Enlightenment Now

What is enlightenment? 
Is there some power in the present moment?

Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany. When he was 29, a profound spiritual transformation virtually dissolved his old identity and radically changed the course of his life. He is now a counselor and spiritual teacher, and the author of The Power of Now.

To create your world-view you need to answer 2 questions:

1. 1. Who are you?
   2. What is the nature of the universe?

The main idea is that you are not your mind. You are the observer or watcher. 
Your true self is in the now as you are reading this, it lies behind your physical body, shifting emotions and chattering mind.
A mind is a wonderful tool, but it has taken over you with compulsive thinking – the screen of thought has created an illusion or a false self.
Can you find the “Off-button”? 
You are unconsciously identified with the mind, so you don’t know that you are a slave to it.

Enlightenment:

• • Inner stillness
  • Rising above thought
  • A state of wholeness – filled with peace, joy, and love
  • The natural state of oneness 
  • Free of involuntary internal dialogues

Eckhart Quotes much from Eastern thought, such as Buddhism/ Taoism/… also a mix from western religious thought and explains that essentially they are all pointing with words to the same thing.
The key access point is total immersion in the Now.

Start watching and listening to the thinker often, and then a higher-level consciousness becomes activated. Watch with no judgment or labeling, be there as the witness. As you listen, thoughts subside and lose power which allows you to experience a gap of “no-mind” a discontinuity in the mental stream. 
Stillness and peace start to uncover.

The mind or the thinker’s voice when it has taken over, becomes a person’s own enemy.
This very much relates also to Nietzsche:

The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself – Nietzsche

I guess that Nietzsche was also relating to “The mind” in this context. We’ll dive into Mind-Mechanics later.