The Power of Now summary

Let’s say you manage to live in the present and to not worry about the past or future. What happens when you then experience pain? If pain is felt in the present moment, how can you deal with both physical and emotional suffering?

Pain is nothing more than a self-created inner resistance to external things that you cannot change. You experience pain when you are unsatisfied with how things are, yet don’t feel powerful enough to change them. This manifests itself, on an emotional level, as a negative feeling.

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to sabotage themselves? Why, though nobody wants to be miserable, so many people are unhappy?

The culprit is the ego – a part of your mind that controls your thoughts and behavior without you noticing.

The ego’s power is just one of many reasons that it’s important to separate yourself from your mind and pay closer attention to your body. Indeed, many great teachers have spoken about the importance of focusing on the body rather than the mind.

Why?

After you realize that your mind is causing you pain, preventing you from truly living in the present, you need to detach yourself from it.

How?

While you get better at separating yourself from your mind, you can try adopting another technique: active waiting.

This is a special kind of waiting state, like when you’re aware that something important or serious could happen at any moment. In such a state, all of your attention is focused on the now.

After following the previous steps, you’re now able to live in the present, and are no longer completely dependent on your mind.

But how will that change your daily routines? For example, your relationships?

Even if you live fully in the present, some feelings of sadness and pain are unavoidable.

But what should you do with them? Just suppress them and pretend that everything is ok? That doesn’t sound like a very good idea.

Inner peace is a nice thing to have, but when your outer life situation is bad, inner peace is not worth very much.

Does accepting the present automatically lead to a passive way of living in which you are not mindful of or willing to change anything that troubles you?