ECKHART TOLLE interview: Living in the Now

Are you already part of the family of inhabitants of the Now? No? And what are you waiting for? You now have a great opportunity to reconnect with a message that is undoubtedly known to you but in whose practice, for one reason or another, you may not have decided to deepen: the ancient ancestral recommendation No living in the here and now.

THE NOW

- To put ourselves in context: please synthesize us in a phrase in what consists of 'living in the Now'.

- In being free of all internal resistance - in the form of mental judgment or emotional negativity - to what you are experiencing or feeling at this time.

- Why do you save 'living in the Here'?

- The Now already implies the Here.

-Al Now has power ... for whom to get what?

- The power of Now is the power of primordial, unconditional, creative intelligence. At the outset it may seem that you can use it for your personal purposes, but you quickly realize that it somehow uses you. When you tune into the Now, you align not only with creative intelligence, but also with the evolutionary impulse of the Universe. It is Life itself before its birth as form. You have to see clearly that you have no life, but that you are Life (in the temporal manifestation as a person). You and life are one.

- Is it possible for a person without spiritual desires to use Now as a technique to help them succeed in some activity, or as a rescue formula in bad times?

- Wanting to free yourself from suffering and unhappiness is an excellent motivation for the practice of living in the present moment. You do not need to look for the spiritual dimension. If you are present, the spiritual dimension opens itself. But Now is not a technique that the ego can use to achieve its purposes (which in any case are always dysfunctional), because Now is the inner space in which the ego, the false self, dissolves.

- Where do I have my attention when I live in the Now?

–You are present inside and outside. Your attention is focused on what is happening or what you are experiencing right now: perceptions of the senses - a cloud moving through the sky, a barking dog, the sensation of vitality of your body, your breathing, and perhaps an emotion or a thought going through your mind.
You are aware of what arises, but the most important thing - and this may sound a bit strange - is that you are also aware that you are aware.
This consciousness is an inner space, and this inner space is what the Now is in essence. So the Now is not 'what happens', but the space in which it occurs. He never abandons you. It is always now.

- How do I feel when I live in the Now? Can I be just as unhappy ... but to make matters worse, aware of my misfortune?

- An essential aspect of living in the Now is the inner alignment with what it is, which means acceptance of what arises at this time. Another word for this is 'non-resistance'. All unhappiness, all sadness, derives from a story (thoughts) that you project in the present moment and through which you interpret it. When you look at the fact of the present moment, no
there is unhappiness, and when there is no unhappiness or negativity any action you take will be enhanced by Life itself. For example, "I'm ruined" is a story. "I have fifty cents left in my pocket" is a fact. Living in the Now implies not imposing stories on what IS.

I LIGHT NOW

- You have in the introduction of The power of Now that at a certain moment in your life you were invaded by a great existential nonsense. A special thought stopped his mental activity and then dropped into his own inner abyss.
From there it resurfaced illuminated. Was you born at that time to Now, or had you been practicing it?

- He had never practiced it. It was completely spontaneous.

- As much as we approach the Now with practice, is the perfect Now a gift that is delivered together with the Illumination?
On the other hand, is it possible for someone to live in a perfect Now and yet the Illumination refuses to visit him?

–When you live in the perfect Now, as you call it, or you're dumb or enlightened. The fool or innocent does not judge what it is because he does not have the mental capacity to do so. Live below thought.
The enlightened human does not judge what it is because it has risen above compulsive thinking. One lives below thought and the other above. What the fool and the enlightened human have in common, then, is that both are more deeply connected with Life - with Being - than the normal man or woman. That is why the fool or innocent is an important mythological figure and is often entrusted with tasks that ordinary, more intelligent humans,
they cannot perform (this is the case, for example, of the character of the hobbit in The Lord of the Rings).
Our task, of course, is to rise above thought; Don't become dumb and fall under it.

–Lighting does not only contain 'Now'. It also contains love, compassion, vocation of service, clear intelligence, happiness, etc. What is the relationship of Now with all this?

- All these qualities cannot be created by thought. When you are present, you are alert and still, which means that you have accessed the dimension of inner space, all those qualities emerge from that space - the space of Now. In essence, you are that space and all those qualities arise from your innermost essence.

- After your enlightenment, having found happiness, your motivation in relation to learning was to learn what?

- I did not understand what had happened. I knew there was a deep inner peace where before there was fear, anxiety, depression and dejection. So I wanted to understand what had happened to me. I read books, talked with spiritual teachers and after a while I understood that all spiritual teaching points the direction towards this inner transformation.

TO THE ROCKET OF THE PENKNIFE

- You see the recommendation of Now after many of the teachings, generally in code, of the great teachers. Why did a simple message in its essence have to be masked until recent times after parables and symbols?

–The best way to teach children is through stories. Although the essential message is simple, the collective consciousness of most people was so immature that almost no one would have understood if it had been expressed in an undiluted way. You would not say to a child "live in the Now", but you could say "look at this flower, smell it, touch it; Isn't she pretty? ”

- How was it necessary to rescue and adapt this ancestral message to modern man?

- Humanity is growing, collective consciousness is evolving and it is time to leave childhood stories behind. The Truth is now demystifying.

- What would you say is the fundamental mistake that many of the people who make their incursion into the Now incur, that can motivate them not to have much success in this regard or even leave?
What can you recommend?

