
Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now
What I call the “inner body” isn’t really the body anymore but life
energy, the bridge between form and formlessness.
To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is
one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey. It will free vast amounts of
consciousness that previously had been trapped in useless and compulsive thinking. A very
effective way of doing this is simply to take the focus of your attention away from thinking
and direct it into the body, where Being can be felt in the first instance as the invisible energy
field that gives life to what you perceive as the physical body.
If you need to use your mind for a specific purpose, use it in conjunction with your inner body. Only if you are able to be conscious without thought can you use your mind creatively, and the easiest way to enter that state is through your body. Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. Become aware of the stillness. When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative.
Don't just think with your head, think with your whole body.
When listening to another person, don't just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen. That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering.
If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now. You won't lose yourself in the external world, and you won't lose yourself in your mind. Thoughts and emotions, fears and desires may still be there to some extent, but they won't take you over.
The Unmanifested is the source of chi. Chi is the inner energy field of your body. It is the bridge between the outer you and the Source. It lies halfway between the manifested, the world of form, and the Unmanifested. Chi can be likened to a river or an energy stream. If you take the focus of your consciousness deeply into the inner body, you are tracing the course of this river back to its Source. Chi is movement; the Unmanifested is stillness. When you reach a point of absolute stillness, which is nevertheless vibrant with life, you have gone beyond the inner body and beyond chi to the Source itself the Unmanifested. Chi is the link between the Unmanifested and the physical universe.
Stillness comes from within you; it doesn't come from outside you.
By going deeply into the body, you have transcended the body.
If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn't even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn't know he is dreaming. When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream.