Book Summary: The Power of Now

A guide to spiritual enlightenment?

I'm not sure.

There are a lot of popular, very negative reviews of?The Power of Now?that I cannot say I agree with.

If I'm sympathetic to the critics, I can understand their perspective.

But my reading experience, thankfully, blipped past any nonsense. Detailed below is my experience, along with a few key points that I want to be able to call back on in the future - the purpose of all my summaries.

Should you read The Power of Now?

Absolutely.

There is something incredibly peaceful and meditative when reading spiritual literature, but that may be because I engage with my spirituality rarely.

Every time I read this while commuting, before bed, or in a park on the weekend - I would feel a wave of relaxation and peace tumble over me.

How could I not recommend it solely for this reason?

Ordinarily, my mind gets bombarded with what I should be doing, where I want to be going, past regrets and whatever other crap I can spin up.

The moments spent reading?The Power of Now?were ones I looked forward to.

It also left me with three valuable lessons that I am already mingling into conversations and advice.

1. To be aware of yourself and the world around you (consciousness) is to be free of the psychological need of the past for your identity and the future for your fulfilment.
2. Stress is caused by being "here" but wanting to be "there".
3. The outer situations of your life and whatever happens there is the surface of a deep lake. Sometimes calm, sometimes windy and rough, deep down, though, the lake is always undisturbed.

I will expand on these now.

Loss of now

To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of the past for your?identity?and the future for your?fulfilment.

You are not truly present at any moment when thinking of the past or future.

Thinking on this, I realised that my attention is almost never in the?now.

While I work, I often think about what to do next. When I exercise, I often think about what to make for dinner or what to do tomorrow. This line of thought extends over every single moment of a typical day.

To realise that you are?not?present is a brief period of being present. I experienced these moments continually while reading the book - it was refreshing.

My flatmates recently hit 100k subscribers on YouTube. It was a big celebratory moment for them - much of the excitement led to chatter of 1 million being next. My message was to go to bed tonight, not thinking about reaching the next destination or how you got here, but to savour the?now?- to appreciate hitting your goal and nothing else. If only for a moment.

Wherever you are, be there now

Stress is caused by being "here" but wanting to be "there".

Is there something you "should" be doing but are not doing it? Do it now - or accept your inactivity, laziness, or passivity for the moment, if that is your choice.

Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present reduces to a means of getting there?

To live with this split in your life is insane.

If you have to, you can hustle harder without projecting yourself into the future and resisting the present. As you move, work, run - do it totally. Enjoy the high energy of that moment.

Now you are just moving, working, running - and enjoying it.

If you have goals, make sure they do not take up so much of your attention that you reduce the present moment to a means to an end. It takes the joy out of your doing.

If you live with this mindset, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough - the future will always seem better - you will viciously reduce the present moment once again to get "there."

Acceptance and surrender

The outer situation of your life and whatever happens there is the surface of a deep lake. Sometimes calm, sometimes windy and rough, 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.

With this awareness, you do not resist change by mentally clinging to any situation, and you are no longer dependent on fulfilment or happiness in the outer world.

You can enjoy life fluctuations, create new forms, and appreciate the beauty of it all.

The false, unhappy self that loves feeling miserable, resentful, or sorry for itself can then no longer survive.

Ambition and motivation

The Power of Now?should not be interpreted to completely let go of thinking long-term and the future. Not being mindful of the future would actually be considered as gratifying the ego by saying that we should be careless and reckless because we have no control over it.

It is about experiencing what is happening in the very moment and not being overly consumed with worrying about future events that may or may not occur.

Imagine you are a mountain climber, accomplishment isn't actually being at the peak, but neither is sitting aimlessly at the bottom.?Happiness comes from the journey and sense of achievement in climbing up towards it.?This analogy helps us to understand that there is so much beauty to be appreciated on the journey and not just getting the end result.

Techniques to practice

Awareness of sense perceptions: As often as possible during the day, try to become aware of your sensory inputs. For example, when you walk outside, feel the contact between your feet and the ground, feel the breeze on your skin, and listen to the sounds in your surroundings.?Wherever you are, be there.

Become aware of your breathing:?As often as possible during the day, become aware of your breathing. Feel the air enter your lungs, your lungs expand, and then the air leaving your lungs.

Watch the thinking mind:?As often as possible during the day, try to pause and observe your thoughts. What are you thinking? Is your mind in the future projecting imaginary scenarios that are causing you anxiety and worry? Or is your mind in the past replaying events that happened, causing guilt or regret? Take a few conscious breaths and come back to the present moment.

Inner body awareness:?Try to scan your body from head to toe and become aware of any sensations. How do you feel? Try to label any emotions you may feel in the moment — boredom, restlessness, anxiety, nervousness, excitement, frustration, anger, sadness, etc. Observe if there is any tension or stiffness in your body. It will help ground your attention in the present.

The Power of One

It feels impossible to distil this book into a few minutes of reading.

Much of the enjoyment and benefit I got from reading the book came about from the experience of slowly peeling through each page and gradually becoming more and more invested in spiritual teaching.

I encourage you to read this book. If you are struggling to get through it initially - so did I - I hope that, like me, you end up getting into it and loving it.