Eckhart Tolle: The ‘Power of Now’ Tour
Eckhart Tolle, the renowned author of the The Power of Now, was in Melbourne on Tuesday 10th March 2009 at the Melbourne Convention Centre. He gave a two hour talk. It was very well attended.
At about 8.10 pm, a small, meek, innocent, childlike figure emerged from behind a gigantic midnight blue curtain which stretched across the length of the room. He then embraced the gentleman who had introduced him, stepped onto the podium, greeted us with his hands in the prayer position, and squeezed himself into the chair that was placed very close to the microphone. There was a table next to him with flowers, a bottle of water and a glass, and he did not touch them during the entire two hours. He had no papers to read from.
He commenced his talk by telling us that he found the Victorian license plates interesting. The first one he saw was, ‘Victoria: the place to be’. He was impressed with this, and then he saw, ‘Victoria: on the move’.
Tolle went on to say that some of the people at the talk might have come because they were forced into it by well meaning friends. They were now probably feeling uneasy in their seats and wanting to leave, but this feeling was only on a superficial level. Go beyond this level and see what manifests! He said that, by remaining on the surface of things, ‘Are you ignoring something that is more vitally alive? If you look to the world, to the future for yourself you will never arrive.’
He spoke of the voice in our head:
It is like living with your worst enemy, you can’t stand it anymore. This voice denies anything to do with awakening. Do you need to derive an identity from your suffering? Tell the voice you don’t need it anymore. Separate from the voice in your head. This is spiritual awakening. Mind says ‘I don’t know what he is talking about’. Separation needs to happen so you can bring energy into this world, an energy that is deeper than the mind.
He is referring here to adverse situations that occur in our lives which can create separation if we allow it. But even at this point the mind is there wanting to claim the consciousness which we have access to during the separation.
When mind becomes master it generates unhappiness and you will inflict this on others you come into contact with. When you dis-identify from the mind you discover who you are not. But something is left when you step out of your head. You experience that state of just being present.
His definition of worrying is ‘compulsive negative thought processes’. Tolle liked the Australian saying ‘no worries’. It gave him a sense of the nature of the Australian psyche. He would like to use this phrase from now.
When you are in the moment, there is a space in you which perceives the forms. ‘Have you ever encountered the past or future, other than in your head?’
When mind is in the moment it can be used to convey truths.
You are the now and this is what is left when you realise that you are not your thoughts. If you do not impose a story on this moment, then it is as it is. The isness of the moment.
Spontaneity comes out of the moment.
The essence of who you are is formless, timeless. This is where time does not operate. It is eternal. Consciousness trapped in form is in a dreamlike state. Consciousness has to go through the dream to awaken to itself. The now is the space for whatever happens. Any complaining is a denial of what is.
Tolle asked us not to make ‘a means to an end’ of any practice we undertake, a reference to the quote ‘make haste slowly’; e.g. everyday simple things like, running to catch a bus. The end result is to get the bus, but while running we can feel the body performing the action. The action is an end in itself. And this is how we can bring about the connection in the Victorian license plates, where we can be on the move and get connected with being.
Everywhere now there is an enormous energy coming through. A collective energy field is manifest through these words and they are coming through the space that we create every time we connect with the moment. The audience was truly connected with the moment - at the end of the talk, there was stillness in the room, a hushed silence even when people got up to leave. Some were still seated, leaning back in their seats eyes closed as if they were savouring every last moment. During the talk it felt like the speaker and all the listeners were one. There was only One.
—MR
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