Power of Now: by Eckhart Tolle : Book reading, Contemplation and Practice

 Home Participation Course

Glad you’re here! Below are the pages of Power of Now that Amy, Roberta and Tom contemplated together to inspire each other and facilitate a sustained state of presence in our daily lives. You are invited to participate in some or all of this course. We hope you enjoy it and find it as inspiring and useful as we have!

Also, please feel free to write us at info@LakshmiLivingArts.org  to share about your experience and insights! Thank you so much for your participation!

Please use the contemplation questions below to guide your study and exploration.

Contemplation:

  • Choose 1 or 2 passages of this reading that stand out to you and write them down.
  • How is this passage relevant to your life right now?
  • And how can you use this information to help you connect or re-connect with the present?

You may also choose to apply these contemplation questions to a quote that stood out each week from Tom, Roberta or Amy (“our” quote shown below).

Weekly Reflection:

  • Over the next week, pick 2 or 3 days to formally reflect upon one of the above passages or choose a new one from the above pages to help you implement your understanding or inspiration of that passage.

Week One: Reading–Introduction and Chapter 1: You Are Not Your Mind

  • Audio portion: Beginning to 21:57
  • Paperback book pages 3-13 and covers the following sections:
    • The Origin of This Book
    • The Truth That is Within You
    • The Greatest Obstacle To Enlightenment
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “Enlightenment is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.” p.12

Week Two: Reading–Chapter 1: You Are Not Your Mind

  • Audio portion: 21:57-41:35
  • Paperback book pages 13-21 and covers the following sections:
    • The Greatest Obstacle To Enlightenment (cont.)
    • Freeing Yourself From Your Mind
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger.” p.21

Week Three: Reading–Chapter 1: You Are Not Your Mind

  • Audio portion: 41:35-1:06:05
  • Paperback book pages 21-32 or end of chapter… and covers the following sections:
    • Enlightenment: Rising Above Thought
    • Emotion: The Body’s Reaction To Your Mind
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “” p.21

Week Four: Reading–Chapter 2: Consciousness, The Way Out of Pain

  • Audio portion: 1:06:05-1:23:33
  • Paperback book pages 33 (beginning of chapter) – 41 and covers the following sections:
    • Create No More Pain In The Present
    • Past Pain: Dissolving The Pain-Body
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “Focus on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it…don’t make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of “the one who observes” the silent watcher. This is the power of the now, the power of your own conscious presence.” p.41

Week Five: Reading–Chapter 2: Consciousness, The Way Out of Pain

  • Audio portion:1:23:33-1:35:17
  • Paperback book pages 41-46 or end of chapter and covers the following sections:
    • Ego Identification With The Pain-Body
    • The Origin of Fear
    • The Ego’s Search For Wholeness
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true and immediate danger….(it) is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now..” p.43

Week 6–Reading–Chapter 3…Moving Deeply into The Now

  • Audio portion: 1:35:00-1:42:25
  • Paperback book pages 47-50 starts from beginning of chapter 3 (Moving Deeply into The Now) and covers the following sections: Don’t Seek Yourself in the Mind; End the Delusion of Time; Nothing Exists Outside the Now
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “End the delusion of time…Remove time from the mind and it stops.”

Week 7– Reading–Chapter 3…Moving Deeply into The Now

  • Audio portion: 1:42:25-1:51:09
  • Paperback book pages 51-55 and covers the following sections:
    • The key to the Spiritual Dimension; Accessing the Power of Now
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “The moment you realize you’re not present, you are present.”

Week 8– Reading–Chapter 3…Moving Deeply into The Now

  • Audio portion: 1:51:09-1:56:02
  • Paperback book pages 55 -58 and covers the following sections:
    • Letting go of Psychological Time
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • ” The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time.”

Week 9– Reading–Chapter 3…Moving Deeply into The Now

  • Audio portion: 1:56:02-2:03:37
  • Paperback book pages 58 -62 and covers the following sections:
    • The Insanity of Psychological Time
    • Negativity and Suffering Have Their Roots in Time
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • ” The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes your future.”

Week 10– Reading–Chapter 3…Moving Deeply into The Now

  • Audio portion: 2:03:37-2:12:45
  • Paperback book pages 62-66 and covers the following sections:
    • Finding the Life Underneath Your Life Situation
    • All Problems are the Illusions of the Mind
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • ” All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: No matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself. I will create no more problems.” (p. 65)

Week 11– Reading–Chapter 3…Moving Deeply into The Now

  • Audio portion: 2:12:45-2:19:56
  • Paperback book pages 66-70 (end of chapter 3) and covers the following sections:
    • A Quantum Leap in the Evolution of Consciousness
    • The Joy of Being
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “Give your fullest attention to whatever the moment presents. This implies that you also completely accept what is, because you cannot give your fullest attention to something and at the same time resist it.” (p.68)

Week 12– Reading–Chapter 4…Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now

  • Audio portion: 2:19:56-2:28:55
  • Paperback book pages 71-75 and covers the following sections:
    • Loss of Now: The Core Delusion
    • Ordinary Unconsciousness and Deep Unconsciousness
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “So before you are firmly established in the state of presence…you shift back and forth for a while between consciousness and unconsciousness….You lose the Now, and you return to it, again and again. Eventually, presence becomes your pre-dominant state.” P.72

Week 13– Reading–Chapter 4…Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now

  • Audio portion: 2:28:55-2:37:33
  • Paperback book pages 75-79 and covers the following sections:
    • What Are They Seeking
    • Dissolving Ordinary Unconsciousness
    • Freedom From Unhappiness
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is, just as you are responsible for the planet. As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” P.79

Week 14– Reading–Chapter 4…Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now

  • Audio portion: 2:37:33-2:49:22
  • Paperback book pages 79 (bottom)-end of page 84 and covers the following sections:
    • Wherever You Are, Be There Totally
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present.” P.84

Week 15– Reading–Chapter 4…Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now

  • Audio portion: 2:49:22-2:56:26
  • Paperback book pages 85-88 and covers the following sections:
    • Wherever You Are, Be There Totally
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “…many people are waiting for prosperity. It cannot come in the future. When you honor, acknowledge and fully accept your present reality — where you are — who you are and what you are doing right now — when you fully accept what you have got, you’re grateful for what you have got, grateful for what is, grateful for Being. Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Then, in time, that prosperity manifests for you in various ways.” (pp 86-87)

Week 16– Reading–Chapter 4…Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now

  • Audio portion: 2:56:26-3:04:12
  • Paperback book pages 88-91 and covers the following sections:
    • The Inner Purpose of Your Journey
    • The Past Cannot Survive in Your Presence
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “What is essential is your conscious presence. That dissolves the past.That is the transformative agent.” P.91

Week 17– Reading–Chapter 5…The State of Presence

  • Audio portion: 3:04:12-3:21:35
  • Paperback book pages 93-101 and covers the following sections:
    • It’s Not What You Think It Is
    • The Esoteric Meaning of Waiting
    • Beauty Arises in the Stillness of Your Presence
    • Realizing Pure Consciousness
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “The instant conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The mental noise returns, the stillness is lost. You are back in time.” P. 94

Week 18– Reading–Chapter 5…The State of Presence

  • Audio portion:3:21:35-3:31:45
  • Paperback book pages bottom of page 101-106 (end of chapter 5) and covers the following sections:
    • Realizing Pure Consciousness
    • Christ: The Reality of Your Divine Presence
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “The collective egoic mind is the most dangerously insane and destructive entity to ever inhabit this planet.” P.102

Week 19– Reading–Chapter 6…The Inner Body

  • Audio portion:3:31:45-3:42:29
  • Paperback book pages 107-112 and covers the following sections:
    • Being is Your Deepest Self
    • Look Beyond the Words
    • Finding Your Invisible and Indestructible Reality
    • Connecting With The Inner Body
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading:
    • “To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind.” P.111

Week 20– Reading–Chapter 6…The Inner Body

  • Audio portion:3:42:29-3:47:15
  • Paperback book pages 112-116 and covers the following sections:
    • Transformation Through the Body
    • Sermon on the body

Week 21– Reading–Chapter 6…The Inner Body

  • Audio portion: 3:47:15-4:00:25
  • Paperback book pages 116-121 and covers the following sections:
    • Have Deep Roots Within
    • Before You Enter the Body, Forgive
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “The more consciousness you direct into the inner body, the higher its vibrational frequency becomes…At this higher energy level, negativity cannot affect you anymore and you tend to attract new circumstances that reflect this higher frequency.” P.117

Week 22– Reading–Chapter 6…The Inner Body

  • Audio portion: 4:00:25-4:12:19
  • Paperback book pages 121-127 (end of chapter) and covers the following sections:
    • Your Link With The Unmanifested
    • Slowing Down The Aging Process
    • Strengthening The Immune System
    • Let The Breath Take You Into The Body
    • Creative Use Of Mind
    • The Art Of Listening
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: ” Inhabiting the body protects you not by putting up a shield, but by raising the frequency vibration of your total energy field, so that anything that vibrates at a lower frequency…now exists in what is virtually a different order of reality. It doesn’t enter your field of consciousness anymore, or if it does you don’t offer any resistance to it because it passes right through you.” P.124

Week 23– Reading–Chapter 7…Portals Into The Unmanifested

  • Audio portion: 4:12:19-4:26:14
  • Paperback book pages 129 (beginning of chapter)-135 and covers the following sections:
    • Going Deeply Into The Body
    • The Source of Chi
    • Dreamless Sleep
    • Other Portals
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “The Unmanifested does not liberate you until you enter it consciously.” P.133

Week 24 — Reading–Chapter 7…Portals Into The Unmanifested

  • Audio portion: 4:26:14-4:36:20
  • Paperback book pages 135-140 and covers the following sections:
    • Silence
    • Space
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “If you remain in conscious connection with the Unmanifested, you value, love and deeply respect the manifested and every life form in it as an expression of the One Life beyond form.” P.139

