Dear daughter,
As always, I’m trying to improve myself in every way I can. As you should know by now from our conversations, I understand that there are many interesting and useful things I don’t know, and by learning as much as I can, I can become a better person in many different ways.
For that reason, I decided to have a goal this year related to learning more about spirituality. The goal is simple, read at least two books related to spirituality during this year and apply what I learned from them.
After a search on google, I found that several people mention 1 book in this area: “Practicing the power of now” by Eckhart Tolle.
So, I started with this book.
This book teaches us to focus on the now. It seems a very obvious recommendation, but you will find out, as I did, that is not that obvious for us. Although it is achievable and easy once you start practicing the power of now.
The book is structured as follows:
- Part I: Accessing the power of now.
- Part II: Relationship as a spiritual practice.
- Part III: Acceptance and surrender.
Each part, at the same time, is subdivided into several chapters. Each of them addresses 1 or more topics related to the title of the specific part.
I’ll skip the part about the things I believe you need to decide whether you believe them or not because there is no proof of them at least from my point of view. It seems like it is something you must experience, or not.
But there are a few things that you can try and immediately see the truth about them and how they can help us to be better.
Here is the first thing I learned.
Stay focused on the now.
We usually think about many things, past and future. Also, we think about what our future will look like or why someone did something to us in the past. We especially do that during those nights when we cannot sleep, or after we have an argument with someone. In this second one, I usually think about what I could say at that time, that could make me win the argument. Does it sound familiar?
It happens that those two things, and many other things that we spend time on, are useless to us.
Instead of helping us, keep us away from living the now.
The leader of a non-profit spiritual organization named Sadhguru will call this phenomenon “mental diarrhea”.
So, the author of the book “Practicing the power of now”, gives us a simple exercise for us to realize, or better, become aware, of what our mind is doing. In other words, thinking too much about the past and future. This, keep us away from living the now.
Here is the exercise.
First, you need to distinguish between yourself and your mind. You are not your mind; you are so much more than that. Your mind, is the thinker, throwing thoughts at you about the past and the future. You will play the role of the observer. You will observe what your mind is doing.
By observing your mind, you will become aware of what is going on, from the observer’s point of view.
So, try to focus on what you are thinking now. Ask yourself if that thought came by itself or if it was brought up by you.
Observe the thought, without judging it. Keep quiet, pay attention to it.
Interestingly, when you pay attention to the thought, it brings you back to the now.
When I tried this the first time, it was astonishing!
I could observe thoughts from the past, some from the future, but just observing those thoughts, brought me back to the now without any effort.
This means that our mind likes to “play” with us. But when we understand that we are not our minds, we are much more, we disidentify with the mind, and we start living in the now.
So, enter the now by observing the mind. You observe the mind by paying attention to your thoughts. Once you do that, you will come back to the now.
Notice how your mind throws at your thoughts from the past and things that might happen in the future. Both types of thoughts are useless.
The only thing that matters is the now.
Here is another exercise that the author suggests.
Think about what problem you have now. Not tomorrow, not yesterday, not in five minutes, but right now.
When I did this exercise, my answer to myself was none. Probably will be the same for you.
Try these two exercises and let me know if you felt something. Something different? Is it true? Are you more aware now of what your mind is doing?
I’m sure your answer to these questions will be positive. So, I suggest you read the book so you can learn more from the author, and apply this important knowledge in your daily life.
I’m definitely doing it already!
The book has also a chapter dedicated to relationships. I encourage you to read it, I believe it can give you some hints about this important topic.
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
Love you, Dad.