenon for the first time on reading Eckhart Tolle’s world famous book ‘The Power of Now’.
If I am also to be quite honest, I must disclose that on my first reading of this book, I could not make ‘head nor tail’ of it and practically dismissed it as a complete load of rubbish.
The author himself admits that this is the initial reaction of many of his readers, but it is helped by the fact that it has sold over 30 million copies and thus there must be more to it than meets the eye. He writes about this in the foreword to the book.
Once one gets under the ‘skin’ of this book and with a little bit of pursuance and perseverance, its beauty soon begins to reveal itself.
I’ll say no more about it other than to say that it is a life – changing book, but just like a good cookery book the real beauty is revealed in the practice and application of same, rather than simply reading it.
It is thus no surprise that the author also published another famous book called – yes you’ve guessed it – ‘Practicing the Power of Now’.
You see ‘The Power of Now’ is complicated by its simplicity. What is truly most surprising here is how few people actually access The Power of Now. Why is that so, I ask you? Very strange indeed –For you see ‘Now’ is all we’ve got!
Have you ever lived your life five minutes ago or for that matter in five minutes time? The answer is obvious – It has to be No!
Yet despite this most people try to live their lives either worried about the past or anxious about the future, thinking about all the things and events that happened years ago or rushing to get to some imaginary place in the future, always being here and trying to be there.
Future or past but if one is to be honest, hardly any attention is given to the present.
When we access the present by practicing paying attention to it we access a phenomenal source of Power within. We access what is known as Our Inner Strength.
Eckhart Tolle describes it beautifully in his book when he writes about the story of a beggar sitting on a wooden box for many years with his arms outstretched looking for money.
A stranger arrives on the scene and asks the beggar if he ever took the time to examine the box that he had been sitting on for years.
The beggar at once looks inside to find that the box was laden with ‘Gold Bars!!’ He then goes on to say that if you haven’t accessed ‘The Now’ then you (the reader) are like the Beggar in the parable and I am like the stranger telling you to look inside.
It is an obvious parable about how we spend our lives searching for riches and happiness outside when our real wealth and inner strength can only be achieved when we look and appreciate what is going on inside ourselves. We have accessed the Power of Now.
The only thing that I wish to further add to this is the phrase
‘It is in doing we learn’.
As it is only by practising it that the real treasure trove is revealed. How is this best achieved ? – Mindfulness Meditation is a very good place to start.
• Next week I am going to write about – The Power of Now ‘Audio Version’
