The Power of Now – Journal

Journey With Eckhart Tolle

The Present Moment

‘The present moment holds the key to liberation-But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are in your mind.‘

Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now Journal.

January 21, 2023

What is the present moment?

The present moment is the moment in which I write these words.

The present moment is not yesterday or tomorrow but now. From now as I write, it is physically impossible to travel to either yesterday or tomorrow, as yesterday and tomorrow would be a matter of time travel, and most science disputes the possibility of time travel. What I am writing now cannot be written yesterday or tomorrow. But it is possible to imagine what might have happened if I had written this yesterday or planned to write it tomorrow. Both these are thoughts in my mind.

We can reach yesterday and tomorrow, but only in our minds. We do this by recalling events and other thoughts in our conscious and subconscious minds. Likewise, we can visit tomorrow in our minds. Not as a memory but as something we wish or hope will come about. In addition, we could plan for what we would like to do tomorrow or in the distant future.

We can derive value from both activities if we require information from yesterday to apply now or prepare for tomorrow’s planning. Beyond these factors, there is no merit in our minds traveling to yesterday or tomorrow. Considering these facts, the only real value in terms of time is this moment now.

The gateway forward to tomorrow or backward to yesterday is our mind. As long as I remain in my mind, it is not possible to reach and stay in this moment called now. To live in this moment now is not a static position. It is ever-shifting with each nano-second of what is called ‘time.’

I can’t write this article, dawdling about what happened to me yesterday or while making plans for tomorrow. Why? Because the quality of what I am writing now would suffer.

Effective and disciplined use of my now moment has enormous benefits. Today I can not be productive in yesterday. I can only imagine having been productive yesterday; likewise, I cannot be productive today in tomorrow until I reach tomorrow.

The gift of now is where the rewards are. Because focusing on my writing as I am doing now gives it full attention, which results in quality.

I can pause writing now and think about what happened yesterday or plan for tomorrow, but I cannot write and do the others. To reach tomorrow or yesterday, I only need to use my mind. To stay in the moment, I need both my mind and action (in this case, writing.)

To summarize, If I focus on what I am doing now and not concern myself with yesterday or tomorrow, I will be more productive and have greater peace of mind.