AN ABSOLUTE MUST LISTEN: The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle

0:00 Welcome to The Unapologetic Man Podcast, the only podcast that's all about self-improvement, confidence, success, women, and being a man without making any apologies for it. What is up, you champions? Thank you for tuning in to another episode of The UMP. Guys, this is my 500th episode. I absolutely cannot believe it's already been 500 episodes. I was just mentioning to my podcast dude, his name is Liam. Can you believe how long we've been doing this? Liam, how long have you been editing for me? Man, it's been such a wild ride, boys.

0:37 It's been such a positive ride. All the love, all the feedback, all the emails that I get that I've said, you know, I've helped you guys. Some of you even say that I've changed your life, made you grow for the better, challenged you to become that next best version of yourself. That's why I'm here, brothers, and this is my all-time favorite thing to talk about. The power of now, spirituality, becoming that next best version of yourself, but this, in my opinion, is the tippity-top. This is the tip of the spear.

1:06 This is the final destination. This is where we're all headed. Inevitably, this is where you have to go, so I really want you guys to have an open mind when I'm talking about this. I've actually been nervous to talk about this because this is so unbelievably important to me. This has changed my life in so many ways. I can't even express in words just how powerful this is and just how much this will change your life if you give it a chance. So what we're going to talk about today, of course, is The Power of Now.

1:37 It's a book written by Eckhart Tolle, but the book is one thing, but the way of living, either called presence, mindfulness, being in the present moment, is its entire own study on spirituality, on ascending to that next platform of your spiritual evolution. So the book is one thing. It's a great book. It is, in my opinion, the most important book that's ever been written in all of humanity. Yes, beyond even the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, all those amazing spiritual books. I think this is the most important one.

2:11 If I had one book to go onto a desert island with that I could just read for the rest of my life, this would be it. Now, a lot of you guys have read this book, and I want to ask you, how many times have you read the book? Because I've listened to it, and I shit you not, probably about 30-plus times, and I still come up with gems of wisdom that I never heard before. It's crazy. You can listen to things over and over again, and it's like you've never heard it.

2:36 If you like my podcast, it would be wise of you, especially the episodes you really like, to listen to it again and again so that it gets embedded in your subconscious mind. So today, we are going to talk about the power of now. I have no notes. I have no plan. I'm just relying on presence, being in the present moment, and just opening myself to it, and the answers will come to me. In fact, that's the way I record all my podcasts. I just kind of sit down and start rambling.

3:01 Sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to talk about when I hit record, and I just wait for something to pop into my head, which it always seems to do at the last minute. Whatever it is, source energy, God, spirit talking through me, or my own spirit opening up to a greater intelligence, I'm not really sure, but I do know the more I'm present, the more I practice this power of now philosophy that I'm going to teach you today, the better things go for me.

3:28 It seems like the more I let my mind get in the way and try to plan things and try to take control, as the mind always wants to do, the worse things go for me. So let's jump into it, boys. I'm super fucking psyched. And by the way, before we do get into it, I want to say this. You are our goddamn champion for clicking on this. A lot of guys only just cherry pick my content, pick out the things that teach them how to get girls, but if you're listening to this, honestly, man-to-man, brother-to-brother, that shows me that you want to get to that next level, that highest level, that you want to get beyond just surface things, getting your dick wet, getting validation from women, getting dates, et cetera.

4:06 You want to become that highest level being you can possibly be, and for that, brother, I respect you. Yes, you listening or watching right now, I respect you. I thank you. I appreciate it. I'm going to give it my best shot here, bro. 30-plus times have I read this book, and I'm hoping I'm going to be able to deliver the philosophy of it so that you can at least take something away from this and, at the very least, plant a seed in your mind that perhaps will sprout later on in your life where it becomes more important to you.

