Meeting 3 – Chapter 3 – Moving Deeply into the Now

Thanks again to the group for providing stimulating conversation.  We focused on one particular idea that came from this chapter:

We are obessessed with the past because we believe it defines us.

We are obsessed with the future because we believe it will redeem us.

Both are illusions.

Core Points

1. Distinguish between psychological time and clock time.
2. Psychological time is obsessed with memory and anticipation.
3. Clock time makes use of past and future in order to make the best use of Now.

Chapter Summary

1. Don’t seek yourself in the mind.
1. The ego’s needs are endless.
2. My thoughts
1. Once the ego’s basic need for security is met.
2. It then turns it’s attention obsessions with belonging, love, and power.
2. End the delusion of time.
1. Stop living through memory and anticipation.
2. “[The] past gives you an identity, and the future holds the promise of salvation.”
3. Nothing exists outside the Now.
4. The Key to the spiritual dimension.
1. Emergencies, or other intense situations, focus most people on Now.
5. Accessing the power of Now
1. Withdraw energy from past and future whenever you become away that they have no practical value in the moment.
2. Develop your “witnessing presence” (Authentic Self).
3. Identification with the mind gives it energy.  Observation of the mind withdraws energy.
6. Letting go of psychological time (by using “clock time”)
1. If you recall a mistake from the past and correct yourself in the present, you are using “clock time.”
2. If you recall a mistake and become caught up in shame or fear, you have lost the Now.
7. The insanity of psychological time.
1. Many political movements have used violence to move toward some perceived, ideal end.
2. I would say we use great violence on ourselves in order to achieve such ends (judgement versus curiosity).
8. Negativity and suffering have their roots in time.
1. “Usually the future is a replication of the past…. real transformation is rare and depends upon [your ability] to dissolve the past by accessing the power of the Now.”
2. “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and a denial of the present”
3. You cannot achieve presence to Now because you are already there.
9. Finding the life underneath your life situation.
1. Your life situation is the result of all that has happened to you.
2. Your life is occurring at this moment.
3. Again, the discipline needed is mindfulness.
10. All problems are illusions of the mind.
1. You cannot have a problem in the now.  Problems are all mind made.
2. the Now (Authentic Self) always receives the moment as information.  (A fireman does this naturally…)
3. In a true emergency, time stops.
11. A quantum leap in the evolution of consciousness.
1. Tolle believes there is a creation-wide evolution of consciousness occurring.
12. The joy of Being.
1. Living in the Now is characterized by joy, ease, and lightness.
2. Be present to the current action rather than the goal of the action.
3. In the Now, you can pursue goals with the illusionary burden of expectation.
4. “Being free of psychological time, you no longer pursue your goals with grim determination, driven by fear, anger, discontent, or the need to become someone.”
5. “When this is your state of Being, how can you not succeed?  You have succeeded already.”