nowness – Quotations Treasury – a sub-blog of Soul Needs

Ryan Holiday's video: A Pragmatic Guide to 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle

SCOTT KILOBY: Presence is Eating Potato Chips

Presence is Eating Potato Chips

Presence just means eating potato chips, walking your dog, sitting on the couch, shuffling papers at work, talking on the phone with a friend, listening to your favorite music, or driving down the road thinking. Presence is your everyday existence without the need for something more to happen.

Seeking could be described as eating potato chips while desiring to reach a state of enlightenment or to be an awakened person eating chips or to have some experience other than the simple fact of eating chips right now. Presence is simply eating chips without that desire for some future moment.

Presence is so simple that it is overlooked by the mind seeking something other than what is happening now. In presence, life is simple. There is only the crunch, crunch of the chip, the sensation of it going down your throat, and then biting into the next chip. It’s that simple. Just that — the reality of eating chips. It’s not about the story of a person eating chips. It’s much simpler. It’s just eating chips.

The desire for something more than what is happening is the problem, not the road to the solution.

~ From: Reflections of the One Life, by Scott Kiloby http://www.kiloby.com/

PRESENCE – from the ‘The Light of Discovery’ – By Toni Packer

Toni Packard on being present even if it’s unremarkable.

Nothing Spectacular

“There is the wind, the sound of rustling leaves, the brightness of the room, the breathing, the color of the wooden floor, the hands resting, the heart beating. There is saliva gathering in the mouth, and the swallowing of it. What’s so hard about being in touch with what is real, with what is actually here this moment, unspectacular though it may be?

“Is this one of our problems? That to be in touch with reality we expect something spectacular, something out of the ordinary? So we fail to be with our feet on the most ordinary of grounds, a soggy path or a wooden floor, a rug.

“Last night in the meeting room there was a lamp on the table, and just beneath it a small plant with the greenest of leaves, like tongues unfolding out of the little pot, and a few red flowers, as red as red can be, with yellow dots inside. That simple. Can we see it and not expect this to do something for us? Can we just see it, hear it, feel it completely?

“At the same time there is the breathing, the sound of the wind, the ticking of a clock, and the beating of the heart. A feeling of uncertainty or calm may also be there. The entire universe is there — the wonder of it, not the concept. Just the air, the ground, the sky, the night, the stars, and the lights of Springwater.” -0-

from the ‘The Light of Discovery’ – By Toni Packer

Alternatives to ‘resting in awareness’ – Rupert Spira and Eckhart Tolle

Rupert Spira in answer to a questioner says;

“To ‘take one’s stand as Awareness’ would perhaps be better phrased as ‘understand or see clearly that you are Awareness and be that knowingly.’”

SOURCE http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/taking_our_stand_as_awareness

Rupert’s teaching here is of course close to Eckhart Tolle’s focus on ‘living in the now’

“Life is now There was never a time…

“Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.”
Eckhart Tolle

Knock knock are you there Hilarious and brilliant…

Knock, knock – are you there?

Hilarious (and brilliant) quote from the widely revered Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh;

” Descartes said ‘I think therefore I am,’ but it is really, ‘I do too much thinking so I think that I’m not there'”.

“Yesterday is already a dream and tomorrow only…

“Yesterday is already a dream
and tomorrow only a vision,
but today, well lived, makes
every yesterday a dream of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.”

Sanskrit Observation

If you are depressed you are living…

“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

Attributed to Lao Tzu in Taoism

“…the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.” Eckhart Tolle

Am I the only one who loves Eckhart…

Am I the only one who loves Eckhart Tolle for his humour as well as his genius in re-presenting the inner core of the great traditions? This had me roaring;

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

How do you know this is the experience you need?

Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

It is very important to see your life…

It is very important to see your life not only from the narrow view of your egoistic telescope but also from the broad view of the universal telescope called egolessness.

This is why we have to practice. Right in the middle of the stream of time, we have to open our eyes there and see the total picture of time.

Through spiritual practice we can go beyond our egoistic point of view. We can touch the core of time, see the whole world in a moment, and understand time in deep relationship with all beings.