The Power of Now on Superphysics

You are not your mind

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Greatest Obstacle To Enlightenment

What is enlightenment?

A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over 30 years [on a box].

A man walked by.

Enlightenment: Rising Above Thought

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Asker

Isn’t thinking essential in order to survive in this world?

Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy.

Create No More Pain In The Present

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow.

The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is.

The present moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant, or awful

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It is as it is.

Observe how the mind labels the present moment and how this labeling process, this continuous sitting in judgment, creates pain and unhappiness.

The present moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant, or awful

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ego Identification With The Pain-Body

The process that I have just described is profoundly power- ful yet simple. It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be one of the first things children learn in school. Once you have understood the basic principle of being pres- ent as the watcher of what happens inside you — and you “understand” it by experiencing it - you have at your disposal the most potent transformational tool.

Moving Deeply Into The Now

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Don’T Seek Your Self In The Mind

Asker

I feel I need to learn a lot more about the workings of my mind before I can get anywhere near full consciousness or spiritual enlightenment.

No, you don’t.

Moving Deeply Into The Now

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Accessing The Power Of The Now

Asker

I looked at that tree outside the window. I had looked at it a few times before, but this time it was different. The external perception had not changed much, except that the colors seemed brighter and more vibrant. But there was now an added dimension to it. This is hard to explain. I was aware of something invisible that I felt was the essence of that tree, its inner spirit, if you like. And somehow I was part of that. I realize now that I hadn’t truly seen the tree before, just a flat and dead image of it. When I look at the tree now, some of that awareness is still present, but I can feel it slipping away. You see, the experience is already receding into the past.

Negativity And Suffering Have Their Roots In Time

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

But the belief that the future will be better than the present is not always an illusion. The present can be dreadful, and things can get better in the future, and often they do.

Mind Strategies For Avoiding The Now

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Loss Of Now: The Core Delusion

Asker

Even if I completely accept that ultimately time is an illusion, what difference is that going to make in my life? I still have to live in a world that is completely dominated by time.

Tolle

Intellectual agreement is just another belief and won’t make much difference to your life.

Dissolving Ordinary Unconsciousness

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

So how can we be free of this affliction?

Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease, discontent, and tension arise within you through unneces sary judgment, resistance to what is, and denial of the Now.

Wherever You Are, Be There Totally

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Can you give some more examples of ordinary unconsciousness?

See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

The State Of Presence

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’S Not What You Think It Is

Asker

You keep talking about the state of presence as the key. I think I understand it intellectually, but I don’t know if I have ever truly experienced it. I wonder is it what I think it is, or is it something entirely different?

Tolle

It’s not what you think it is! You can’t think about presence, and the mind can’t understand it. Understanding presence is being present. Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole? Try it now.

Asker

I had to wait for quite a long time before a thought came in.

Tolle

Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought. You are still, yet highly alert. The instant your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The mental noise returns; the stillness is lost. You are back in time.

Realizing Pure Consciousness

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Asker

Is presence the same as Being?

When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of itself— that’s presence. Since Being, consciousness, and life are synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness. But don’t get attached to the words, and don’t make an effort to understand this. There is nothing that you need to understand before you can become present. I do understand what you just said, but it seems to imply that Being, the ultimate transcendental reality, is not yet complete, that it is undergoing a process of development. Does God need time for personal growth?

The Inner Body

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Being Is Your Deepest Self

Asker

You spoke earlier about the importance of having deep roots within or inhabiting the body. Can you explain what you meant by that?

Tolle

The body can become a point of access into the realm of Being. Let’s go into that more deeply now.

Asker

What is Being?

Tolle

“Water? What do you mean by that? I don’t understand it.” This is what a fish would say if it had a human mind.

Connecting With The Inner Body

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Please try it now. You may find it helpful to close your eyes for this practice. Later on, when “being in the body” has become natural and easy, this will no longer be necessary.

Before You Enter The Body, Forgive

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I felt very uncomfortable when I tried to put my attention on the inner body. There was a feeling of agitation and some nau. sea. So I haven’t been able to experience what you are talking something “goes wrong” or there is some loss or upset. Your conditioned reaction will then be involuntary, automatic, and predictable, fueled by the one basic emotion that underlies the mind-identified state of consciousness: fear.

Portals Into The Unmanifested

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Going Deeply Into The Body

I can feel the energy inside my body, especially in my arms and legs, but I don’t seem to be able to go more deeply, as you suggested earlier.

Space

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Just as no sound can exist without silence, nothing can exist without no-thing, without the empty space that enables it to be. Every physical object or body has come out of nothing, is surrounded by nothing, and will eventually return to nothing.

Enlightened Relationships

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Enter The Now From Wherever You Are

Asker

I always thought that true enlightenment is not possible except through love in a relationship between a man and a woman. Isn’t this what makes us whole again? How can one’s life be ful filled until that happens?

Is that true in your experience? Has this happened to you?

Addiction And The Search For Wholeness

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why should we become addicted to another person?

Romantic love relationships are such an intense and universally sought-after experience is that it seems to offer liberation from a deep-seated state of fear, need, lack, and incompleteness of the unredeemed and unenlightened state.

Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There is Peace

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Higher Good Beyond Good And Bad

Asker

Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?

Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.

Impermanence And The Cycles Of Life

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

However, as long as you are in the physical dimension and linked to the collective human psyche, physical pain - although rare is still possible.

This is not to be confused with suffering, with mental-emotional pain.

All suffering is ego-created and is due to resistance.

Using And Relinquishing Negativity

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

All inner resistance is experienced as negativity.

All negativity is resistance.

Negativity ranges from irritation or impatience to fierce anger, from a depressed mood or sullen resentment to suicidal despair.

The Nature Of Compassion

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Having gone beyond the mind-made opposites, you become like a deep lake. The outer situation of your life and whatever happens there is the surface of the lake. Sometimes calm, sometimes windy and rough, according to the cycles and sea- sons. Deep down, however, the lake is always undisturbed. You are the whole lake, not just the surface, and you are in touch with your own depth, which remains absolutely still. You don’t resist change by mentally clinging to any situation. Your inner peace does not depend on it.

The Meaning Of Surrender

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Acceptance Of The Now

Asker

I don’t like the idea of surrender. It sounds fatalistic. If we always accept the way things are, we are not going to make any effort to improve them to progress.

Surrender In Personal Relationships

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Asker

What about people who want to use me, manipulate or con- trol me? Am I to surrender to them?

They are cut off from Being, so they unconsciously attempt to get energy and power from you.

When Disaster Strikes

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As far as the still unconscious majority of the population is concerned, only a critical limit-situation has the potential to crack the hard shell of the ego and force them into surrender and so into the awakened state.