Oprah Winfrey Loved It. Millions More Have Bought It. the Self

WW | wellbeing Oprah Winfrey loved it. Millions more have bought it. The self- help best-sellerHOW The Power of Now has turned German-born TO LIVE writer Eckhart Tolle into a spiritual guru, writes David Leser. HERE’S AN ADMISSION. I take Eck- rewarding experience of my career to teach your mind wrongly – you usually don’t use hart Tolle to bed with me every night. I this book online with Eckhart Tolle and it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You share him with others, of course, but he’s witness millions of people all over the globe believe that you are your mind. This is the the constant companion. He’s the one awaken to their lives in such profound ways.” delusion. The instrument has taken over.” that’s always there. Sometimes, when I Oprah Winfrey isn’t the only celebrity Eckhart says the beginning of “freedom” don’t sleep, I turn to him for comfort or to have endorsed the teachings of this one- comes from the realisation that we are advice. At other times, deep in the grip of time homeless spiritual seeker. Meg Ryan not what we think, that a vast realm of some dream state, I feel him guarding the first recommended The Power of Now to intelligence exists beyond thought. night like my own personal shepherd. her and, in June 2007, Paris Hilton opted Thinking is only a tiny aspect of that Time magazine might have dismissed for Eckhart’s wise counsel when she intelligence and all the things that truly his teachings as New Age mumbo jumbo, entered the Century Regional Detention matter to us – beauty, creativity, joy, but I think the magazine is wrong, as do Facility in California on a driving offence. love, inner peace – arise from beyond millions of others. Eckhart Tolle is today She arrived at the gates clutching the Bible the mind, from beyond thought. the author of two of the biggest selling in one hand and The Power of Now in the “Thinking and consciousness are not books in the world. His first, The Power other. Well, okay, maybe that’s not such a synonymous,” he continues. “Thinking of Now, published in 1997, has been good endorsement after all. is only a small aspect of consciousness. described as the bible of our times and Singer Annie Lennox has also sung Thought cannot exist without consciousness, been translated into 33 languages. That’s Eckhart’s praises, declaring, “I think but consciousness does not need thought. the one I have next to my bed! he’s truly exceptional, but in saying that, All true artists, whether they know it or His second book, A New Earth, has it’s almost like I’m putting some kind of not, create from a place of no mind, from topped best-seller lists across the US for label on him, which could be misleading. inner stillness. Even the great scientists have the past three years and been endorsed by Perhaps what I should say is that there reported that their creative breakthrough no less a celebrity and celebrity-maker than are many people claiming to be teachers, came during a time of mental quietude.” Oprah Winfrey. She’s described the book coaches, guides and gurus, but he has The way to access this stillness (see as “a wake-up call for the entire planet”. some kind of special quality that I’ve The How of the Now, overleaf), Eckhart Oprah has a copy of it on the beside never encountered before.” says, is to withdraw the mind’s attention tables of all the guestrooms of her various from the past or the future – at least when properties – from Chicago to California, In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes it is not needed – and focus instead on the Hawaii to Antigua. about how the human mind has become present moment. The more we’re focused Last year, in an unprecedented gesture, dysfunctional because of too much thinking. on time – in other words, the past and future she presented A New Earth in online seminars “Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful – the more we miss the Now, the most with the author – one chapter each week affliction,” he says, “but we don’t realise precious thing there is. for 10 weeks, creating what was, in effect, this because almost everybody is suffering “Why is it the most precious thing?” he the world’s largest ever classroom. By the from it, so it is considered normal. asks, rhetorically. “Because it is the only third week, 11 million people had logged “The mind is a superb instrument if thing. It’s all there is. Life is now. There on. Today, more than six million people used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it was never a time when your life was not have a copy of the book. becomes very destructive. To put it more now, nor will there ever be. Nothing ever During the 12 years she’s run Oprah’s accurately, it is not so much that you use happened in the past. It happened in Book Club, America’s richest woman has given many authors her golden seal of approval. Never like this, though. A New Earth, she said, had changed her life. “I’ve read hundreds of books that have helped me become more spiritually attuned,” she noted. “A New Earth resonated so deeply with me and caused such a shift in the way I perceived myself and all things, GETTY IMAGES. GETTY IMAGES. I couldn’t not share it. It’s been the most IN THPIC CREDIT E NOW the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the “LIFE IS NOW. THERE sense of who you are, but it’s always an future. It will happen in the Now. What WAS NEVER A TIME uneasy sense of who one is. That is how THE HOW Wherever you are, be there totally. If your here and you think of as the past is a memory trace, WHEN YOUR LIFE WAS the ego works. So one is never quite at Now makes you unhappy, you have three options: stored in the mind, of a former Now. The ease with oneself, or if one is … it’s only 3remove yourself, change it or accept it totally. future is an imagined Now, a projection NOT NOW, NOR WILL for short periods and then the unease comes OF THE NOW If you keep your attention in the body as much as of the mind. When the future comes, it THERE EVER BE. back. The unease can also easily become Do these exercises each day possible, you will stay in the Now. You won’t lose comes as the Now.” NOTHING EVER fear … many kinds of negative emotions and feel more joy in your life yourself in the external world and you won’t lose 4 All our negativity, Eckhart goes on HAPPENED IN THE PAST. can arise [and] you live from this really Start listening to the voice in your head as often yourself in your mind. The more consciousness you bring to say, is caused by an accumulation of IT HAPPENED IN THE artificially generated sense of self.” as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive into the body, the stronger your immune system becomes. “psychological” time and a denial of the NOW ... WHAT YOU All of Eckhart’s egoic consciousness or 1 thought patterns. Don’t judge what you hear. Don’t It’s as if every cell awakens. It is also a potent form of self- present. In other words, all the unease, false sense of self collapsed one night in take your thoughts too seriously. When you listen, you are healing. When you are unoccupied for a few minutes and anxiety, tension, stress and worry we feel THINK OF AS THE PAST England, not long after his 29th birthday. In aware not only of the thought, but of yourself as the witness especially last thing at night and first thing in the morning, are often caused by too much future, not IS A MEMORY TRACE.” his darkest moment, he had said to himself, of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come “flood” your body with consciousness. Lie flat on your back. enough present. Conversely, all the guilt, “I cannot live with myself any longer” and in. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly Close your eyes. Choose different parts of your body to focus regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, (He changed his name to Eckhart in honour it was then that he’d become aware of what subsides. When the thought subsides, you experience a your attention on briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, bitterness we feel – all the forms of non- of the 14th century German spiritual leader, a peculiar thought this actually was. “Am discontinuity in the mental stream – a gap of “no-mind”. At abdomen, chest, head … Feel the life energy inside those forgiveness – are caused by too much past. Meister Eckhart.) I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for about As long as we remain unable to access At the age of 13, he moved with his father there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the gradually, they will become longer. When these gaps occur, 15 seconds. Then let your attention run through the body the present moment, every emotional pain to Spain, but refused all formal education ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” you feel a certain stillness and peace inside.

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