“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!” ~ The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now

​​If there is one book worth reading, over and over again, that is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Just like The Tao Te Ching, this incredible book has the power to shape and mold you in subtle, yet powerful ways by revealing to you the peace of your Inner Being, the love and the serenity that has always been present underneath all that mental noise and external distractions.

What I will share with you today is a shortcut to the most powerful ideas from the book, The Power of Now, ideas that could potentially awaken you to your inner truth and help you experience the unfathomable peace which comes from Being. 

The Power of Now Simplified: Your Shortcut to the Most Important Ideas on Surrender, Presence, Freedom and True Happiness

You have a treasure within yourself infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

“A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. “Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. “I have nothing to give you,” said the stranger. Then he asked:

“What’s that you are sitting on?”

“Nothing,” replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.”

“Ever looked inside?” asked the stranger.

“No,” said the beggar. “What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.”

“Have a look inside,” insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.

“But I am not a beggar,” I can hear you say. Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.

They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse.

“The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about.

Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as “My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false,” or Nietzsche’s famous statement “God is dead.”

The word God has become a closed concept. The moment the word is uttered, a mental image is created, no longer, perhaps, of an old man with a white beard, but still a mental representation of some- one or something outside you, and, yes, almost inevitably a male someone or something.” ~ The Power of Now

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction.

“Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal.” ~ The Power of Now

You are not your mind.

“The philosopher Descartes believed that he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: “I think, therefore I am.” He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error, to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking.” ~ The Power of Now

“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.” ~The Power of Now

The mind is using you.

“Just because you can solve a crossword puzzle or build an atom bomb doesn’t mean that you use your mind. Just as dogs love to chew bones, the mind loves to get its teeth into problems. That’s why it does crossword puzzles and builds atom bombs. You have no interest in either. Let me ask you this: can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the “off” button?

You mean stop thinking altogether? No, I can’t, except maybe for a moment or two.

Then the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don’t even know that you are its slave. It’s almost as if you were possessed without knowing it, and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself.

The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.” ~ The Power of Now

You can free yourself from your mind.

“The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. This is the only true liberation. You can take the first step right now. Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years.

This is what I mean by “watching the thinker,” which is another way of saying: listen to the voice in your head, be there as the witnessing presence. When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. That is to say, do not judge.

Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You’ll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.” ~ The Power of Now

Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.

“Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.” ~ The Power of Now

Addiction to thinking.

“What characterizes an addiction? Quite simply this: you no longer feel that you have the choice to stop. It seems stronger than you. It also gives you a false sense of pleasure, pleasure that invariably turns into pain.

“Why should we be addicted to thinking?”

Because you are identified with it, which means that you derive your sense of self from the content and activity of your mind. Because you believe that you would cease to be if you stopped thinking. As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are, based on your personal and cultural conditioning.

We may call this phantom self the ego. It consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it here it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind.” ~ The Power of Now

To the ego, the present moment hardly exists.

“To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it — who are you? It constantly projects itself into the future to ensure its continued survival and to seek some kind of release or fulfillment there. It says: “One day, when this, that, or the other happens, I am going to be okay, happy, at peace.”

Even when the ego seems to be concerned with the present, it is not the present that it sees: It mis- perceives it completely because it looks at it through the eyes of the past. Or it reduces the present to a means to an end, an end that always lies in the mind-projected future. Observe your mind and you’ll see that this is how it works.” ~ The Power of Now

The present moment holds the key to liberation.

“The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.” ~ The Power of Now

The mind is essentially a survival machine.

“The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information — this is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative.” ~ The Power of Now

All true artists create from a place of no-mind.

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. The mind then gives form to the creative impulse or insight. Even the great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came at a time of mental quietude.” ~ The Power of Now

Thinking plays only a subordinate part in creative act.

“The surprising result of a nationwide inquiry among America’s most eminent mathematicians, including Einstein, to find out their working methods, was that thinking “plays only a subordinate part in the brief, decisive phase of the creative act itself.” ~ The Power of Now

The majority of scientists are not creative because they don’t know how to stop thinking.

“The simple reason why the majority of scientists are not creative is not because they don’t know how to think but because they don’t know how to stop thinking!” ~ The Power of Now

The pain-body is the accumulation of old emotional pain that almost all people carry in their energy field…

“The pain-body is my term for the accumulation of old emotional pain that almost all people carry in their energy field… I see it as a semi-autonomous psychic entity. It consists of negative emotions that were not faced, accepted, and then let go in the moment they arose. These negative emotions leave a residue of emotional pain, which is stored in the cells of the body.” ~ The Power of Now

The pain-body is this: the addiction to unhappiness.

