Spiritual life

I probably won’t be able to do this as well as I might like, but that’s really not the worst thing in the whole history of forever, you know.

Anyway, first off, this is certainly an adequate summary of the teaching of Modern Eckhart, and also has some characteristics not present, really, in the other version of the book.

But really I want to talk about Eckie and education. It is true that I like to explore the more or less crazy or illusory world of books and ideas more than the mystic per se does, although it’s not as though Eckie has some rule you have to follow about how long you meditate versus intellectualize, you know. Reading is one of my favorite activities; for example, I read this really boring book about Mexican politics about how until recently corrupt politicians could spend anti-poverty money in ways that won elections primarily and helped poor people secondarily at best, and how the poor had to vote to support the status quo because they weren’t entitled to anything (and therefore were afraid of the machine). Of course, if you read about boring things, there’s no end to things, you know. Although to some extent I’ve never fully liked school, and even if I could afford to go back I don’t think I would, partly because as a youth I had no relationship skills, that being “not the proper thing” to learn at school, (I was a kiss ass, you know, much of the time), and also because of the nature of the thing itself, in our current situation.

I mean, I didn’t used to read books so much because I had all these vices springing from wanting to avoid life, basically, and now sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had, I don’t know, been a reliable kiss ass instead of a moody one. (My mother is an alcoholic; moodiness runs in the family.) But really the problem is much deeper, and more knowledge is often more of an entertaining game than a solution to the most fundamental problems of life. I wasn’t really treated the right way by the school system, even, really, in high school or whenever, and home was no balm, either. And god, when you failed, when you embarrassed them behaviorally, they shucked you off and punished you and downgraded you, you know; there was no balm in academia. Either you deserve honor or you deserve punishment, and if you play the game the way that you’re supposed to, honor never pleases the way that punishment stings—until you tell them to go to hell!

Of course, I did lash out and withdraw and so on and grasp at pleasure and generally act stupidly—not that we ever learned or wrote papers about, “how to live your life the right way”, you know. (In 2000 in Mexico, the PRI had an important battle ahead against the….”). But even when you were on the academic wagon, things were not good. In our everyone-is-the-same-but-most-people-aren’t-good-enough system, even to have it within your power, academically, to be conditionally good enough often isn’t that satisfying. Think of what high school is. You learn technical knowledge of like seven different subjects for forty-six minutes each, or whatever it is, you know; you’re supposed to be an expert in everything, and almost no one can do this minimum perfect thing, you know. No wonder kids rebel and say that they’re the best just because they’re skin is smooth or whatever—I don’t need your bullshit!

Although a lot of people do like the elitism on some level, or at least expect it; the point of life is to know more or do more, to prove that you’re better and smarter than everyone else, because…. Because that’s the only way to be happy, and we all agree it’s better for everyone for most people to be miserable, you know. And even most people who say that they believe in God or spirituality are just trying to show people up, to say nothing of clinically intelligent atheists and chemists, you know, so it’s not like I’d bet money on the system changing, although it doesn’t have to, for me to be happy. I do my best for the many people who have been wronged worse by the system, and those who do good things, and I take what I can that I need, and that and a little satisfaction is life, you know. They don’t really teach you that at school, though. They teach you status. They teach you how to insult people, without sounding like a pleb from Twitter, you know.

Obviously this review is a little sad, you know, although I think it’s relevant because Modern Eckhart doesn’t have the academic clout that build-a-better-mousetrap does, you know, and, I don’t know. I mean, you could be in sales or whatever I guess and meditate, but the average critic idiot measures “success”—the “most important thing”, the “only thing”—by how many widgets you sell, and whether you are happy and as far as it lies with you, facilitate happiness in others is just, crap for little girls and religious losers and lies you tell in front of television screens, you know.

I don’t know; this obviously isn’t a summary of the book the way that this book is a sort of essence of the first book, but it certainly does make you think or whatever, about what you value, about what matters—power or happiness, pride or happiness, pride or peace, you know. And if you haven’t received from God or whoever what you want yet, when do you think that this little error is going to be corrected, and how would you know?

….. If you can follow that, Past Goose. 😸

I think that this book, as a shortened version, is slightly more applied, philosophic applied spiritual psychology, as opposed to the more general/abstract, enlightenment philosophy of the book that the readings are taken from.

“What? Whaat?”
“Just ignore him. It’s what I do.”

…. The After-Thought: A lot of things that Eckie says make me sense to me now than they did when I read him more and meditated more, basically because there’s more distance now between the real me and (trumpets blaring) The Search For Truth—the mind.

It’s extremely common to think that we should live in our minds exclusively, despite all the different spins you can put on that, you know. Either way, it’s the real-man way, but it can present as being quite different. Either you stigmatize the rich for being rich while whining about BAD stigma, you know—because the mind loves problems—you get to talk about problems!—whereas ultimately there’s nothing to say about beauty, or happiness, nothing native to those things anyway, which makes it suspect…. I mean, the poverty fan can literally write in one sentence, the (for a moment or apparently, if they but knew) rich stigmatize the poor (which hurts everyone, most obviously the poor), and also of course the poor stigmatize the rich (which hurts everyone, including but I guess, not obviously!, the poor), and just title the section (and post on social media) make sure you keep the stigma to the GOOD stigma, folks, sheesh!…. And if you’re going to cut off a hand, cut off the non-dominant hand: I mean, that’s just basic, right….

—And, then, the other sort is, the robotic intellectual who believes that there’s just nothing a white boy can’t understand, if he isn’t careful to show a sufficient amount of contempt for people who suffer…. Because what people need is to be robotic, and these damn sufferers don’t get that…. And just in this distant sterile faux-clean way, they’ll scoop out Blackie’s brain and put it in a jar to examine, you know, and Ah! It was the female of the species, how odd, how non-standard, after in general people are men, and white, and to just be in such denial about it, you know, but just to give the odd paragraph or whatever to “the part of the human race that doesn’t think that white boys just KNOW things by being unkind—I mean how do you doubt me, chimp boy?”—and then someone from their own background tosses something out and that guy gets at least twice as long, And Then The Entire Rest Of The Book, too, whereas “non-standard gender/race people in general” get told—in a distant, sterilized way—to fuck off in one line and then they stir their tea a little bit to bring it up to a paragraph so that it looks the right way, you know.

And the only thing those two people have in common is the one thing that I guess explains most things—the relation to the mind. Mind is the master; put down that romance novel so I can shoot you in the head with my steely proper gaze, you know, my real-man procedure. That’s what they have in common—not the sports team they play for, but the choice they make vis a vis life. And it is of note—I mean, there were a lot of things I didn’t get about Eckie the first few times, that now I just have fall into my head almost independently, just from being out experiencing life, and then I remember he said it first, you know—that Ecks isn’t negative about sex and relationships as most “spiritual teachers”, and “religious people”, and indeed “calm people” are, as especially in deed but even in word they are often real men about it, you know—and it’s like, I don’t think he’s faking it because it fits in with his take on life. You are not a robot. I mean, Elizabeth Gilbert pointed out that an ant is actually more advanced in most important ways than a supercomputer, and you know—there it is. “Knowledge” that hinders life is not worth dying for, because it isn’t even the real—anything—and anyway that’s not what knowledge is for!

March 31, 2022 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle

Why I picked this book up: I have been doing reading in mindfulness, really enjoyed Thomas C Oden’s The Structure of Awareness so I wanted to read this one.

Thoughts:
1. You are not your mind (I am not my thoughts) “I’m such a…”, ”I wish I hadn’t…” “I hope that I…”. “I can’t wait until…”. Tolle asks when can u turn your brain off? What are the thoughts I observe throughout the day. I want to become the silent observer. Dis identify from the thought stream. We observe and are above the thoughts. It goes to longer gaps between thought (called “no mind” gap) during no mind gap we are more aware, awake, alert, and fully present in the moment. We focus on the now. Here we are aware of the present. We want to be conscious during our mind gaps that get longer. You feel a presence a stillness, a peace where we no longer depend on the future for fulfillment and satisfaction you don’t look to it for salvation.
2. The present moment is all we have. (So live in the moment). Listen to your mind for 10 minutes to see what it tells/tells you. What is missing from the present? Nothing, we can all handle the present. We worry about the future or guilty about the past. We need to be in the now. Use senses fully. Be where you are. Look around. Just look, don’t interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be.
Past—————-Now.—————> Future

We are always stuck in the now like Thomas C. Oden’s structure of awareness.

3. Acceptance of “what is.” Surrender to the now and accept what is There are no problems, only situations to be dealt with now. Or to be left alone and accepted as part of of the present moment until dealt with. If you cant take it, surrender take action immediately action, speak up or do something to bring a bout a change in the situation -or remove yourself from take responsibility for your life.

Why I finished this read: I finished it as I was draw in, am a Christian, have a lot to learn. About being in the present, am a beginner at being and was sad when it was finished.

Stars rating: 4.5 out of 5 ( )

This is ultimately a truncated version of "The Power of Now", with specific portions selected by Tolle to allow for more immediate practice of some of his exercises, as well as a sort of "best of" collection of teachings from the book.

I found it helpful because, while I loved the original book, this one pinpointed philosophies and approaches that feel like bite-sized reminders for the journey. While I recommend the original book as a starting point, this serves as a handy Cliff's Notes adaptation to refer back to if you found "The Power of Now" to be a helpful resource in your life. Nothing new here, but what is here is revelatory and worth revisiting.

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Për të udhëtuar në Fuqinë e së Tashmes, ne do të na duhet të largohemi nga mendja analitike dhe imazhi i rremë, që krijon ajo që fshihet pas saj. Që në faqen e parë të këtij libri të jashtëzakonshëm, ne arrijmë kulmin e lartësisë, ku mund të marrim frymë lirisht. Aty arrijmë të prekim thelbin e pathyeshëm të Qenies sonë, atë të përjetshmen, të pranishmen, që ekziston përtej jetës dhe vdekjes.

Edhe pse rruga është e vështirë, Eckhart Tolle përdor një gjuhë të thjeshtë me pyetje – përgjigje, për të na e bërë më të thjeshtë udhëzimin e librit. Duke u bazuar në fenomenin gojor, pas publikimit të parë, Fuqia e së Tashmes, është një prej librave që ka fuqinë për të krijuar një eksperiencë jete tek lexuesit, që shumë shpejt mund të ndryshojë jetën e tyre për më mirë. Eckhart Tolle është një mësues bashkëkohor shpirtëror, i cili nuk është në linjë me asnjë fe apo traditë të veçantë.

Ai shkruan me kohë të caktuar dhe me një qartësi të pakomplikuar, cilësi kjo, e mjeshtrave të lashtë shpirtëtorë, duke përçuar një mesazh të thjeshtë, por edhe të thellë, për të dalë nga vuajtja drejt paqes. Ai ëhtë autor i librave: “Qetësia flet” dhe “Të praktikosh Fuqinë e së Tashmes”. Ai udhëton vazhdimisht dhe jeton në Vankuver, British Kolumbia.