A Good Read: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

The “Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle offers the gentle butt-kicking we all need at some point in our spiritual journey (click here to get a copy). Without fluff, he addresses HOW to handle both joy and misery from a spiritual perspective.

Originally published in 1997, this ‘guide to spiritual enlightenment’ offers practical applications to everyday problems, situations, and circumstances we face as human beings.

Whether it be heartbreak, a new beginning, trauma, suffering, a victory, or even the death of someone close – this book addresses it all.

On Wikipedia, it’s referred to as a guide for day-to-day living in the present moment and transcending your thoughts of the past or future that might be holding you back.

MY INTERPRETATION

This book is a dialogue between Eckhart and one of his students – but in actuality, it feels like a dialogue between a sage and the subconscious mind of the reader.

It feels intimate, like a mentor teaching a young mystic the proper way for operating the mind, body, and emotions as they relate to the physical world around us.

When I began reading this book, I took to it like any other spiritual teaching.

I started taking notes and comparing The Power of Now to other religious texts like the Bible and the Kybalion. I compared it to other books on enlightenment. From The Four Agreements to The Alchemist, to Laws of the Spirit World, Ancient Future, and Rhonda Burnes books like The Secret – I was trying to fit this information into what I already knew.

Then, I compared it to the works of Alan Watts, Ernest Holmes, Neville Goddard, Abraham Hicks, Sadhguru, Mooji… I even subconsciously looked for holes in the plotline (I’ll explain how I became aware of this subconscious activity in a moment).

Before I knew it, I was more focused on disproving his points and trying to fit the information into an old set of beliefs. Then – I watched Oprah interview him on her Soul Series.

Click here to watch it.

Oprah Interviewing Eckhart

Oprah approached Eckhart with such humility and asked the very same questions I wanted to ask him, but had no way of doing so.

Instead of being cynical (…I mean, she’s had enough success to consider herself a guru of sorts) – she became the student.

As I listened closely and as the interview evolved, something from the book just began to click.

I know it sounds cliché but really… It was like one of those moments when a lightbulb just turns on and everything that was in the dark, had suddenly moved into the light.

Guru Overload

Let’s take a few steps back so that I can explain how things got to this point.

I was raised in a Catholic Creole family. My mom had voodoo dolls and gris-gris at home, but we went to church every week and celebrated Easter, Christmas, etc. Halloween and Mardi Gras were the biggest celebrations of the year, but we played the part of good Christians throughout my entire childhood.

Eventually, I developed split religious personalities as a result.

There was no cohesive understanding of faith & spirituality, but I knew how to get on well with people who had different spiritual beliefs.

When I was in 4th grade, we moved out of the city and started visiting different churches in the county.

We went less often, and the messages didn’t stick. By high school, I skipped service to volunteer with the babies & toddlers whose parents needed a break during the service.

As I got older, my faith began to fade and at 19 I watched The Secret documentary.

By 21, I was basically an atheist.

Then my hubby and I moved to LA, and a series of strange events began to unfold.

Desert Glass, Psychics, & Posession

I got really into crystals, essential oils, and made friends with psychics and palm readers. Then, I started the Divine Feminine Alchemy community on Facebook, and then things took a turn…

Somewhere in my research, I happened upon Libyan Desert Glass (29 million-year-old impactite glass found in areas in the eastern Sahara) and became obsessed with Egypt.

More in the glass:

• It’s said that the desert glass was used as a “see glass” for interdimensional communication.
• King Tut’s scarab beetle has a specimen of Libyan Desert glass.
• Any remnants of the glass came from a single moment in history. SO if you own a piece, you’ll see how extremely powerful it is.

My psychic friend thought it was an evil rock that needed to be thrown into lava and permanently eliminated from the planet. Her advice freaked me out so I sent it back to the guy I bought it from, but it was already too late.

You see, I was having crazy, I mean INSANE meditations with this thing.

I was drowsy and confused. Meditating for hours and hours every single day. Then I was getting STUCK in my meditations.

I kid you not, I was experiencing sleep paralysis that I couldn’t shake off. Usually, when you get sleep paralysis, it takes a few moments to rouse yourself out of it, but no – I was stuck for sometimes 20 minutes. Completely unable to control my body, but completely conscious.

My husband, Brad, caught one of these spells on camera but hopefully, he never leaks it lol…

Changing Direction

So then my psychic friend says that I’m getting possessed and she can’t help me – bless her heart, she is an awesome psychic, but she’s not a mystic.

I do not believe in possession without consent.

But anyway… my hubby finds a course by Seven Bomar. Some ex-prisoner dude, living in Costa Rica, and it helped me change my beliefs around that.

I don’t believe in demonic possession in the traditional sense, but I do believe if you consent to fearful thinking your reality will reassure you that your fear is valid – AND YOU WILL EXPERIENCE THE DARK SIDE OF YOUR OWN MIND.

From Possession to Meditation

That said, a few months pass, and I attend a 10-day silent meditation retreat.

YESssss, sis, I wasn’t even allowed to smile at anybody, listen to music, use any kind of technology, eat meat (though I was vegan at the time so I was cool with that), or leave the campus for TEN DAYS.

Girlllll, I got some toilet paper and found a janky lil ink pen in my bag and went to town. I was having conversations with myself and writing my dreams down all through the night like a crazy person.

But it changed my life.

I felt hella peaceful and refreshed afterward. In the beginning, meditating in silence for 4 hours was tough. But the retreat was out in the desert, so it was all quiet, and we meditated for like 9-12 hours a day without a problem.

The silence became more comforting than noise. This was the first time I really had someone teaching me how to quiet my mind and enjoy being alone.

When I returned to the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles – a complete contrast to rest & stress-free healing lol – I felt out of place.

So fast forward a few months, and we get the fuck out of LA.

We head to Miami Beach, and I get heavy into Neville Goddard’s teachings.

Neville is solid.

Today, I still listen to Neville from time to time, and his work never fails. It can just be a little esoteric, kinda like reading tarot vs oracle cards, so it can be tough to apply when there’s a lot of ego in the way.

Then I started to focus on more physical 3D aspects – I mean meditating all day doesn’t pay the bills. This is where teachers like Tony Robbins and Napoleon Hill come into play.

How I Learned About Eckhart

To be honest, I forget. *Guess I’ve been living more in the ‘Now’* lol.

There’s a lot more to the story I just told you about my spiritual journey, but of course, there was some research into magic, the occult, Scientology, Aleister Crowley, Mythology & Mysticism, Dolores Cannon and other New Age teachings, and countless additional divergent paths.

The summer after watching The Secret, I took a class in Germany (during a study abroad) that broke down the major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

And Brad shared a ton of info with me as well.

Just before reading The Power of Now, he turned me onto something called Shadow Work, which is mentioned in depth in Jungian Psychology.

Back in LA, I did a series of photoshoots with photographer Craig Moss. He is such an interesting character, and rather obsessed with Jung, and his work on dream interpretation.

He tried to capture my ‘shadow’ on film but I wasn’t at a point in consciousness to fully understand what that meant, or why he was even interested.

But recently, when Brad introduced me to Kyle Cease (a modern comedian turned spiritual teacher) he mentioned how Cease was basically teaching people ‘shadow work’ without calling it shadow work.

In some of Cease’s videos, he talks about Eckhart Tolle and I’m pretty sure Brad got a youtube recommendation for one of his videos – which we ended up watching over lunch one day.

The Power of Now

Like everything in life, including life itself, it seems like I just ended up here through a series of events.

I really can’t tell you all the granular details of what happened along the way.

No really…

One time some random lady from Craigslist drove across town IN LOS ANGELES TRAFFIC to gift me a book about Egypt. She said that she was guided to give it to me for free… literally, I have no idea why.

So yea, that’s basically how I found The Power of Now, and BOY let me tell you, it’s got a message.

Essentially, Eckhart is telling you how to use the body as a tool. Thoughts and emotions are only functions of the body, and when you ego-identify with them, they can seem like more than an itch or hunger pain.

They can seem important, but this is only because you’re allowing thought and emotion to run the body and tell you who you are.

Further, this compulsive, conditioned state of feeling and thinking is what’s keeping you from living out your wildest fantasies.

The Law of Attraction & The Power of Now

Brad and I were talking the other day about how the Law of Attraction teachings are often missing a crucial component.

Generally, most LOA teachers say that you will attract your desires through attention & elevated emotion.

However, that isn’t always positive. When you do some in-depth research on the topic, this becomes apparent. So it’s not really that teachers aren’t telling you this – but it’s that they make attracting what you want sound easy & effortless.

But it’s not that simple.

LOA refers to the attractive, often magnetic power that draws similar energies together. It manifests through every aspect of life, Gravity is even a part of the law of attraction.

While practicing the law of attraction, most of us completely ignore the state that we live in day to day.

Rest assured, this state is EQUAL to the energy around you.

In other words, you can’t walk around feeling poor but shouting affirmations about being wealthy and expect to attract the abundance you desire.

It doesn’t work like that, sis.

What you FEEL inside is what you will attract.

Therefore, it would be really beneficial if LOA teachers also taught the importance of shadow work, acknowledging the ego, and accepting the true reality.

Your soul may not even want to be rich, but the dominant ego will trick you into thinking wealthy affirmations will attract financial abundance into your life.

Lessons from The Power of Now

The key is to isolate the observer (true you, consciousness, awareness) from the observation (feelings, emotions, situations, events, etc).

I go into this more in my articles on shadow work.

The purpose of this article is to share a bit of my spiritual journey and how it led me to The Power of Now.

Comment below if you read, or are reading any of Eckhart Tolle’s works. I’d love to hear what you think.

If you trust me, this post might save you a few years of running in circles like me.

(Click here to get a copy of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle).