《The Power of Now》读书笔记

作者：Eckhart Tolle
来源：微盘下载PDF版，Neptun推荐

这篇读书笔记很难写，因为在“灵修”这个概念的两边，隔了太远的距离，这种距离所产生的误解，是没法简单调和的，所以我只谈一些个人的体会。还有一个原因是道行还浅，不敢乱写，怕误导。

我是一个随遇而安的理性的人，两者的共振让我的人生产生非常多的分界点，很多事情在分界点之前是极尽痴迷的热爱，在分界点之后便成了无牵无挂的路人，比如看球、看电视、办报纸、看电影、搞技术研发、做公益，分界点的转折，可能是因为一个无法克服的外在环境，也有可能是因为一个新的观点，而且一旦开始，往往会坚定的走向新的方向，甚至是和以往完全相反的方向。

在半个月前读完 Eckhart Tolle 的《A New Earth》之后，便产生了一个分界点，这也是促使我开始阅读 Eckhart Tolle 第二本书的原因之一，我开始研究起“灵修”来了（天哪......），当然一个月前读的《道德经》也是 Eckhart Tolle 眼中的经典，在我眼中，这个就是缘分，Timing到了，那么一切就可以开始了。

开始早起
开始洗冷水澡
开始冥想
开始英文阅读
开始锻炼长跑
开始上早自习
开始早上去游泳

后面还不知道会怎么样......
但是......
人生貌似多了一个维度。

摘录：

Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyondthe myriad forms of life that are subject to birth anddeath. However, Being is not only beyond but alsodeep within every form as its innermost invisible andindestructible essence. This means that it is accessibleto you now as your own deepest self, your true nature.But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don’t try tounderstand it. You can know it only when the mind isstill, when you are present, fully and intensely in theNow . . . . To regain awareness of Being and to abidein that state of 'feeling-realization' is enlightenment.

In your everyday life, you can practice this by takingany routine activity that normally is only a means to an endand giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an endin itself. For example, every time you walk up and down thestairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention toevery step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totallypresent. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to allthe sense perceptions associated with the activity: the soundand feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scentof the soap, and so on. Or when you get into your car, afteryou close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe theflow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerfulsense of presence. There is one certain criterion by whichyou can measure your success in this practice: the degree ofpeace that you feel within.

Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. Itincludes your emotions as well as all unconsciousmental emotionalreactive patterns. Emotion arises at the placewhere mind and body meet. It is the body's reaction to yourmind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in thebody. For example, an attack thought or a hostile thoughtwill create a build-up of energy in the body that we callanger The body is getting ready to fight. The thought thatyou are being threatened, physically or psychologically,causes the body to contract, and this is the physical side ofwhat we call fear. Research has shown that strong emotionseven cause changes in the biochemistry of the body. Thesebiochemical changes represent the physical or materialaspect of the emotion. Of course, you are not usually

Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited onlyby plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future?Could we still speak of time in any meaningful way? Thequestion "What time is it?" or "What's the date today?" — ifanybody were there to ask it— would be quite meaningless.The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such aquestion. "What time?" they would ask. "Well, of course, it’snow. The time is now. What else is there?"

The reason why some people love to engage indangerous activities, such as mountain climbing, car racing,and so on, although they may not be aware of it, is that itforces them into the Now — that intensely alive state that isfree of time, free of problems, free of thinking, free of theburden of the personality.

Use your senses fully. Be where you are. Look around.Just look, don't interpret. See the light, shapes, colors,textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Beaware of the space that allows everything to be. Listen to thesounds; don't judge them. Listen to the silence underneaththe sounds. Touch something — anything — and feel andacknowledge its Being. Observe the rhythm of yourbreathing; feel the air flowing in and out, feel the life energyinside your body. Allow everything to be, within and without.Allow the "isness" of all things. Move deeply into the Now.

If you arepresent, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.So next time somebody says, "Sorry to have kept youwaiting," you can reply, "That’s all right, I wasn't waiting. Iwas just standing here enjoying myself— in joy in my self."

Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say toyourself: "I wonder what my next thought is going to be.”Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Belike a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going tocome out of the mouse hole? Try it now.
Well?
I had to wait for quite a long time before a thought came in.
Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence,you are free of thought. You are still, yet highly alert. Theinstant your conscious attention sinks below a certain level,thought rushes in. The mental noise returns; the stillness islost. You are back in time.

To test their degree of presence, some Zen masters havebeen known to creep up on their students from behind andsuddenly hit them with a stick. Quite a shock! If the studenthad been fully present and in a state of alertness, if he had"kept his loin girded and his lamp burning," which is one ofthe analogies that Jesus uses for presence, he would havenoticed the master coming up from behind and stopped himor stepped aside. But if he were hit, that would mean he wasimmersed in thought, which is to say absent, unconscious.

When you are unoccupied for a few minutes, andespecially last thing at night before falling asleep and firstthing in the morning before getting up, "flood" your bodywith consciousness. Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back.Choose different parts of your body to focus your attentionon briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest,head, and so on. Feel the life energy inside those parts asintensely as you can. Stay with each part for fifteen secondsor so. Then let your attention run through the body like awave a few times, from feet to head and back again. Thisneed only take a minute or so. After that, feel the inner bodyin its totality, as a single field of energy. Hold that feeling fora few minutes. Be intensely present during that time, presentin every cell of your body. Don't be concerned if the mindoccasionally succeeds in drawing your attention out of thebody and you lose yourself in some thought. As soon as younotice that this has happened, just return your attention to theinner body.

If at any time you are finding it hard to get in touch with theinner body, it is usually easier to focus on your breathingfirst. Conscious breathing, which is a powerful meditation inits own right, will gradually put you in touch with the body.Follow the breath with your attention as it moves in and outof your body. Breathe into the body, and feel your abdomenexpanding and contracting slightly with each inhalation andexhalation. If you find it easy to visualize, close your eyesand see yourself surrounded by light or immersed in aluminous substance — a sea of consciousness. Then breathein that light. Feel that luminous substance filling up yourbody and making it luminous also. Then gradually focusmore on the feeling. You are now in your body. Don't getattached to any visual image.

Make it into a meditation. It needn’ttake long. Ten to fifteen minutes of clock time should besufficient. Make sure first that there are no externaldistractions such as telephones or people who are likely tointerrupt you. Sit on a chair, but don't lean back. Keep thespine erect. Doing so will help you to stay alert.Alternatively, choose your own favorite position formeditation.

The Unmanifested is the source of chi. Chi is theinner energy, field of your body. It is the bridge between theouter you and the Source. It lies halfway between themanifested, the world of form, and the Unmanifested. Chican be likened to a river or an energy stream. If you take thefocus of your consciousness deeply into the inner body, youare tracing the course of this river back to its Source. Chi ismovement; the Unmanifested is stillness. When you reach apoint of absolute stillness, which is nevertheless vibrant withlife, you have gone beyond the inner body and beyond chi tothe Source itself: the Unmanifested. Chi is the link betweenthe Unmanifested and the physical universe.

If in your relationships you experience both "love” andthe opposite of love — attack, emotional violence, and so on— then it is likely that you are confusing ego attachment andaddictive clinging with love. You cannot love your partnerone moment and attack him or her the next. True love has noopposite. If your "love" has an opposite, then it is not lovebut a strong ego-need for a more complete and deeper senseof self, a need that the other person temporarily meets. It isthe ego's substitute for salvation, and for a short time italmost does feel like salvation.