Have you ever silenced your mind? And not just to move onto the next mental topic, but to legitimately cease the floating words, to stifle the memories of past and future?
For most of my life, this concept was elusive, absolutely unthinkable. Personally, my thoughts have always been loud, so cacophonous they have nearly drowned me.
Yet the spiritual author Eckhart Tolle claims the key to unlocking inner peace is the silent mind. He overwhelmingly believes in the power of now.
But really, can you imagine? Not one thought swimming within your cerebrum?
Of course, the basic idea of staying in our present moment sounds easy to do in theory, but for us human beings, I think there may be comfort in our unquiet minds. Especially humans of this day and age, all built with brains that never stop rehashing old memories and concocting future dreams.
It’s not like these thoughts are altogether bad for us. It is what our brains were built to do, after all.
Eckhart Tolle argues that the only error we make is identifying with these thoughts, thinking they are built in truth before they manifest into our realities.
Tolle dares us to think despite our minds, to think with feeling and to lead with the gut, all to be greater than our daily ruminations. He believes the only way to live better than yesterday is by placing precedent on the only thing all humans have control over; our present moment.
Most intriguing is that Eckhart Tolle is far from the first person to understand the power of the present. Countless Buddhists, prophets, and therapists have pushed the same concept to the masses.
They have all accepted that this mindset will forever lead to all-consuming serenity. As someone with such deafening thoughts, learning of these mindful masters only makes me crave a silent mind even more.
Ultimately, I am grateful for Eckhart Tolle’s introspective reminders penned in his self-guided composition “The Power of Now.” We all know our brains are a muscle, and Tolle makes it painless to practice sitting in the present.
Even on the days that his narrative slips my mind and I find myself floating further away from mindfulness, I now have the strength to take a deep breath and remind myself there is only the present. Now, I get overwhelming relief when remembering the power of now.