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 transform your whole life.
Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.Tolle explains how we have become all consumed by our thoughts and our mind, and how we seek to define ourselves by and in them. I've read a number of books lately with a similar theme, exploring the idea that our thoughts are in effect killing us, and that the only way to achieve a level of peace an happiness in our our lives is to surrender them. In order to do this, we should spend more time in a meditative state, or in activities which create a fully immersed experience, sentiments observed by Tolle:
The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such as mountain climbing, car racing, and so on, although they may not be aware of it, is that it forces them into the Now — that intensely alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of thinking, free of the burden of the personality.There are a number of related themes throughout the book: anxiety about the future and worrying about the past, meditation and focus, breathing, awareness of the the light and energy that surrounds you. The author also explains how we define and judge ourselves and others in our thoughts, which he describes as the egoic mind:
When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is not dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are. It then becomes the egoic mind and takes over your whole life.
As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly. The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.I thought the book was helpful and insightful. In certain parts it was a little difficult to read; some of the concepts and definitions, which are capitalised throughout the book, — Being, the Now, and Presence, — get a little convoluted and hard to follow. But the right amount of repetition, explanation and examples gets the message across in the end.
Here are a few more of my saved Kindle snippets I saved:
If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally... If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity.
And the Buddha taught that the root of suffering is to be found in our constant wanting and craving.
Nothing that is of value, nothing that is real, is ever lost.
So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action — just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord.