Why the Power of NOW is Important for a Better Humanity

Eckhart Tolle wrote some great books on philosophy and spirituality, but one of them, “The power of now” has brought up interesting new views to old knowledge. We’ve all heard about ancient teaching and philosophies regarding being in the moment all the way from Buddha to all ancient Eastern wisdom and meditation practices.

In his new book, “the Power of now”,  Eckhart Tolle imprints a rebirth philosophy of a more contemporaneous understanding of the present humanity spiritual paradigm. But this article isn’t about Eckhart Tolle’s book “per se“, but rather a more personal view on the subject of the Power of now and what it means for human development as a species.

Many of the subjects I’ll be addressing here are in accordance, to my understanding, with the general aspects that Eckhart Tolle’s beliefs, but not all (again, to my perception). Before I get into that, I really need to say I wish I could explain myself half as good as Mr Tolle does and that my thought’s are biased by my own perceptions which could result in wild conclusions, and for that I hope my views on the subject are seen for what they are: – Someone’s perspective on something. Which by the way is as close to the truth as anyone can get.

The Importance of Now

If we think about it, we spend most our lives, not in the present time, but mostly dealing with thought processes regarding past and future events. Usually, our thought processes are mostly focusing on tomorrow’s needs or dwelling on past events.Some might even go throughout their entire lives experiencing not the present time, which might make them lose the most important things our life is about.

Sometimes it’s the little things that turn out to be the most important, and things that seem important at a time might not be in the next. So all we really got is the essence. The innermost essence of things, is what most of us miss by going through life without experiencing the miracle of essence that connects us all.

That’s one of the reasons why the power of now is critical for humanity. Now, works as an aggregator, making sense out of things, where subjectivity can’t stand on its own. In practice, what it means is instead of seizing the day, enjoy a good meal, appreciate social interactions, be with family, we got trapped by feelings. The concerns regarding future or past events, while being completely unaware of the power of presence and actual present life is the reason for less happiness. Because we can only live in the present, not in the future or the past. Some wonder: – are we alive if we don’t live in the Now?

The not presence paradigm state of mind might be considered unhealthy, and it’s true that keeping our minds busy regarding things we can’t do anything about at the present moment, it’s just hurting ourselves. And worse than that, we’re sending a shared low self-esteem paradigm vision to ourselves that tends to stick in our subconscious mind, making us feel worse than we are.
As a result of that, we can conclude that there is no point in dwelling too much on the past and future events, being that not wisest thing. It might be both valid for the individual, as well as to the masses, which means humanity as a whole.

The Exception that Proves the Rule

But what about the paradigm of now as a blind accepted truth?

Is only living in the now a good thing in the grand scheme of things for humankind? It is a real question. It’s true that having both past and future perspectives enable us as individuals and humanity to improve, reach higher and learn from past mistakes.

Might the present, the now, be more important, in the long run, for individuals and humanity as a whole?
It might be an interesting topic as it deals with an essential part of our beings, our thought process, and some go as far as to say that everything around us started with a thought, with consciousness, the first stage of creation.

We might be dealing with a dilemma here. On the one side the power of now, playing the role of a more right brain perspective on things (creativity, intuition), and on the other hand a more lefty brain side approach, more logical, with planning the future and understanding the past playing a fundamental role in life.

The Real Important Thing

The power of the now could be more important and influential for the betterment of humanity, even though at first glance might seem like an easy way out of worrying and dwelling on events, not in the present. Maybe it’s more than that. The way society is structured, it allows much more both the past and future paradigms to prevail, than the Now experience. And if that’s a “wrong” perspective for humankind optimal development, then I guess it needs change.

Interesting Examples

  • Procrastination

Some people have a procrastination problem. But is this a problem? Yes, it is, no doubts there. But I’m aiming a bit higher here, what if someone is a genius, or a naturally gifted painter or sculptor that’s stuck in factory work. Or maybe a gifted musician making hot dogs at some corner of a busy street. I’m not belittling any professions, they’re all important, but are those people procrastinating on their daily while all the cells of their body have different opinions? Are those people procrastinating, to something they shouldn’t be doing? Or is their essence, which I mentioned in the beginning of this article actually “showing” them something?

If we think about it, what kind of things do we procrastinate? The things we don’t like doing right? At least for me, that’s what usually happens. I procrastinate on things that I don’t want to do. The other stuff, the stuff I enjoy doing, and I could be doing it for days only stopping for food and sleep. And liking is a very subjective thing.

What does this say about us as humanity? Is it better for mankind that we’re doing things against our will for reasons not “essence” related? In the long run, are we getting the best out of us, out of our most accurate and natural abilities if we’re doing something unwillingly?

I think it poses a great difficulty for humanity, which is inefficient. Everybody likes different things in life, why aren’t we letting humanity sort out what everybody is good at and willing to do. Instead, what we do in our society is allowing nonessential factors to rule out the needed tasks, while downsizing the natural abilities. Of course, this is subjective, and some might say it’s being done now, but we can all agree there is a lot of space for improvement.

  • Technology

Let’s think for a moment of the critical technological, spiritual, cultural innovations ever achieved by humanity. They got done by people working against their will or doing something they rather not do. They got made by people who loved their job, and that’s how they break new knowledge paradigms. Also, and if we think hard enough about it, the real groundbreaking achievements throughout the years were most times achieved by a single person, not a group of individuals. Of course, no one gets anything done alone. We’re a social species, but in the end, it’s one person’s mind that gets it done.

Some good examples, Einstein with the relativity theory that’s still valid even a century later. No one has until now been able to disprove or make any real advancement over that theory, which is interesting in itself. Another example could be the teachings of Buddha in the spiritual paradigm regarding the true spiritual enlightenment of being, just to name a few.

  • Reality

One of the things some might mention on both past, and future paradigm of thought process is that without thinking about the future one couldn’t use thought processes to create new realities. Well, by being in the present we can use the process of reflection to create reality, and it is in the present that we create it. If we create in the future, it’s just a “dream”, which doesn’t make it less relevant, it’s probably as important as present reality creation.

Conclusion

To sum up my rant, how can we embrace the power of the now, for the betterment of Humanity?

There is no right way, we all have to find out how, as we go. Because the “essence” is in the now.

And once that takes place, maybe we’ll be more efficient, happy and sustainable as a species. Maybe we can get from one Einstein per century to one a day. But again, only in the now can we act upon it.

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