The Power of Now

This book represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be conveyed in words, with individuals and small groups of spiritual seekers during the past ten years. In deep love and appreciation, They belong to what is as yet a small but fortunately growing minority of spiritual pioneers: people who are reaching a point where they become capable of breaking out of inherited collective mind-patterns that have kept humans in bondage to suffering for eons.

I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don't know already.

All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten. Living knowledge, ancient and yet ever new, is then activated and released from within you.

When I occasionally quote the words of Jesus or the Buddha, from A Course in Miracles or from other teachings, I do so not in order to compare, but to draw your attention to the fact that in essence there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching, although it comes in many forms.

Some of these forms, such as the ancient religions, have become so overlaid with extraneous matter that their spiritual essence has become almost completely obscured by it.

To a large extent, therefore, their deeper meaning is no longer recognized and their transformative power lost.

When I quote from the ancient religions or other teachings, it is to reveal their deeper meaning and thereby restore their transformative power—particularly for those readers who are followers of these religions or teachings.

I say to them:

there is no need to go elsewhere for the truth. Let me show you how to go more deeply into what you already have.

Mostly, however, I have endeavored to use terminology that is as neutral as possible in order to reach a wide range of people. This book can be seen as a restatement for our time of that one timeless spiritual teaching, the essence of all religions.

I speak from inner experience, and if at times I speak forcefully, it is to cut through heavy layers of mental resistance and to reach that place within you where you already know, just as I know, and where the truth is recognized when it is heard.

There is then a feeling of exaltation and heightened aliveness, as something within you says: "Yes. I know this is true."

Q: You used the word Being. Can you explain what you mean by that?

Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.

However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest Self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your ego mind.

Q: When you say Being, are you talking about God? If you are, then why don't you say it?

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly.

By misuse, I mean that people who have never glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about.

Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as

"My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false," or

Nietzsche's famous statement "God is dead."

The word God has become a closed concept.

The moment the word is uttered, a mental image is created, no longer, perhaps, of an old man with a white beard, but still a mental representation of someone or something outside you, and, yes almost inevitably a male someone or something.

Neither God nor Being nor any word can define or explain the ineffable reality behind the word, so the only important question is whether the word is a help or a hindrance in enabling you to experience That toward which it points.

Does it point beyond itself to that transcendental reality, or does it lend itself too easily to becoming no more than an idea in your head that you believe in, a mental idol?

The word Being explains nothing, but nor does God. Being, however, has the advantage that it is an open concept. It does not reduce the infinite invisible to a finite entity. It is impossible to form a mental image of it.

Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being.

It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence, the realization I AM that is prior to I am this or I am that.

So it is only a small step from the word Being to the experience of Being.

Q: Enlightenment - What is that?

Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.

They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.

It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you.

I love the Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as "the end of suffering."

Of course, as a definition, it is incomplete. It only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering.

The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you'll have to find out for yourself. He uses a negative definition so that the ego mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman accomplishment, a goal that is impossible for you to attain.

Despite this precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, at least not in this lifetime.