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