In his book, Practicing the Power of Now, p. 45, Eckhart Tolle writes: "To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of the past for your identity and the future for your fulfillment. It represents the most profound transformation of Consciousness that you can imagine."
Tolle got to me, a retired senior, who has often dwelt in the past and as I've aged, I've become more than a little concerned about the future. I live alone and influenced by Tolle, I began to notice as I went about my daily tasks where my mind was instead of polishing that coffee table the umpteenth time. Although a corner of my mind still admired the renewed sheen on the table's top, my thoughts could have taken me anywhere from the banks of the Blanchard River in northwestern Ohio where I was born and raised to a rice paddy in China where I imagined learning about another culture so different from mine.
Reading Tolle, I began to visualize the past, present, and future as three rectangular boxes stacked on top of one another - the middle box, representing the present, where we spend too little time, appeared about an inch in depth compared to the two- or three-foot depth of the lower and upper boxes. Tolle warns at one point that by living in the past and future, instead of the present, we are living our lives as a dream, divorced from the reality of the present moment.
Tolle convincingly urges his readers to embrace the present whether it is good or bad at the time.
Acceptance of what is, the theory goes, empowers one to make wiser decisions. I'm not 100 percent there, yet, dear readers, but you can be sure that I'm doing my best to daily practice the power of now. I'm hoping you'll join me: instead of the staleness of the past or too often the fear and anxiety in our thoughts of the future, we can embrace the fullness of life in the present moment - we don't have to wait until we get that impressive job, make more money, become more popular, find the right partner, pay off those medical bills, or whatever.
Tolle got to me, a retired senior, who has often dwelt in the past and as I've aged, I've become more than a little concerned about the future. I live alone and influenced by Tolle, I began to notice as I went about my daily tasks where my mind was instead of polishing that coffee table the umpteenth time. Although a corner of my mind still admired the renewed sheen on the table's top, my thoughts could have taken me anywhere from the banks of the Blanchard River in northwestern Ohio where I was born and raised to a rice paddy in China where I imagined learning about another culture so different from mine.
Reading Tolle, I began to visualize the past, present, and future as three rectangular boxes stacked on top of one another - the middle box, representing the present, where we spend too little time, appeared about an inch in depth compared to the two- or three-foot depth of the lower and upper boxes. Tolle warns at one point that by living in the past and future, instead of the present, we are living our lives as a dream, divorced from the reality of the present moment.
Tolle convincingly urges his readers to embrace the present whether it is good or bad at the time.
Acceptance of what is, the theory goes, empowers one to make wiser decisions. I'm not 100 percent there, yet, dear readers, but you can be sure that I'm doing my best to daily practice the power of now. I'm hoping you'll join me: instead of the staleness of the past or too often the fear and anxiety in our thoughts of the future, we can embrace the fullness of life in the present moment - we don't have to wait until we get that impressive job, make more money, become more popular, find the right partner, pay off those medical bills, or whatever.
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