Review: The Power of Now (3)

The Power of Now

The mind itself is not dysfunctional. It is a wonderful tool you can/should use. It gets dysfunctional when you seek yourself in it and mistake it for who you are. -> Don’t seek yourself in the mind.

The state to achieve is to be intensely alive in the present moment, which is free of time, free of problems and free of thinking. Some people love to practice dangerous activities like mountain climbing or car racing because it forces them into the Now. In that state they are highly alert and free of thinking or worrying about the past or future.

Psychological Time

Tolle uses two phrases: clocktime and psychological time. We do need clock time to make appointments, setting goals, or predict the future by means of patterns and laws learned from the past. Whereas psychological time is identification with the past and continuous projection into the future.

For example if you set a goal and work towards it you are using clock time. Nothing bad with that. The right way to achieve this goal is to give fullest attention to the step you are taking at this moment. It would be wrong to become excessively focused on the goal to seek fulfillment in this future point. Because then the Now is only means to an end. You would be obsessed by the future.

Your life’s journey is no longer an adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive, to attain, to “make it”.

The future is what you think of it at this very moment. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future. If the quality of consciousness is what shapes the future it is important to improve this quality. It is determined by the degree of your presence.

All problems are illusions of the mind

First thing which came into my mind was: “If I fully live in the present moment, my problems still exist and are waiting until I switch back into the old thinking pattern. Am I not just temporarily avoiding them?”. The answer is simple. You have to realize that there are no problems,…” just situations to be dealt with now, or left alone and accepted as part of the ‘isness’ of the present moment until they change or can be dealt with.”

Problems are mind-made and need time to survive and the mind loves problems because the mind believes that without these problems it looses it’s identity. Tolle has a really good definition of what a problem is:

Problem means that you are dwelling on a situation mentally without there being a true intention or possibility of taking action now and that you are unconsciously making it part of your sense of self.

If there is no ease, joy or lightness in what you are doing you may have to change the how. “How” is often more important than what, so give more attention to the doing than to the result you want to achieve. If you give full attention to the doing itself the fruit of your actions will come on it’s own. Furthermore you no longer depend on the future, you are not attached to the results. Therefore you don’t demand that situations, things or people should make you happy. You are happy, independent of the outcome of your expectations.

Review: The Power of Now (2)

The Power of Now

As we saw in the first part “You are not your mind” it is important to disidentify from your mind. To be able to fully accept the present moment you have to forget about the past and the future. That is not easy because the mind always tries to escape into the past or the future. The mind tries to deny the Now because it can only exist in time.

Think about thoughts like “I don’t want to be here. I don’t like this moment, this moment is not good enough. I want to be there. I want to be then,…not now. I will be happy when I have this or that…I will be happy when I’ve achieved this…”. These are escapes from the Now. The Now has no time and because the mind can only exist in time it tries to deny the Now. This is why so many are identified with the mind (egoic mind as Tolle names it). We are so used to it (and used by it ) that everyone thinks there is no alternative.

This doesn’t mean that you should forget about the past and the future:

Have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation.

Egoic mind means that you identify yourself with your mind. Despite several defense mechanisms of the egoic mind it is very vulnerable and insecure. It needs lots of external things to feed it’s lack of incompleteness. Some people search for this wholeness in possessions, money, success, power, recognition etc. but this search is never ending. It is not possible to complete yourself with external things.

As long as your egoic mind is running your life you cannot truly be at ease. The egoic mind (your false self) doesn’t want to die – because if you are identified with it – this would also be the death of your identity. So your false self is very engaged in creating and maintaining the whole illusion and this makes it even more difficult to break out of this thought patterns.

Review: The Power of Now (1)

The Power of Now

I read a few chapters of the book and so far it’s quite interesting. Here is the first part of my review:

You are not your Mind

Descartes belief “I think, therefore I am” is basically an error, as the author states. Thinking is NOT Being and Identity is not Thinking. Today almost everyone is not able to stop thinking, it is like a mental noise that prevents us from inner stillness. In today’s world thinking has almost become a disease. One is constantly judging, comparing, analyzing, complaining, speculating, commenting and so on…
It looks like that we don’t use our mind in the right way and that most of the time the mind uses us.

That does not mean that we have to stop thinking altogether. It means that we should be aware of our thought processes, that we should “watch the thinker”. Being aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought is the key. The moment we are aware of observing the thinking process a higher level of consciousness is activated and thought itself loses it’s power over you. 

The voice in your head (your mind)  judges the present through the eyes of the past and that view doesn’t have to be the most accurate one. Sometimes this voice can be your own worst enemy. It can drain vital energy from you and it can make you unhappy. So we have to free ourselves from this mind-identification. We do this by realizing that there is the voice and here I am. We are not that voice and that is why the author calls this state a higher consciousness. We are able to observe our own thinking patterns. This is one way to free yourself from mind-identification.

Another way to create a gap in the mind stream is to direct the focus of your attention into the Now.

In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself.

We have to learn to disidentify from our mind. We have to rise above thought.

So it looks like that it is best to avoid thinking at all? That’s not true.  The mind is an instrument, a tool. It has to be used but in the right way.
Eckhart Tolle explains:

The mind should be used for a specific task, and when that task is completed, you lay it down. As it is I would say 80 to 90 % of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of it’s dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful.

The next logical question you may ask is: Why should we be addicted to thinking?

Because you are identified with it, which means that you derive your sense of self from the content and activity of your mind. Because you believe that you would cease to be if you stopped thinking.

This is the common misperception or fear we all have. We think that we can not be without thinking. But to be conscious is more than just thinking. Actually thinking is just a small part of consciousness.

Emotions

Emotions are the body’s reaction to your mind. They are a reflection of your mind in the body. Usually they represent an amplified thought pattern and because of this it is often not easy to stay present enough to be able to watch it like we discussed “watching the thinker”.
Here again it is important that you’re not identified with your emotions (especially harmful ones like anger, jealousy, hatred…)  because if so you end up in a vicious circle:
thought -> emotion -> amplified thought -> …

Review: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

Leaving Microsoft to Change to World

Subtitle: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children

The book is about John Wood, a top executive at Microsoft. He was director of business development in the greater China region. After a three week vacation in Nepal his life had changed in a fundamental way. He began to question his whole life, his job and his marriage.

From that moment on he wasn’t quite sure if the life he lived so far was exactly what he wanted. The trip inspired him to help the children in Nepal and to set up schools and libraries. Nepal’s illiteracy rate was 70 percent !

” I found it hard to imagine a world in which something as random as where you were born could result in lifelong illiteracy”.

He could do so much good things with so little resources in this country. He wanted to change something.

For that vision he left Microsoft a few months later and started to collect books for Nepal. I liked the way how Wood described his life as a business person before and how he had transformed to make such a big change. It’s one-third a business saga, one-third world travelogue and one-third human drama as Marc Andreessen, Co-founder of Netscape Communications stated.

First he had only the help of his friends and family but later the network grew and he started a official non-profit organization (Room to Read). He was fueled with the drive that made him a top executive at Microsoft and he could use lot’s of business practices he learned earlier in his business life. Sometimes it was hard to ask for the money he desperately needed to build the schools and libraries. He wasn’t always welcome at the may Foundations he visited, but he had a helpful statement which inspired him to go on:

“Anyone in a sales career knows that if you’re not getting rejected, you’re not casting your net widely enough”

Another interesting point is how he set up these aid projects. It was essential for him that local people were required to also donate labour and small amounts of money. Projects which are just a gift and bestowed by outsiders will not be valued enough because then the people have nothing on stake. Best example is the following : “… in the entire history of the travel industry nobody has ever washed a rental car. If they don’t feel ownership, they won’t do any long-term maintenance. ”

The book also covers the effect of September 11. He points out how important education is and describes the school system in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. He sees major problems in these systems because most of them are religious schools which taught their own anti-Western views. Maybe there is a point but I think one chapter is by far not enough to cover this complex topic.

He built one of the most effective nonprofits called Room to Read  which has now built more than 2000 schools and libraries throughout Asia and Africa! In fact he wanted to build “The Microsoft of Nonprofits”.
It is an amazing book with lots of inspiring ideas and I read it almost in one go during my vacation.

Some quotations I like:

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work” (p. 149)

“Those who say it cannont be done should not criticize those who are doing it” (p. 163)

“But sometimes if you wait until you have your entire pln figured out and buttoned-up, the world will have moved on and passed you by.” (p. 229)

Title:   Leaving Microsoft to Change the World
Author:   John Wood
ISBN:   006117906x
Year:   2006

Review: The How Of Happiness (2)

It is good to know your present personal happiness level to estimate your happiness set point. For this the book provides some self-reports you can do like the “Subjective Happiness Scala”. You should repeat the report after 2 weeks because it is a heavily subjective report and the result depends on your current emotional state, your preceding events etc.. So it is best to take the average of several reports to get a better estimation.

There is also a “Depression Scale” in the book to determine your depression score. Sounds funny but it is a serious topic as the World Health Organization predicts that by the year 2020 depression will be the second-leading cause of mortality in the entire world, affecting 30 percent of all adults.

Some Happiness Myths

The following statements are generally accepted but they are wrong.

Happiness must be “Found”

Happiness is not out there, it is inside us. Happiness is more than anything a state of mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world in which we reside. So the right thing to do is to change and manage your state of mind.

Happiness lies in changing our circumstances

As mentioned in my first part of this review the circumstances control only about 10% of your happiness level. Changing the circumstances of our lives (like Material Wealth or Beauty) can make us happier but only for a small period of time. It is not lasting. There is a very interesting experiment described in the book:

They asked Americans in 1940 when one third of all homes did not have running water, indoor toilets or central heatings what their overall satisfaction of life is. They reported being “very happy” with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. The typical house today has not only running water, two or more baths, central heating but is twice the size with color TVs, DVD players, iPods, PCs etc.. Surprisingly the average score for Americans happiness today is 7.2!

You either have it or you don’t

Yes, some part of our happiness level is determined by our genes but it is possible to overcome our genetic programming.

Review: The How Of Happiness (1)

The How of Happiness

Currently I’m reading “The How Of Happiness – A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want” from Sonja Lyubomirsky a Ph. D. from the Stanford University. This post is part 1 of the review.

It is the first how-to-become-happier book authored by someone who has actually conducted research revealing how people can achieve a greater sense of happiness in their lives. The book starts with a very interesting question and a surprising answer.

What do you think would make you happier ?
- A relationship?
- An extra bedroom ?
- A baby?
- More money?
- More Time ?

If your answer looks anything like these you’re in for a surprise. None of these things will make you substantially happier. We often look for happiness in the wrong places. What we believe would make a huge difference in our lives, actually makes only a small difference, while we overlook the true sources of personal happiness and well-being. Why is it so hard for us to believe that money really doesn’t make us happy? Because the truth is that money does make us happy. BUT our misunderstanding is that “we think money will bring lots of happiness for a long time, and actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.”

The 40 Percent Solution
50% of the factors which determine happiness are the genetically Set Points. They can’t be changed and therefore they shouldn’t be in the focus. The smallest part by 10 % are the circumstances we live in. So life circumstances like house, money, etc. are not the keys to happiness. That means that the remaining 40 % is within our ability to control, the 40% for opportunities to increase or decrease our happiness levels through what we do in our daily lives and how we think. This is the interesting part and it is the main focus of the book.

Review: The God Delusion (1)

The God Delusion

I recently bought the paperback edition of “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins. There is additional information about the topics and a discussion forum on his website RichardDawkins.net. The hardcover edition was described as the surprise bestseller of 2006.

Chapter 1 – A deeply religious non-believer
Great scientists of our time who sound religious usually turn out not to be so when you examine their beliefs more deeply. This is certainly true for Einstein and Hawking.

“An atheist in the sense of a philosophical naturalist is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles – except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don’t yet understand.”

Especially Einstein says that he does not believe in a personal God. Further he mentions ” If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.” Einstein is a religious non-believer.

Theist, Deist and Pantheist
There are a few definitions which help to understand the different ideologies in the first chapter. For example is the difference between the theist and the deist important and interesting. It helps to find what kind of believer you are.

A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence who , in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation. A deist too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities were confined to setting up the laws the govern the universe in the first place. The deist God never intervenes thereafter, and certainly has no specific interest in human affairs. Pantheists don’t believe in a supernatural God at all, but use the word God a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness the governs it’s workings. Pantheism is sexed-up atheism.

Einstein used the word “God” many times but it is clear today that he used “God” in a purely metaphorical, poetic sense.

The last part of the first chapter deals with the great amount of respect humans have for religion. For example it is normal to openly discuss ones political or economic interests but to have an opinion (and share it openly) of how the Universe began or about who created the Universe is much more difficult. We are used to not challenging religious ideas. The author gives much more examples to confirm this statement.

Review: The Art of Happiness (4)

The path to happiness
Everyone seeks happiness in his life and as the Dalai Lama mentioned it should be the primary goal or better the meaning of life.

The basic equipment to achieve complete happiness is just the right mental state. Ideally you shouldn’t be dependent on external things. One has to concentrate on the mind itself. There are thousands of different thoughts all day and therefore it is important to identify which of them are helpful, which are neutral and which are harmful. We should reduce negative thoughts and nourish the helpful ones.

So the first step in seeking happiness is to learn how negative emotions and behaviour are harmful to us and how positive thoughts are helpful. It lies within our own hands.
“Identify and culture positive mental states; identify and eliminate negative mental states”
This way of thinking – attracting positive thoughts and eliminating negative thoughts – is not a simple task. In fact, you can’t accomplish it by adopting a particular thought or practice once or twice.

Change takes time.
And transforming your mind takes even more time. It is a process of learning.
Through repeated practice we should try to achieve that disturbances of our mind only remain on the surface, like waves that may ripple on the surface of an ocean but don’t have much effect deep down. Negative disturbances of the mind should dissipate very quickly, there shouldn’t be an effect on the deeper mind. In daily life there will be always situations where you feel distracted, angry, jealous etc. but the art is, that these thoughts don’t have influence on your deeper mind. Sometimes you can be thrown off the track but ideally that shouldn’t last for long.

This art takes time, as the Dalai Lama was trained since he was four years old !

Review: The Art of Happiness (3)

This post is about inner worth and the difference between happiness and pleasure.

Inner Worth

A sense of inner worth is very important these days. Not just that you have a inner worth but also the source of it plays a major role. The best thing you can do is to gain strength from multiple sources and not just a single one.

For example building your inner worth just on material things is very risky because if you loose your fortune what else do you have ? If there is no second or third anchor you can count on there is nothing left but depression.

Happiness vs. Pleasure

Have you ever asked yourself what the difference between happiness and pleasure is? Most people are often confused about this.

One way to explain the difference is to describe the target of these states of mind. Happiness relates more to the heart and mind and pleasure more to the physical senses. “Happiness that depends mainly on physical pleasure is unstable; one day it’s there, the next day it may not be.”

Knowing this difference can be a great help making right decisions. Before you make the decision just ask yourself:  ”Will it bring me happiness (or just temporal pleasure) ? ” Depending on the answer you can make your decision much easier.

Living with this knowledge means that your achieved form of happiness will be much more stable and remains despite the up’s and down’s of life. This form of happiness should be part of your very being.

Review: The Art of Happiness (2)