“The pain-body has a dormant stage and an active stage. Periodically it becomes activated, and when it does, it seeks more suffering to feed on. If you are not absolutely present, it takes over your mind and feeds on negative thinking as well as negative experiences such as drama in relationships. This is how it has been perpetuating itself throughout human history. Another way of describing the pain-body is this: the addiction to unhappiness.” ~ The Power of Now

The pain-body can only survive if you unconsciously identify with it.

“The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it.” ~ The Power of Now

Observe the pain-body directly and see it for what it is.

“So the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you. You have found your own innermost strength. You have accessed the power of Now.” ~ The Power of Now

Whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light.

“St. Paul expressed this universal principle beautifully:. “Everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light.” Just as you cannot fight the darkness, you cannot fight the pain-body.” ~ The Power of Now

The more you are identified with your thinking, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be.

“The more you are identified with your thinking, your likes and dislikes, judgments and interpretations, which is to say the less present you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be, whether you are aware of it or not.”

Make it a habit to ask yourself. Whats going on inside me at this moment?

“Make it a habit to ask yourself. Whats going on inside me at this moment? That question will point you in the right direction. But don’t analyze, just watch. Focus your attention within. Feel the energy of the emotion.” ~ The Power of Now

Emotion literally means “disturbance.”

“Emotion literally means “disturbance.” The word comes from the Latin emovere, meaning “to disturb.” ~ The Power of Now

Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.

“Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within. The very thing that gives you pleasure today will give you pain tomorrow, or it will leave you, so its absence will give you pain. ” ~ The Power of Now

“Many “love” relationships oscillate between “love” and hate, attraction and attack.

“What is often referred to as love may be pleasurable and exciting for a while, but it is an addictive clinging, an extremely needy condition that can turn into its opposite at the flick of a switch.” ~ The Power of Now

“Many “love” relationships, after the initial euphoria has passed, actually oscillate between “love” and hate, attraction and attack.” ~ The Power of Now

“If you cannot be at ease with yourself when you are alone, you will seek a relationship to cover up your unease.“

You cannot love your partner one moment and attack him or her the next.

“You cannot love your partner one moment and attack him or her the next. True love has no opposite. If your “love” has an opposite, then it is not love but a strong ego-need for a more complete and deeper sense of self, a need that the other person temporarily meets. It is the ego’s substitute for salvation, and for a short time it almost does feel like salvation.” ~ The Power of Now

The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your partner as he or she is.

“In fact, the moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace. First you stop judging yourself; then you stop judging your partner. The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your partner as he or she is, without needing to judge or change them in any way. That immediately takes you beyond ego.” ~ The Power of Now

“Being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction” and the judge.

“To relinquish judgment does not mean that you do not recognize dysfunction and unconsciousness when you see it. It means “being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction” and the judge. You will then either be totally free of reaction or you may react and still be the knowing, the space in which the reaction is watched and allowed to be. Instead of fighting the darkness, you bring in the light. Instead of reacting to delusion, you see the delusion yet at the same time look through it.” ~ The Power of Now

The ego needs problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the sense of separateness.

“Remember that the ego needs problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the sense of separateness on which its identity depends.” ~ The Power of Now

All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future.

A”ll cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachments, and aversions, and apart from them there is no ‘I’ except as a mere possibility, an unfulfilled potential, a seed that has not yet sprouted. In that state, even my desire to become free or enlightened is just another craving for fulfillment or completion in the future.” ~ The Power of Now

Become present.

“Don’t seek to become free of desire or “achieve” enlightenment. Become present. Be there as the observer of the mind. Instead of quoting the Buddha, be the Buddha, be “the awakened one,” which is what the word buddha means.” ~ The Power of Now

Cease to create pain in the present and dissolve past pain.

“There are two levels to your pain: the pain that you create now, and the pain from the past that still lives on in your mind and body. Ceasing to create pain in the present and dissolving past pain…” ~ The Power of Now

Time and mind are inseparable.

“Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.” ~ The Power of Now

An increasingly heavy burden of time has been accumulating in the human mind.

“The mind, to ensure that it remains in control, seeks continuously to cover up the present moment with past and future, and so, as the vitality and infinite creative potential of Being, which is inseparable from the Now, becomes covered up by time, your true nature becomes obscured by the mind. An increasingly heavy burden of time has been accumulating in the human mind.

All individuals are suffering under this burden, but they also keep adding to it every moment whenever they ignore or deny that precious moment or reduce it to a means of getting to some future moment, which only exists n the mind, never in actuality. The accumulation of time in the collective and individual human mind also holds a vast amount of residual pain from the past.” ~ The Power of Now

If you no longer want to create pain for yourself and others, don’t create any more time.