4:35 To go into this kind of spiritual evolution. It's not for everybody. You have to be ready for it. Again, in my opinion, it's the last phase of evolution of human consciousness. So if you're not ready, that's okay, but let me just plant the seed. Just be open to it because this is really interesting stuff. So first, we're going to start off with the mind that I just mentioned. How much fucking suffering has your mind put you through? Let's look back through your life. How many times have you had bad situations, fear, stress, anxiety, things that you freaked out about, and or, as the famous Mark Twain quote goes, I've lived a life full of many struggles, most of which never happened.

5:16 I was thinking about it this morning of how much fucking torture my mind, my thinking, my continuous thinking of the future and thinking of the past has created suffering for me. Were it not for my mind, if I was just present in the present moment and not always buying into everything that I think, dude, my life would have been so much easier. And it would have been that way for you too, I'm guessing. For example, I used to have panic attacks, anxiety, agoraphobia. Where does that come from?

5:44 It comes from my own mind. It wasn't the situation. And by the way, the situation was I was living in Japan. I was doing wedding ceremonies, and I had a panic attack literally during every single wedding ceremony, and I did 200 of them. It was the worst year of my life. I lost weight. I looked like a skeleton. I was so full of anxiety that it eventually evolved into agoraphobia, which means you can't go outside. And as you guys might know, I found NLP that saved me, yada, yada, yada.

6:13 And now I'm a dating coach that uses NLP. But when you really think about it, was it the situation in Japan that created that suffering? No. Was it the fact that I was doing weddings in Japan? No. For a lot of people, that would be the most liberating, love-filled experience they possibly could have had. Some of you listening right now would be like, dude, that would be sick if I could speak Japanese, do weddings in Japan, marry people. How sick would that be? I'd love to do that.

6:38 Yet for me, it was the most hellish experience I could possibly even explain to you. In my opinion, it does not get much worse than that. I was this close. And if you're listening to an audio, I'm holding my hands about an inch apart to losing my mind, to completely losing it. Why? I had thinking about the situation that this is scary. This is anxiety-producing. I can't get out of this situation. And that created anxiety. Anxiety got me into fear. Fear erupted into panic attacks and then eventually into agoraphobia.

7:11 What was it that created all this? My mind. I was believing what I was thinking. I was buying into the anxiety. I was not having faith that things would work out. I was not having faith that this is all for a beautiful purpose. I was trying to control not only my anxious reaction to the situation, but the situation itself. And that's where we get into the power of now. The power of now is basically this. The less you think, the less you suffer. And it's just that simple.

7:41 I said in the beginning of this podcast, I hope I do it justice. I just did do it justice. The more you think, the more you suffer. In fact, a lot of us are addicted to thinking. And I want you to look at yourself once again. How often are you thinking during the day? And when I say thinking, I mean having mock conversations in your head, thinking about the future, thinking about your job, thinking about the sleep you got last night, thinking about how you'd like to have sex with this girl, or thinking about the past, situations that didn't go the way you wanted them to go.

8:12 Those things that you wish were different, or even your past when things were awesome and things went well for you. How often are you thinking? I can say for most people, they're thinking about 99.99% of the time. The only time the mind stops is when they experience great beauty, such as an awesome sunset, an amazing thing like going to Las Vegas and sitting in that dome thing that they just released and having all those images popped up. I bet that put a lot of people into the present moment.

8:39 But for most people, it's very, very brief. That's why most people suffer, it's because of thinking. Stop thinking and end your problems, which is a weird quote from the Tao Te Ching that when I first read it made no sense, but it's true. It's just like what Shakespeare said. There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Which means situations are as they are. It's not until the thinking mind comes in and defines it that situations get their definition. So let me ask you this.

9:09 How much of your thinking is creating your suffering? All of it. And I want to reiterate that. All of your suffering is created by thinking. Even those things that are seemingly bad that happen to you, it's your definition of them that creates suffering. Look, pain is inevitable, okay? You're in this body. You're in this life. Pain is going to come. Suffering, on the other hand, is voluntary. How you define a situation is how you will experience it. Did you know that there's people who go through the most horrible situations and they have a philosophy about it that this is making me stronger, this is toughing me up, and therefore they get through it with the positive mindset, and they don't suffer.

9:51 There's also people who have good situations just like me, and somehow because of their thinking, they do suffer. I suffered to such a high level, I can't even express it in words, and it was all because of discursive thought, thoughts going on in your head, defining things, trying to put it in a little box. So what's the solution? The power of now. The power of now is essentially this, you being present. Simply being in the situation, not thinking about it, looking around, and I want you to do this with me right now.

10:23 I want you to look at something. Just look at it. Don't define it. Don't think about it. Just look at it. What does it look like? What color is it? Can you feel its essence somehow by just observing it without any mental labeling? I'm sitting in my room right now. I'm looking at a camera. When I look at the camera, I can define it. Oh, there's glass on it. Oh, there's a light on it. Oh, there's a mirror here where I can see myself. Or I can just look at it and feel its essence without any thought whatsoever.

10:53 And that's what's called being present. And that's what the power of now is. When you stop thinking, when you come into the present moment, all those thoughts start settling down and what's underneath all the thoughts, peace. I believe, you can agree with me if you want, or you can disagree if you want to as well, that we are peaceful, loving souls. And it's not until thought comes in that that's all covered up. And it's all covered up with a bunch of waves going across and all this stress.

11:21 And it's like, you're a gigantic ocean. And the real you is that entire ocean. And the surface is the waves crashing up against themselves. And all this surface turbulence that's created by thought. When you stop thinking so much, that all settles. And what are you left with? You don't arrive to peace by stopping thinking. You get back to the peace that you naturally are by stopping thinking. So what's the secret to stop thinking? Have you guys ever looked at these Buddhist monks who sell everything they have and go live in some ashram, some Buddhist temple, shave their head, shave their eyebrows, wear a yellow robe, and just meditate all day?

12:02 And you ask yourself, how in the fuck are they able to do that? How can that be fulfilling in any way whatsoever? It's fulfilling because deep inside of who you are, when you get rid of all your desires, all your thinking about the present and the future, underneath that all is a deep sense of peace. And I know a lot of you guys who listen to this podcast, you meditate. Perhaps you felt that peace. What is meditation? It's the cessation of thoughts. So look at it this way, brother.

12:30 You are completely full of peace deep inside of you. You're completely fulfilled. You're happy. But it's not until the thinking mind comes in that all that gets disturbed. And we think that happiness is out there. If I could just achieve that car, that girl, that money, that life situation, which of course is always in the future, isn't it? Once I get there, then I'll be happy. But what happens when you get there? You just want more. The goalpost continuously moves because it's an illusion. In the power of now, which again, I highly suggest you read, he says that you're like a beggar who's sitting on a box of gold, begging for scraps of fulfillment outside yourself.

13:10 And all he's there to do is to point inside of you and say, dude, you already have a treasure within you. And that treasure is simply being present. Now comes the hard part. Being present is a fucking bitch. It's a pain in the ass to stop your thinking. A lot of you are thinking right now, how the hell am I going to stop my thinking? I haven't found the off switch. It's compulsive. And that's true for 99.99% of the population, constantly thinking compulsive, addicted to it. They haven't found the off switch.

13:41 Instead of in certain moments, like I said, where they see extreme beauty or there's like a car accident and your mind has to stop in order to deal with it or do an extreme sports, which by the way, is why a lot of people are addicted to extreme sports because it stops the thinking. You have to concentrate. And if you let your eyes off the road for one second, your car is going to spin off the road. What does it do? It puts you in the present moment.

14:04 You're not sitting there thinking about your problems. You're not sitting there thinking about what am I going to eat tomorrow or about that girl you had sex with last night. No, you're completely present. And that's all that presence is. There's a quote I really like that says, the dancer practices dance. The swordsman practices swordsmanship. The baseball player practices baseball. The master practices all things. What does that mean? That means that everything he does, he puts his complete attention on. And attention is the secret. When you have your full attention on everything that you do, discursive thought, which means thinking about the future, thinking about the past, thinking about whatever, subsides.

14:46 It goes down and you're just there present doing it. Like me sitting here talking to you. I'm not thinking about anything else except for exactly what I'm talking about. I'm present. I'm here with you. And perhaps you can feel the high vibrational energy that presence holds. So the master practices all things, even washing a fork, walking up the stairs, taking a shower and feeling that water on your body, the soap and looking at it, the bubbles, all these cool patterns and just being present with it.

15:16 Not thinking about it. Oh, those patterns look like a bunch of octagons stacked together. No, you're just watching it, present with it. And then what happens? All that surface electricity and suffering and stress and tension recedes. And what's revealed is the true you, that which is there with no thought. Let me ask you this. When are you the most yourself? Okay, if I were to ask you, who are you, bro? When are you the most yourself? A lot of you will be like, well, my name is Mike.

15:46 I'm 32 years old, I'm an accountant, and that's me. That's who I am. But that's not you. That's not who you are. That's a label. That's a thinking process. That's the mind trying to put you in a little box. What you are is who you are when you're not thinking. You are the most authentic when you're just present. You're not monitoring yourself. You're not trying to change anything. You're just there with you, who you are naturally. That beingness, that's underneath all the static electricity. You are a human being, not a human doing, as they often say.

16:22 And I really like the quote by Wayne Dyer where he says, don't just do something, stand there, which means just be. And that's the whole meaning behind that cliche statement, just be, right? It means you are a being. Your beingness cannot be taken from you. It feels the same way when you're 20 years old as it does when you're 80 years old. And that's who you really are. The discursive mind, that which has you thinking compulsively, creates suffering, creates drama, creates all your problems, including the problems that you're suffering from right now.

16:56 Let me ask you this. Are they really problems or are they just situations? And as Eckhart Tolle says in his book, The Power of Now, which again, I highly suggest you read, is if you were to be present right now and ask yourself the question, what problem do I have right now? The answer is always no problem. Perhaps you have a situation to deal with, but a problem, that's all defined by the mind. It's all defined by thinking. And let's look at this from another perspective.

17:23 How many problems, quote unquote, have you had that actually resulted in you growing? This is one of the central facets to my teaching, which is some of the worst things that ever happened to you are the best things that ever happened to you. So what is it? Where is it? Can you nail it down? Can you define it? Can you say that this is this way definitively? No, it's all nebulous. It's all opinions. It's all illusions. The only thing that's real is your beingness, your presence.

17:51 So how do we get present? All right. Like I said, it's a pain in the ass, bro, but I've been working on it and I have a few tips. The way to be present is to once again, have full attention on what you're doing. I actually love that word attention. I had a really cool tattoo design that I was going to put right here on the inside of my arm that says attention. Don't know if I'm going to do it or not, but attention is a central facet to this.

18:15 Paying attention to everything that you do. A Zen monk asked his master, master, what's the essence of Zen? And he said, attention. And the monk was confused. He's like, that doesn't make any sense. Okay. What's the second most important thing of Zen? Attention. Okay. What's the third most important thing? Attention. And the reason he said that is because when your attention is fully on what you're doing, you're not thinking, you're present. When you're not thinking, you're getting deeper into who you really are. And that's where enlightenment is found.

18:47 So Zen masters reach enlightenment simply by being present, or in some traditions, it's called mindfulness. Eckhart Tolle doesn't like the term mindfulness because it's like your mind is full of things. He prefers presence, and so do I. So being present is simply done by paying attention to what you're doing. Look at the sights. Feel something. Anything. Smell something and notice how it smells. What kind of being it has. Just look around. Just look. Don't interpret. Don't analyze. Right now, brother, just look at something and just feel its essence like a tree.

19:20 It has deeper vibration than those leaves that are green and the wood that's brown. There's something deeper to it. There's a presence there that you get in touch with when you get rid of your mind and you're just there with it. So as you continue to go through your day, open your eyes, man. A lot of people say it's like being on acid. Suddenly, you realize all these colors, and you see all these shapes, and you hear things, and you smell things, and you're just there with it.

19:45 And I guarantee you, make this part of your daily practice. Your stress is going to go down. You're going to feel more peaceful. You're going to be more happy. This is the simple secret that all Buddhist monks share, where they go into the ashram and give away all their possessions. Some guys even go in and give away their millions of dollars simply to be present. Yes, because the true treasure is already within you, and that's presence. Thought creates suffering. So stop thinking so much. Focus on what you're doing.

20:15 When you walk into a store, and this is a really cool tip that I figured out myself, such as Target, Walmart, the supermarket, look up. This works really well because your eyes are kind of always at this level, staring directly out of your eyes. When you look up, or even down for that matter, it breaks the plane of routine and allows you to come into the present moment. So I just look up at the signs. Like when I'm walking into Target, I look up at the ceiling, and I look up at the sign up above with all the birds on it, and it allows me to get present.

20:46 While you're driving, just look at the license plate in front of you, the lights. Look at the beautiful sky, the clouds. What's the last time you looked at the clouds, bro? Go outside and watch a sunset or listen to a bird on a fall evening. Tonight, go out and just listen. When's the last time you went into the woods and just listened to a river without any thought like, oh, that river's loud, or it kind of sounds like a band, or it kind of sounds like it's talking.

21:09 No, no, no, no. Don't think. Just listen. This gets you deeper into peace. And here's the thing. We think that all our problems can be solved with the mind. We think that our logic is going to save us. What really saves you is when you get rid of the mind and answers come to you seemingly at the last moment. That's why I don't plan these podcasts. I stopped planning them around episode 200, and I feel that's when my podcast got really good because I trust in that deeper intelligence that comes from no mind, getting the mind out of the way.

21:40 Preparation, trying to control, having this egoic grip on everything is just that. It's ego. It's an illusion. There is such a deeper intelligence to you that when you become present, you have access to it. Now, we've arrived almost at 20 minutes into this episode, and I should button it up, but there's a few other things I want to say. Another thing that Eckhart talks about is the pain body. And this is the accumulation of negative things that happen to you throughout your entire life that kind of reacts in you when people piss you off or things don't go the way you want them to go.

22:13 His advice is, and I fully support this, is to watch the pain body when it comes up. If you feel right now into your inner energy field, and I'm doing air quotes for those of you listening on audio, if you feel into your inner energy field, you can feel your body vibrating to a very subtle level. Sometimes it helps to start by concentrating on your hands, your feet, maybe in your chest, as I like to do, or in your head. You can sometimes feel a vibration.

22:43 Some of you won't be able to. Maybe you're more hearing-based or more visual-based, but a lot of you will be able to feel this inner energy field. Having roots inside your inner energy field is really important, but especially when your pain body comes up. When that part of you comes up where you do something and you're like, dude, this doesn't even feel like me. I'm just reacting out of this energy field that's inside of me of accumulated pain. When that pain comes up, watch it. And this is really hard to do, but this is going to give you so much separation from the identity of your suffering.

23:15 And I want to say that again because it's so important. You separate and you realize that that pain is not you. It's just an illusion. It's just an energy field inside of you that you bought into with the mind. So when that happens, when you freak out, when you get pissed off, when you get stressed, separate yourself from it and watch it, watch it. And this is so powerful, boys. I can't even express it to you. This alone helps save my life. This in addition to NLP.

23:41 I had so much anxiety inside myself, so much stress. And what I do is I meditate on it and I just look at it. I just watch it. I would even invite it to be there. And I'd say, hey man, got no problem with you. Go ahead and be there. I'm just watching you, just paying attention to you. I'm not thinking about you. I'm just feeling you completely. And that's the way you transcend it. This is called being present. This is called being conscious. No longer are we going into unconscious, compulsive behavior, like reacting to somebody who flips us off or getting pissed because a chick doesn't text us back.

24:14 We have that separation from it. We're not buying into our thoughts. Maybe that chick not texting you back was a blessing in disguise, bro. Maybe she was going to be a complete psycho hose beast, Hurricane Ashley, and was going to ruin your life. You don't know. So let's stop labeling it. Let's stop getting upset about things that essentially, in my opinion, everything that happens to you is there to spur your growth. You've attracted it to yourself for a reason or on some level you chose it.

24:40 So we always say, this is happening for me. This isn't happening to me. And I'm not going to label it. I'm not going to put it into a box because what will be will be. And I'm growing from it, no matter what happens. So when that pain body comes out, you watch it. You pay attention to it. Don't buy into it. It's not you. And guys, finally, don't believe everything you think. This was such a huge epiphany for me that I still practice to this day.

25:06 Thoughts, whether positive or negative, are just illusions. Don't believe them. They are not the truth. They're just your definition from your own experience or the programs that somebody else put into your head before you can defend yourself. And you're just hitting print on a printer and repeating them over and over again. They're fucking illusions. If I look at a picture and you look at a picture, we're going to see two completely different things. So don't buy into what you see. Because the more you buy into it and label it and put a fucking stamp on it that it's this way, the more you suffer.

25:38 And that's the power of now. Stop believing everything you think. Get present. Pay attention to what you're doing. And for God's sakes, boys, do not buy into definitions. There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Stop thinking and end your problems. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return. Because each separate being in the universe returns to the common source, whether he chooses so or doesn't choose so. And that's called death. This is dying before you die.

26:13 It's killing the ego that is creating all your suffering. All the world's problems, all the strife, all the wars are from egos fighting against other egos, or I should say minds fighting against other minds. So we're dropping it. We're getting present. We are here. We are now. You are the present moment. And when I first heard that, it blew my mind. I am the present moment. I am here. I am now. I am not my mind. I am being itself. And God is not a being.

26:44 God is being. And I believe, agree with me or not, that we too are part of God because we are being. You are not a being. You are being itself. But the mind creates the suffering. The mind is maya, which is what the Buddhists say. And maya is suffering. So that's the power of now, gentlemen. It's simple. Just be present. Don't believe everything you think. Stop thinking all the time. Don't buy into your pain body. Don't buy into anything you think. Let it go. That's where freedom is.

27:14 That's where peace is because peace is what you really are. So I hope I did some justice to the power of now. I honestly don't feel like I did. You guys need to read it. What I did is I bought it on audiobook. I listened to it perpetually in my car because while I'm driving, it's the easiest time for me to be present. And I actually broke a record. This is kind of stupid that I did this, but I timed myself. How long could I be present?

27:37 And I went for eight minutes. Eight minutes straight. And while I was driving, I was listening to Eckhart Tolle. And I was just so focused on everything. The sky, the clouds, the cars in front of me, the way the steering wheel felt in my hands, my inner energy field, which is really powerful. And I was able to go for that long. And I'm able to go longer and longer. And I'll tell you, those days that I meditate, those days that I stay in the present moment, those are the most fulfilling days of my life.

28:02 It's always when my mind comes in and starts trying to define things and argue on things and get pissed off about the future and the past or what isn't happening or what is happening that I suffer. Don't buy into it, man. Haven't we had enough suffering? I know I have, brothers. I'm absolutely sick of it. So presence, attention is the key. So I do appreciate you listening, gentlemen. If you're still listening here 30 minutes in, you're a fucking champion. And once again, boys, I cannot suggest this enough.

28:29 Get The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Read it at your own pace. I highly suggest an audio book. Yeah, his voice is a little weird, but he's speaking in a way that carries the high vibrational frequency of presence, which is why I like to listen to it. The words and their meaning doesn't really matter to me anymore. It's just that presence. And I actually went to a retreat in Hawaii with him. And I had a major fucking breakout moment when he was just sitting there completely quiet.

28:55 And I was just looking at him and just staring in his eyes. And I just had this like satori is what it's called. It's the spiritual opening that hasn't left me since that day. And that's The Power of Now. Once again, gentlemen, I do appreciate you listening. Please stay tuned for the next one. And I will see you in the next episode. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

This transcript was made automatically, so a few words may be off.