–Many people abandon their practice of living in the Now because their mind tells them “it's too much
hard. I can not do it. It is useless, ”and they believe what their mind is telling them. Do not believe every thought that enters your head! For most people, learning to live in the Now is a gradual process.
Again and again they are lost in the past and the future (that is, in their thoughts), and again and again they bring their attention back to the Now.

- Monks remain for decades in an ashram or monastery ... and do not light up. Do you think there is a fundamental error that most of them must incur?

- Many serious spiritual seekers look to the future to find salvation or enlightenment. It is a very deeply established mental pattern, the same pattern that motivates ordinary people to seek money, possessions, relationships, success, recognition, etc., to feel fulfilled. They treat the precious Now as if it were a means to an end, without realizing that it is the portal to the dimension of the Spirit.

- After your first Illumination, you experienced from peaks of greater ecstasy to much less exuberant states. What do these oscillations relate to?

- Mainly there is no connection with external circumstances. However, occasionally, I have experienced an almost paradoxical connection: in the face of a disaster, or when I am with a person who is suffering intensely, peace and joy deepen. Then something usually happens and there is an improvement in the external condition, or the other person experiences
healing in one way or another.

You released a ballast of carelessness and lit up. Would it be just as easy to release a burden of pride, intellectualism or self-pity?

Stop identifying with your thoughts. Thoughts about who you are quickly will lead to pride or its equivalent, shame. Thoughts that try to dissect everything into smaller pieces become the burden of intellectualism.
The thoughts of pobre de m and my sad story produce self-pity. Is it easy to give up identification with your thoughts? Yes Will the mind admit it? Do not.

TEACHERS

There are more and more teachers who perform outside the priesthood, the ashram, the spiritual group or the monastery. Let me call you `` lay teachers ''. Do they constitute a blast of fresh air destined to lay a new foundation for the relationship of man with the spirit?

Spiritual evolution is occurring largely outside the structures of traditional, institutionalized religion. This is an absolutely new development and is, indeed, a blast of fresh air.

Some crucial point that you have learned, in recent years, from your close people or your readers.

I have learned that the good interior disposition for enlightenment is much more widespread than I thought. I had not realized how powerful collective desire is to break through the superficialities of our civilization, the longing for a dimension of depth.

ACTION IN THE WORLD

Very soon you will give a workshop in Barcelona, ​​in the context of a tour of Europe. Why did you decide to travel instead of waiting for the books to take effect on their own?

The books are already having a tremendous effect on the transformation of consciousness. Through the talks, which are also recorded, an additional current of energy is added, which accelerates the process of awakening.

You encourage people to spread the message of living in the Now. Isn't it necessary to be enlightened for it? Does the possibility of distorting the message fit?

The message does not come from people. It comes through people. There may sometimes be distortions if the ego interferes, but it is a risk that I am willing to accept given the urgency of the transformation.

Does living in the Now increase the quality of the purpose of human actions?

When the ego is in control, fear and desire are the motivating forces behind every human action. The ego tries to protect and enhance itself. Living in the Now being present frees you from the ego, and so every action that arises from this state of consciousness is of a high quality. It is in alignment with the universal purpose and this gives it strength.

- Is he now an enemy of certain social structures and socially established power?

- Living in the present moment causes a transformation of human consciousness, and the transformation of human consciousness will be reflected externally in the transformation of all social, economic and political structures. In that sense it can be said that Now is certainly an enemy to existing structures, which are, in greater or lesser
degree, contaminated with madness.

- Do you think that the premeditated numbness of the population is enhanced so that the Now and its terrible power are not found?

- The structures of the collective mind always try to perpetuate themselves, so we live in a culture that encourages us to live unconsciously through the media, entertainment and education system.

- Is it feasible that Now can be taught as the simplest tool for personal and social transformation in areas such as schools?

- It has already begun to happen. They have written me teachers to tell me that they are already using the teaching in their classes, although for the moment unofficially. The most important things are not yet taught in school, but this may change soon.

- Is there any possibility that the rich and powerful, those who hold power, will be seduced by the Now and practice it?

-Yes effectively. I know a number of people who have fame and wealth (all the things that our culture says will make you happy) and who have realized that these things do not satisfy for a long time, so they adopt and practice this teaching.
Most politicians and business magnates, however, are still in the grip of the ego, although there are already some other exceptions.

- Hopeful in relation to the possibility of 'Ahoras' of redemption and glory coming for humanity?

- Humanity is about to either destroy itself or experience a radical change of consciousness. If the last possibility takes place, as I think it will happen, the madness that has dominated human history since ancient times will end, and with it the frightful suffering that has been part of the human condition. After tasting the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil (identify with conceptual thinking) for thousands of years, we are now finding the Tree of Life, using biblical terminology.

- Any special message that you want to convey to the readers?

- For many people their problems have become a large part of their identity. When you think you have problems, look deeply into the Now and ask yourself: "Is there a problem at this moment?" If you look deeply enough, you will realize that there is never a problem in the present moment; Only situations that you deal with or accept.
All problems reside in the past or the future, that is, in the mind.

Eckhart Tolle is the author of the bestseller The power of Now, which has been followed by other works.

Eckhart Tolle's work describes with such wisdom and precision the various factors that are implicit in the Now that it is little less than impossible to decline his invitation and refuse to undertake the journey. The interview that follows cannot contain more than glimpses that we expect, reading friend, reading friend, will help you prepare your particular foray into a state of consciousness that is guessed, by its simplicity and practicality, as one of the fundamental axes around of which a nourished Humanity responsible for their actions must swirl in a now no longer distant. There we are.

Interview by Francesc Prims.