Week 25– Reading–Chapter 7…Portals Into The Unmanifested

  • Audio portion: 4:36:20-4:45:40
  • Paperback book pages 140-143 (end of chapter) and covers the following sections:
    • The True Nature of Space and Time
    • Conscious Death
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Just as you would not be conscious of space if there were no objects in space, the world is needed for the Unmanifested to be realized.” p.142

Week 26– Reading–Chapter 8…Enlightened Relationships 

  • Audio portion: 4:45:40-5:03:40
  • Paperback book pages 145 (beginning of chapter)-153 and covers the following sections:
    • Enter The Now From Wherever You Are
    • Love/Hate Relationships
    • Addiction And The Search For Wholeness
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “There is nothing you can ever do or attain that will get you closer to salvation than it is at this moment.” p.147

Week 27– Reading–Chapter 8…Enlightened Relationships 

  • Audio portion: 5:03:40-5:25:50
  • Paperback book pages 153-164 and covers the following sections:
    • From Addictive to Enlightened Relationships
    • Relationships As Spiritual Practice
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside, it is deep within you. You can never lose it and it cannot leave you.” p.154

Week 28– Reading–Chapter 8…Enlightened Relationships 

  • Audio portion: 5:25:50-5:48:15
  • Paperback book pages 164-175 (end of chapter) and covers the following sections:
    • Why Women Are Closer To Enlightenment
    • Dissolving The Female Collective Pain-Body
    • Give Up The Relationship With Yourself
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “The first thing to remember is this: as long as you make an identity for yourself out of pain, you cannot be free from it…..you will unconsciously resist or sabotage every attempt you make to heal that pain.” p.168

Week 29 — Reading–Chapter 9…Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace

  • Audio portion: 5:48:15-5:59:29
  • Paperback book pages 177 (beginning of chapter) -182 and covers the following sections:
    • The Higher Good Beyond Good And Bad
    • The End Of Your Life Drama
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life. Nobody can even have an argument with you…you cannot argue with a fully conscious person.” p.182

Week 30 — Reading–Chapter 9…Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace

  • Audio portion: 5:59:29-6:12:07
  • Paperback book pages 182-188  and covers the following sections:
    • Impermanence And The Cycles Of Life
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being…..It is your natural state, not something that you need to work hard for or struggle to attain.” p.187

Week 31 — Reading–Chapter 9…Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace

  • Audio portion: 6:12:07-6:24:08
  • Paperback book pages 188-194  and covers the following sections:
    • Using And Relinquishing Negativity
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Somebody says something to you that is rude or designed to hurt. Instead of going into an unconscious reaction…you let it pass right through you. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness” p.193

Week 32 — Reading–Chapter 9…Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace

  • Audio portion:6:24:08-6:35:23
  • Paperback book pages 194-199 and covers the following sections:
    • Using And Relinquishing Negativity
    • The Nature of Compassion
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “In compassion, the seemingly opposite feelings of sadness and joy merge into one and become transmuted into a deep inner peace.” p.197

Week 33- Reading–Chapter 9…Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace

  • Audio portion: 6:35:23-6:44:40
  • Paperback book pages 199-204 (end of chapter) and covers the following sections:
    • Toward A Different Order Of Reality
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Your peace is so vast and deep that anything that is not peace disappears into it as if it had never existed. This breaks the karmic cycle of action and reaction” p.202

Week 34 — Reading–Chapter 10…The Meaning of Surrender

  • Audio portion: 6:44:40-6:56:22
  • Paperback book pages 204 (beginning of chapter)-210 and covers the following sections:
    • Toward A Different Order Of Reality
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Surrender reconnects you with the source energy of Being and if your doing is infused with Being, it becomes a joyful celebration of life energy that takes you more deeply into the now.” p.208

Week 35 — Reading–Chapter 10…The Meaning of Surrender

  • Audio portion: 6:56:22-7:09:12
  • Paperback book pages 210-216 and covers the following sections:
    • From Mind Energy To Spiritual Energy
    • Surrender In Personal Relationships
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Start by acknowledging the resistance. Be there when it happens….Observe how the mind creates it….Feel the energy of the emotion. By witnessing the resistance, you will see that it serves not purpose.” pps. 210-211

Week 36– Reading–Chapter 10…The Meaning of Surrender

  • Audio portion: 7:09:12- 7:24:28
  • Paperback book pages 216-223 and covers the following sections:
    • Transforming Illness into Enlightenment
    • When Disaster Strikes
    • Transforming Suffering Into Peace
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “When there is no way out, there is still always a way through. So don’t turn away from the pain. Face it. Feel it fully. Feel it—don’t think about it. Express it if necessary, but don’t create a script in your mind around it. Give all your attention to the feeling, not to the person, event or situation that seems to have caused it.” p.222

Week 37 — Reading–Chapter 10…The Meaning of Surrender

  • Audio portion: 7:24:28-00:00 or End of book
  • Paperback book pages 223-229 End of book and covers the following sections:
    • The Way of The Cross
    • The Power to Choose
  • Our quote for contemplation from this week’s reading: “Enlightenment consciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life.” p.226