“If you no longer want to create pain for yourself and others, if you no longer want to add to the residue of past pain that still lives on in you, then don’t create any more time, or at least no more than is necessary to deal with the practical aspects of your life. How to stop creating time? Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.” ~ The Power of Now

Always say “yes” to the present moment.

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.” ~ The Power of Now

Accept — then act.

“Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously trans- form your whole life.” ~ The Power of Now

The more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain.

“The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it. In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may put it like this: the more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering and free of the egoic mind.” ~ The Power of Now

To the ego, death is always just around the corner.

“To the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this mind-identified state, fear of death affects every aspect of your life.” ~ The Power of Now

The ego cannot afford to be wrong.

“So you as the ego cannot afford to be wrong. To be wrong is to die. Wars have been fought over this, and countless relationships have broken down.” ~ The Power of Now

Whether you are right or wrong makes no difference to your sense of self at all.

“Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are right or wrong makes no difference to your sense of self at all, so the forcefully compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of violence, will no longer be there.” ~ The Power of Now

Observe the attachment to your views and opinions.

“When you become involved in an argument or some conflict situation, perhaps with a partner or someone close to you, start by observing how defensive you become as your own position is attacked, or feel the force of your own aggression as you attack the other person’s position. Observe the attachment to your views and opinions.

Feel the mental-emotional energy behind your need to be right and make the other person wrong. Thats the energy of the egoic mind. You make it conscious by acknowledging it, by feeling it as fully as possible. Then one day, in the middle of an argument, you will suddenly realize that you have a choice, and you may decide to drop your own reaction just to see what happens. You surrender.” ~ The Power of Now

The ego is cunning.

“The ego is cunning, so you have to be very alert, very present, and totally honest with yourself to see whether you have truly relinquished your identification with a mental position and so freed yourself from your mind.” ~ The Power of Now

Identified with your ego, you are never enough.

“Another aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the egoic mind is a deep-seated sense of lack or incompleteness, of not being whole. In some people, this is conscious, in others unconscious. If it is conscious, it manifests as the unsettling and constant feeling of not being worthy or good enough. If it is unconscious, it will only be felt indirectly as an intense craving, wanting and needing. In either case, people will often enter into a compulsive pursuit of ego-gratification and things to identify with in order to fill this hole they feel within.” ~ The Power of Now

The secret of life is to “die before you die” and find that there is no death.

“Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” and find that there is no death.” ~ The Power of Now

End the delusion of time.

“Here is the key: End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable.”

“Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not needed. Step out of the time dimension as much as possible in everyday life.” ~ The Power of Now

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time:

“To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation.” ~ The Power of Now

“The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.” ~ The Power of Now

Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now.

“Have you ever experienced, done, thought, or felt anything outside the Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything to happen or be outside the Now? The answer is obvious, is it not? Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now.” ~ The Power of Now

When clock time turns into psychological time.

“If you set yourself a goal and work toward it, you are using clock time. You are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your fullest attention to the step that you are taking at this moment.

If you then become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the Now is no longer honored. It becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value.

Clock time then turns into psychological time. Your life’s journey is no longer an adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive, to attain, to “make it.” You no longer see or smell the flowers by the wayside either, nor are you aware of the beauty and the miracle of life that unfolds all around you when you are present in the Now.” ~ The Power of Now

“The mind then creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present.” ~ The Power of Now

“This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell.” ~ The Power of Now

Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now.

Give attention to the action itself.

“So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action just give attention to the action itself.” ~ The Power of Now

Focus not on the 100 things but on the one thing that you can do now.

“Focus not on the 100 things that you will or may have to do at some future time but on the one thing that you can do now. This doesn’t mean you should not do any planning. It may well be that planning is the one thing you can do now. But make sure you don’t start to run “mental movies,” project yourself into the future, and so lose the Now.” ~ The Power of Now

Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there.

“Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there,” or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. Its a split that tears you apart inside. To create and live with such an inner split is insane. The fact that everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it any less insane.” ~ The Power of Now

Being is freedom from fear.

“When your deeper sense of self is derived from Being, when you are free of “becoming” as a psychological need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self depends on the outcome, and so there is freedom from fear.” ~ The Power of Now

Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it.

“Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being. Feel your presence.” ~ The Power of Now

“It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.“

Only the present can free you of the past.

“You may think that you need more time to understand the past or become free of it, in other words, that the future will eventually free you of the past. This is a delusion. Only the present can free you of the past. More time cannot free you of time.” ~ The Power of Now

“The past cannot survive in your presence. It can only survive in your absence.“

As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought.

“As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought. You are still, yet highly alert. The instant your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The mental noise returns; the stillness is lost. You are back in time.” ~ The Power of Now

Dont get stuck on the level of words.

“Don’t get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end.” ~ The Power of Now

If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now.

“A very effective way of doing this is simply to take the focus of your attention away from thinking and direct it into the body, where Being can be felt in the first instance as the invisible energy field that gives life to what you perceive as the physical body.

“If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now. You won’t lose yourself in the external world, and you wont lose yourself in your mind. Thoughts and emotions, fears and desires, may still be there to some extent, but they won’t take you over.”

“I cannot tell you anything that deep within you don’t already know.”

Nonforgiveness may be toward any situation or condition past, present or future that your mind refuses to accept.

“Nonforgiveness is often toward another person or yourself, but it may just as well be toward any situation or condition past, present or future that your mind refuses to accept.”

Time is the greatest obstacle to salvation.

“You see time as the means to salvation, whereas in truth it is the greatest obstacle to salvation.”

Salvation is not elsewhere in place or time. It is here and now.

“You are waiting for an event in time to save you. Is this not the core error that we have been talking about? Salvation is not elsewhere in place or time. It is here and now.”

“Once you understand the root of the dysfunction, you do not need to explore its countless manifestations.“

Hold all things in the loving embrace of your knowing.

“To go beyond the mind and reconnect with the deeper reality of Being, very different qualities are needed: surrender, nonjudgment, an openness that allows life to be instead of resisting it, the capacity to hold all things in the loving embrace of your knowing.” ~ The Power of Now

The compulsion to do is an inevitable illusion as long as you are identified with the mind.

“The compulsion to do, and the tendency to derive your sense of self-worth and identity from external factors such as achievement, is an inevitable illusion as long as you are identified with the mind. This makes it hard or impossible for you to accept the low cycles and allow them to be. Thus, the intelligence of the organism may take over as a self-protective measure and create an illness in order to force you to stop, so that the necessary regeneration can take place.” ~ The Power of Now

Nothing out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially

“The more you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you. Nothing out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially, but you may need to experience many disillusionments before you realize that truth. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they will also give you pain.”

Nothing can give you joy.

“Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the peace of God. It is your natural state, not something that you need to work hard for or struggle to attain.”

Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your nonpeace, your nonpeace becomes transmuted into peace.”

Forgive yourself for not being at peace.

“Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your nonpeace, your nonpeace becomes transmuted into peace.”

“Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures.“

The only animals that may occasionally experience negativity are those that live in close contact with humans.

“Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or a stressed oak tree? Have you come across a depressed dolphin, a frog that has a problem with self-esteem, a cat that cannot relax, or a bird that carries hatred and resentment? The only animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity or show signs of neurotic behavior are those that live in close contact with humans and so link into the human mind and its insanity.” ~ The Power of Now

Die before you die.

“One of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called: Die before you die.” ~ The Power of Now

Surrender.

“Remember. Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you cannot fight unconsciousness. If you try to do so, the polar opposites will become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. You will become identified with one of the polarities, you will create an “enemy,” and so be drawn into unconsciousness yourself.” ~ The Power of Now

“Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.”

Through nonresistance, the quality of your consciousness is enhanced immeasurably.

“Through nonresistance, the quality of your consciousness and, therefore, the quality of whatever you are doing or creating is enhanced immeasurably.”

Yield to overcome.

“Nonresistance doesn’t necessarily mean doing nothing. All it means is that any “doing” becomes nonreactive. Remember the deep wisdom underlying the practice of Eastern martial arts: don’t resist the opponents force. Yield to overcome.” ~ The Power of Now

The real “doing nothing” implies inner nonresistance and intense alertness.

“In Taoism, there is a term called wu wei, which is usually translated as “actionless activity” or “sitting quietly doing nothing.”

You are the problem as long as the egoic mind is in control.

“Illness is not the problem. You are the problem as long as the egoic mind is in control.”

Do not blame life for treating you unfairly, but do not blame yourself either.

“Do not blame life for treating you unfairly, but do not blame yourself either. All that is resistance.” ~ The Power of Now

Do not resist the pain. Allow it to be there.

“Do not resist the pain. Allow it to be there. Surrender to the grief, despair, fear, loneliness, or whatever form the suffering takes. Witness it without labeling it mentally. Embrace it. Then see how the miracle of surrender transmutes deep suffering into deep peace.” ~ The Power of Now

If you think that you need more time, you will get more time and more pain.

“If you think that you need more time, you will get more time and more pain. Time and pain are inseparable.” ~ The Power of Now

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Luminita D. Saviuc

Luminita is the Founder and Editor in Chief of PurposeFairy.com and also the author of 15 Things You Should Give Up to Be Happy: An Inspiring Guide to Discovering Effortless Joy. For more details check out the 15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy Book Page.

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