A spiritual masterpiece that is worth reading and re-reading is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I have been reading it on and off for twenty years. Eckhart Tolle believes that all our suffering stems from our inability to remain present in the eternal now. We are trapped in our minds either by going back into the past and re-living memories or we are projecting into an unknown future, which may cause feelings of anxiety and fear.

On page 45 I came across an important passage: “The moment you realize you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it.” He goes on to say that we have connected in this way with the “witnessing presence.”

This could be compared to tuning into our “right minds” as stated in A Course in Miracles (ACIM). This is another spiritual masterpiece that comes from Jesus. He says our minds are split between the ego (wrong mind) and the Holy Spirit (right mind/Higher Self.) And throughout the Course we are urged to watch our minds for egoic thoughts and hand them over in the mind to the Holy Spirit for correction. This is important because the Holy Spirit is our link to God.

Jesus tells us that we must be very vigilant against the ego if we want to rise above it. In Chapter 6 of the Text of ACIM he tells us that we must, “Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.” Up to now, we have maintained the belief in the separation from God by being vigilant for the ego. But, if we want to awaken, we must observe the ego when it arises and choose instead to think with our right minds by following our inner guidance, which comes from the Holy Spirit. “If you allow yourself to have in your mind only what God put there, you are acknowledging your mind as God created it.” Text, p.110.

There will be numerous moments throughout the day when we catch ourselves thinking with our egoic minds. It is just a matter of noticing this, stopping the thoughts, and replacing them with thoughts that the Holy Spirit gives us instead. These thoughts will all be based on love, non-judgement and forgiveness and will give us peace of mind. And the process of noticing negative thoughts is what brings us back into the present moment, which, in reality, is the only time there is.