Dusty Damron
There is no better time to live than in the present. There is no better life than in the here and NOW. This is the underlying declaration Eckhart Tolle made in his book ‘Power of Now’. Time is an essential part of our society. Public transposition relies heavily on time to keep the ecosystems of its trains, trams, and buses in order. The education system also functions within the bounds of time: scheduling class times, due dates, and breaks from all that responsibility.
Sometimes it feels like there isn’t enough time, or time goes by too fast. We can’t finish all the important things that we need to. This is where time seems to become our number one enemy. We live too much according to time. Our lives become so associated with time that we often forget to live in the present moment. The main point of ‘Power of Now’ is that we must escape the bondage of time and live in the present moment—live in the Now.
But who is this “We?” Me, the writer? You, the reader? Us, as a society? Societal enlightenment will come naturally as more of its members attain it; thus enlightenment starts with the individual. But even you or I as an individual is a “we,” for we are a multiplicity. Each of us has a mind—a thinker; each of us has a body—a doer; and each of us, according to Eckhart Tolle, has a conscious being—an observer.
This concept of multiplicity isn’t specific to Eckhart’s spiritual teachings. The Bible speaks of the “double-minded,” being unstable in all of their ways. More often than not, this multiplicity is actually seen as a good thing. Psychotherapist Richard Schwartz tells in his book, ‘No Bad Parts,’ that each of us is fragmented, having multiple personalities and parts of ourselves that surface depending on the situations that we face. He proposes one to think of themselves as an Internal Family System: a living, breathing, and walking flesh machine that houses a family of fragmented personalities.
Each of these three teachings has a state of enlightenment, an end-goal: to break free from multiplicity and become whole. The Bible says to confess your double-mindedness and become reborn again in Christ, free from sin. Richard Schwartz proposes we bring peace to the Internal Family System so that all fragmented parts may live together in harmony. Eckhart Tolle tells us to live in the present moment—live in the Now—that we may enter a state of conscious being, that the darkness of our ego may be washed away by the light of our consciousness.
How do we attain this elusive state of oneness then? Just as we learn to drive from one destination to another, we learn to recognize the signs. We learn to recognize where we are at and where we are going. Eckhart Tolle uses many signposts, that is to say, he uses words and concepts as spiritual mile-markers to show where we are on our journey to enlightenment. Some of the signposts are things like ego, time, mind identified, joy, and being. As I have understood them, I like to condense them using my three favorite pronouns in the English language: Me, Myself, and I.
The mind and ego are Me, for the ego lives in the mind. The ego is identity It is here, in the mind and ego, that Richard Schwartz’ Internal Family System of fragmented personality parts exist. The ego is just like us, it doesn’t want to die. The ego can and will latch on to any identity it can to survive. For example, say someone who has lived selfishly all their lives recognizes their ego’s unwillingness to give, so they begin to give freely to others. To survive and thrive, the ego takes on a new image, a new identity, as the giver.
The mind is also obsessed with time—future and past. It is always either looking to solve the things of the future or thinking of the things of the past. It is in the mind that fear, anxiety, and their coping mechanisms exist since their very existence is dependent upon time, upon past and future. We have learned to fear certain things based on bad experiences in the past. We also fear bad things that could potentially happen in the future. Fear is an emotion, which is to say that fear is one of the body’s responses to a remembered past or imagined future. To reminisce of the past or envision the future is an action of the mind, the thinker—it is an action of Me.
The physical body, flesh and blood, is Myself. It hungers and thirsts beyond need. The body is lazy for some and for others it may never sit still. The body is always reluctant to obey, if it does at all. For example, the mind with all its mighty logic and wisdom can tell the body to sit still and pay attention in class, but the body continues to tap, fidget, or scroll through endless media on our phones to relieve itself of boredom. When things like this happen, the observer, your conscious being is asleep and you are living in a state of unconsciousness. Your mind and body run on autopilot, executing a series of neurological scripts they have learned from past experiences to deal with any given situation or attempt to predict possible future scenarios it may encounter.
If both the mind and body, Me and Myself, are unconscious, then only I am left to be conscious. Say to yourself, “I am not my mind. I am not my body. I am the light of consciousness.”
Consciousness isn’t something that you can think about, for thinking is done by Me, the mind and ego. You may not be able to tell yourself to stop thinking, but you can take away the mind’s access to its favorite tool that keeps you in its mental loops—time. Cease to give attention to the past and future and direct your attention to the present moment, the here and NOW.
Consciousness isn’t something that you can feel, for that is what Myself, the body, does; but if you are feeling, then you have left the mental bounds of time and are one spiritual mile-marker closer to consciousness. There are many practices that help one to tune into their body such as yoga or taichi. Eckhart Tolle proposes a simple meditation in which, in a state of “no-mind”, an absence of thought, you direct your attention inside the body and feel the inner being. Once you feel something, observe it. Don’t think about it and don’t focus too much on feeling, just observe.
For consciousness is neither the thinker nor the doer. Consciousness is the observer. The observer is I. Eckhart cited from the Bible, Exodus 3:14, in which GOD says “I AM THAT I AM.”—and so are you. There is no identity or egoic mind in this statement, nor is there physical body or feeling. It is consciousness. When consciousness is present to observe the body and mind, the unconscious ways of the body and mind can no longer control nor deceive you. They can no longer keep you in darkness. When you find your life in the spirit, you no longer walk asleep, dreaming in the body and mind, but walk awake as the conscious observer over all that has been given to you. When you walk awake as a conscious observer, you no longer identify with time, with past or present; but are wholly present in the here and NOW.
In everything that you do, ask yourself: “Who is really in charge? Me, Myself, or I?”