Spirituality 101 : By an Amateur Seeker

This post was supposed to be a book review of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. But how can one rate/review a book like this?

No one can have a constant companion all their lives. One can have different people at various phases but not a single person all through life. Unfortunately, at times, one also needs to go through the travesties of life alone. The Power of Now is that guide you’d need to help yourself through life not just to get out of a difficult situation but to live a good life. I have finally found my guru and mentor for life in this profound book.

Being a seeker, I enrolled in quite a few “higher learning” courses offered by different organizations. From meditation to yoga, I have sought spirituality in a lot of places. In all the attempts, I just touched the surface and never really took the plunge. I could understand the power of these practices but lacked initiative. Perhaps deep down, I was waiting for clarity and answers to what spirituality is all about. By reading The Power of Now, I feel I am one step ahead in my spiritual journey. I think I understand these “higher learnings” better.

The Power of Now is a unique experience, and I feel everyone stands to gain different learnings from it, depending on one’s life stage. I can guarantee you that The Power of Now is a perfect means to introduce yourself to spirituality and make your life meaningful and joyful.

Below is the essence of the book and the messages that have profoundly impacted me. However many sources you refer to on the topic of spirituality, everything boils down to the below-mentioned pointers. So, here’s Spirituality 101 for you by an amateur seeker.

1. Stop Living in your head. Stop experiencing life through psychological-mental experiences of mind. Most of us have involuntarily given complete control of our life to our minds. Isn’t it the intelligent one? So, what’s wrong if the mind is controlling our life. Do we have a choice? If not mind, then what else? Welcome to the world where you are not your mind. Spirituality is all about understanding that you are not your mind. Your journey away from the material or physical realms will get started once you start exploring what lies beyond the mind. *****************************************************************************************
2. Be Present. How often is your mind entirely aligned with what you are doing? Are you conscious of how your body/being is responding to the experience of that activity? Okay, to test this the next time you interact with someone, try to notice how present you are. Are you listening to them, or is your mind going through your to-do list? Awareness is very crucial to better living. You need to be 100% present. And guys, multitasking is not a thing. It is a scientific fact that the brain cannot multitask efficiently. You’d wonder how does awareness helps? For one, it helps you to do the job effectively. Secondly, now is only that exists. Why do you want to let the now slip for past and future that is only in your head? Awareness helps us experience life as it is. Only the present moment exists, and that’s where you should be. ****************************************************************************************
3. Stop being Reactive. You would respond to situations rather than react if you were completely present in the now and weren’t compulsively letting your mind take control. We react when our mind is immersed in the imaginary future or the mystical past. Take inputs from the mind, but not orders. Act Consciously. Not Compulsively. ****************************************************************************************
4. Elevate yourself to look at your thoughts. We want others to get us while we believe in some fantasy version of ourselves. Rise above your drama and thought patterns to see through yourself. Emotions and thoughts are the creations of the mind. They are not the reality. Don’t try to understand yourself because the mind will be biased. Rise above and try to see who you are. And please drop the rosy glasses. ****************************************************************************************
5. Fix Yourself. Do yourself a favor and fix the compulsive patterns of your mind. You think you are free but are you? The mind can make you have strong opinions instead of letting you live myriad experiences. It can make you believe in random stories that it weaves and can keep on enforcing behaviors that make you its slave. Beware of mind. It can make you look at things based on their limited understanding. It can exaggerate certain emotions. It can trap you into doing certain things for the thrill of it. It can make you believe that you need to fix others than yourself. You think you are free, but your mind can limit the abundance that life can offer. If you can’t believe this, try being in complete control of what is happening in your mind for a day (just the waking hours). *****************************************************************************************
6. Silence. Once you have quieted your mind, silence within will make you seek external silence. And vice versa. Silence isn’t the absence of noise, but it is the presence of no noise. Noise exists because of silence, and not vice versa. Matter exists because of space. You can distinguish between things around you because there is space between them. (Not getting it? Read the damn book. I am no Eckhart Tolle.) So anyway, no noise makes looking inward easy. It helps you connect with the inner being because silence is an intrinsic characteristic of the inner being. Are you wondering what is the inner being? It is The Answer.  *****************************************************************************************
7. Responsibility. Once you’ve felt the inner being within you, you cannot look at others differently than yourself. I have not reached the point where others and I are not separate entities, but till that time I plan to act like I have. I plan to drop any judgment and wholeheartedly practice acceptance. Accept what is. When you have felt that the being in yourself and every other person or thing is the same, that we are all the same, you can only look at everything with love.  ******************************************************************************************
8. Surrender. Resisting the present moment can only make you miserable. The present moment is inevitable. It is what it is. You can plan for the future, but resisting the inevitable present moment can do no good. Surrender to what is. Drop any resistance present in the form of thoughts and emotions. Connect with the innate peace of the now. *******************************************************************************************
9. Desire Fearlessly. Desires are okay until they become compulsions and affect you on a mental and psychological level. Planning to achieve your desires is fine until you start running stories in your mind of a future time that does not exist anywhere except in your mind. Desires lead to actions in the material world like ours. Even to feel your inner being, you need to desire the same so that you follow through. However, if your desire doesn’t turn into reality, clinging to the desire is resisting what is. 

The Power of Now is a powerful book that can illuminate your path to spiritual growth if you seek the same. The wisdom and methods of how to connect with the inner being have been clearly explained in the book and are simple to apply (in case one sets their mind onto it). This knowledge has been available for decades, but we struggle and suffer needlessly in our lives because of a lack of awareness. Now is the time to truly free ourselves.

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Keep Reading. Chao!