The Key To The End of Suffering: A Book Review of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book came to me at the right time. If I had attempted to read this book a few years earlier I would not have been able to appreciate it. This book accompanies a full flowering of one's openness to experiencing enlightenment.

It's taken me a while to get here. I've attended many seminars, I've read many books, and I've practiced yoga (hatha, bikram and raja). I'm grateful for the journey. These were the perfect precedents and accompaniments to reading The Power of Now. If the window was partially open before, now the light is shining because the structure was an illusion.

After reading this book, I now see how consciousness is coming alive through me. There is absolutely nothing to resist, nothing to deny. "It's about realizing that there are no problems. Only situations - to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as part of the 'isness' of the present moment until they change or can be dealt with." When I read that, I was totally blown away. I realized the truth of it. Not an intellectual truth but a truth emanating from within. This is it. This is the indestructible core of who I am. I am no-thing and everything. How beautiful is that?

This moment of seeing could not have come at a better time. It was a gift waiting to be invited in.

I do see how this book cannot be shoved into anyone's face for "therapy." This book will arrive when one seeks it. It is a gateway to the end of suffering. But only if it is accepted...not mentally but with one's whole being.

Through this book, I saw that there is no need to wait for any Heaven. Heaven is Now. Right now. And death is nothing to be feared at all. It is one more form of awakening. My context has totally shifted and the quality of what I do is suffused with care, love, and awareness.

I recommend this book to all those who are seeking to end any kind of suffering. The other side of the coin too: all those who are seeking peace.

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NaPWriMo#11: Resurrection

NaPoWriMo or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

Resurrection
By Justine C. Tajonera

From nowhere, from sleep, from darkness
there will be a light, a bright source.
I refuse a never ending darkness and
forgetfulness. I cannot say that I am right.
It is not for me to claim or to prove.
It will not do anything for me now.
But it is a comfort. The bindings left
on the stone. The hush of the moment
after oblivion. It is a fiction worth repeating
to children afraid of the dark, afraid of being
left behind to fend for themselves.
It was a story I was told as a child.
"She is safe. She is in heaven. She is
waiting for you." And I have believed it.
It has never had to be true.

Goodbyes

By Justine C. Tajonera

He says goodbye
with a smile
and I catch myself
saying come back
okay?

And I think of mothers
and fathers in Haiti
and Chile and how
those words would sound
in their mouths.

Or the children
who heard those words
for the last
time.

I kiss my son
with all my heart
and watch him dance.
I want nothing more
and need nothing else
except now and now
and now
is heaven
happening in my
heart.

March 1, 2010

Crossing Over

by Justine C. Tajonera

There is one final journey in
this life that I used to fear
but now
anticipate.

It is the last of all travels,
the final country
that outstrips all the
space in
the universe.

It is the last and
great
crossing over,
the moment of reckoning,
the confirmation of heaven,
hell and
divinity.

The veil is thin
and crosses into my life,
taking those I love,
those I do not know,
those I will never
know.

I don't know why
I am so sure
that this last port
will not be bleak,
that it will be
a bright glimmer
from across
an ocean,
a beautiful coast,
a nothingness
that is also
everything.

And there I am
perfect, whole
and
complete.

(Feb. 11, 2010)
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianauer/3274615418/

The Temple

By Justine C. Tajonera

My version of heaven:
a leafy place with the
wind rustling secret
gardens, deep pools
tucked in
unexpected niches.
A place to be still.

Would a star have
desires?
It does not circle
anything.
Rather, its own intensity
and strength
draws matter into
its sphere.

Would it look longingly
at an imperfect
existence
where it is important
to find time,
where consequence
follows action?

Is it really rest
that I long for?
Or bringing worlds
into being?
And why
why would it
matter?

If I reached out
in the darkness
would I find you
or only a fragment
of myself?

Surely, surely
that day will come
as even, now,
I fold my
mortal hands
in prayer.

(Dec. 17, 2009)

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/john/4776861/

Comfort

By Justine C. Tajonera

Before he goes
to sleep,
my son pinches
his ear lobe
and it seems
that no harm
will come
to him.

Small gestures
from childhood
tide us through
the night.

Our grandest
ambitions,
our dreams
come true
will never
parallel the little
ecstasies
of innocence.

Our mothers'
wordless
nuzzles,
perhaps,
will greet us
in heaven.

(Nov. 28, 2009)