Saved ... by The Power of NOW

I’d been on the island for 3 months and had no real friends yet. So I call an old girlfriend to talk. She tells me about this new book she’s reading. I feign interest since I already have a book to read - Awaken the Buddha Within. She offers to mail me the book she’s reading - The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle. I thought this was an awfully nice thing to do. Two days later it arrives.

I am overwhelmed by it’s simplicity and message. The one simple answer to every difficult question I’d ever struggled with. I knew deep down that the way had to be simple enough for everyone to follow. I devour NOW - reading it from cover to cover in one sitting. I had found it. This was it. The culmination of everything I had ever read or thought about. Here was I way to actually become enlightened, not just believe it possible. This was my liberation from pain and suffering. Best of all, the path was dead simple. There was nothing you had to do. The message fits with all the great teachings and I had finally found my way - there is no “way”. There is only “here” and “now”. I had read that years ago by Allan Watts but now I truly understood the message. Of course. How stupid of me to miss this.

I put away my other book and dive into this one. I read it daily. And I start to make some serious progress. There were a few simple truths revealed in a way I could act upon them. From his book ... “Are you always trying to get other than where you are? Is most of your doing just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasures such as sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? (yes, yes, yes, yes, yes) Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining, or alternatively chasing some new thrill or pleasure? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled, goon enough, or psychologically complete? Are you waiting for a man or woman to give meaning to your life?” 

First and foremost is the truth that we are not who we think we are. We are not our thoughts. Thoughts are phantoms and we are truly the egoless knower of the thoughts. When the thoughts stop we can experience what is real and when that happens everything changes.