Power of Now vs Law of Attraction

[seeker5]

Ok, so I'm reading both of these books/philosophies/methods right now.

Power of Now says to focus on just the now.

Law of Attraction and Intention-Manifestation, if I understand it, says to focus on what you desire as if it is about to occur and you anticipate it happening.

In a way, these two seems different - one is focus on the now, the other is focus on what you desire in your life....?

So, how best to use the two approaches despite what seems to be their differences?

[Angela]

Can you feel a delicious, anticipatory sense of expansion right now? That is desire, and it is now.

This sense of being aligned with your desires, enjoying them as if they were created in reality right now in this moment (rather than as something that will happen 'someday', something that is lacking that must be fulfilled before you will be satisfied) -- this is pure, childlike desire at its most wonderful, and is perfectly compatible with being present in the moment and living like a dog.

Dog desire -- that's pretty picturesque, isn't it? Just like Woofie, you can be entirely present, and at the same time filled with that delightful allowingness -- "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

[Dharma]

Originally Posted by seeker5

Ok, so I'm reading both of these books/philosophies/methods right now.

Power of Now says to focus on just the now.

Law of Attraction and Intention-Manifestation, if I understand it, says to focus on what you desire as if it is about to occur and you anticipate it happening.

In a way, these two seems different - one is focus on the now, the other is focus on what you desire in your life....?

So, how best to use the two approaches despite what seems to be their differences?

I'd focus on the now, that's it. Wanting (desire) is such a trap. A very slight one too. Wanting life to be different than what it is shuts you off from what your are experiencing now. Wanting is the manifestation of some thing and also the manifestation of the lack of some thing at the same time, and your focus is on the lack. The emotional experience of wanting closes down the expansion and spark that will allow a magical flow into your experience.

If I read Angela's post right, she is talking about desire without expectation. Tolle tells a story on one of his recordings about a cat waiting outside a mouse hole. The cat is very focused in the now and is not 'waiting' like you would wait in line to pay for your groceries, but waiting in a sense of allowing space for the next thing to pop into it's experience.

My experience of it is an electric feeling inside, but there's no mind-content hoping for the lottery, or a new job, or for the phone to ring. I just keep that feeling going, and stay open, allowing life to happen and to receive it as best I can. I do have thoughts that come in -- I'd like to do more hiking, backpacking, photography , move to Albuquerque, etc, etc. I see them and frame them as possibilities that I am choosing, and then return to the experience of the moment again.

[infinitethoughts]

Originally Posted by seeker5

Ok, so I'm reading both of these books/philosophies/methods right now.

Power of Now says to focus on just the now.

Law of Attraction and Intention-Manifestation, if I understand it, says to focus on what you desire as if it is about to occur and you anticipate it happening.

In a way, these two seems different - one is focus on the now, the other is focus on what you desire in your life....?

So, how best to use the two approaches despite what seems to be their differences?

Look up the what I responded to jaideepv1234 in the Thread Why does a master know there is no evil in the world ?

It's in the Spiritual section.
Hope that helps you.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Dharma

If I read Angela's post right, she is talking about desire without expectation. Tolle tells a story on one of his recordings about a cat waiting outside a mouse hole. The cat is very focused in the now and is not 'waiting' like you would wait in line to pay for your groceries, but waiting in a sense of allowing space for the next thing to pop into it's experience.

Attachment might be closer to what I mean than expectation.

All is well, I am safe and supported, I have all the abundance in the world, because I am all the abundance in the world, just like that cat. I just have to remind myself once in awhile, cuz sometimes I forget!

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by seeker5

Power of Now says to focus on just the now.

Law of Attraction and Intention-Manifestation, if I understand it, says to focus on what you desire as if it is about to occur and you anticipate it happening.

Not about to occur, it's occurring now. When you visualize, visualize your wish as if it was already right now. When you have an intention, state it in -ing form.

Steve wrote a great article exactly about that. Look: A Better Life

[Bene]

That article though, says to intend improvement in the present moment. Not the visualization of a future desire happening now.

So if your intention is to manifest a $1000 unexpected income. Then you would intend that you are getting closer and closer to that $1000 now. It is the momentum to the destination.

Anyway, thats a timely article for me. Thanks for the pointer Rose... and it was your post 1111. For me thats a sign to take note of the article.

[theknightwhosaysni-NI]

I stumbled upon a nice quote from Saint Exupery :
(self made translation I hope it makes sense)

"what's important is neither the bowman, nor the bow, nor the arrow, nor even the target...what's important is the trajectory" Antoine de Saint Exupery.

According to this quote, once we're on the path to our intention, it's ok. The path is even more important than the final intention actually. I like that.
I guess focusing on the now is not stopping movement, but more focusing on the movement/trajectory itself.

[seeker5]

Thanks everyone, this has been very helpful in understanding

[wolfgang]

You all know that Tolle is about having the universe guide you? And that he's not about "telling the universe what I want"? And then that seems to be different approaches to operating. Like for the LoA it's figuring out what you want and the "putting your order in to the universe". But Tolle suggests that it's the other way around.

Originally Posted by from Chapter 1 of the Tolle webinar

So that's the starting point. I know that sometimes in New Age you have the question, "Well, what do you want?" It's fine to ask that question, but a more powerful question is, "What does life want from me? How do I fit into the—what is the totality? What is my place within the whole?"

So then, is LoA about "putting your order into the universe"? And how can that operate if what really works is to ask "what does life want from me?"?

I see this as a bigger difference than being in the present moment versus having the LoA mindset that seems to project into the future (which has been dispelled in this thread).

[mercuryrising]

If I change the word "intention" to "attention", I can see how the Power of Now and Law of Attraction work together.

We are always here and now, whether we are aware of it or not. The contents of here and now are determined by the location/object of one's attention. The longer one's attention spends in one location/object, the more the present reality conforms to it. The more often the attention 'visits' a certain location, the more clear a pathway to that place.

Most people (me included) suffer from a short attention span that goes all over the place, giving reality a random nature to it. And what attention they do have goes to the same places based on social conditioning, genetics and acquired habit. There are moments where they focus on a particular object or place, but it is hard to get there on a regular basis (at first). So their attention returns to it's normal hang-outs.

[For some reason I have this image of people's attention spans hanging out at a bar after work]

The practice of being in the present moment brings the attention back to the seat of power. It expands the length/breadth of the attention span. Intention is the conscious choice of what will be in one's reality once the power of attention has been strengthened.

Most forms of meditation I have come across have these two basic components. There is some method of coming back into the present moment followed by focus on a particular object. And the more a person practices the meditation, the more they resemble whatever they focus upon and the more their reality conforms to that resemblance.

There is a third component to meditation, which is transcendence of the focused object. By putting the attention "through" or "beyond" the chosen object, escalating stages of samadhi are produced along with various siddhis. That's beyond the scope of this topic, but I thought I'd mention it.

[Dharma]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

So then, is LoA about "putting your order into the universe"? And how can that operate if what really works is to ask "what does life want from me?"?

LOA is a fun game we play with ourselves to bring the mind up to the level of creator when it is just the watcher. Consciousness is pretending the mind is the director of manifestation. It is not. And... consciousness knows this too, but it is addicted to the game.

One of the ways out of the game is to be in the moment. Receive the moment, fully, which means to not want for different conditions all the time. Practice being at peace with what is. Receive it like you created it, because you did.

Focusing on the present moment, from the level of the ego, helps consciousness break the addiction. (Note: Many teachings put the ego in a bad light. Consciousness is focused here in the physical world to break its addiction to denial. The ego actually works through problems the 'higher' levels of self can't get. Practicing presence is very important to consciousness at this time.)

[uberinquisitive]

Chapter 10 of Eckart Tolle's "A New Earth" talks about manifestation.

In his webinar with Oprah, he had this to say about manifesting. I am copying-pasting from pg. 22-26 of the webinar transcript:

---------------


KIPPY: ...My question is, is how can we have goals or visions if we are to always remain in the present?

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): ...When you are in touch with your own power... [you do not] ... say, "I would like to achieve this or that at some future point, I need that, I want that to complete myself." You're reaching out toward that goal; you're losing yourself; you're not present.

...I give an example now in The Power of Now, before I ever wrote the book, I had this vision of that that book was already on some level already there, had already been written. And so I felt all I'm doing is I'm externalizing what's already there. I had this strong inner feeling that the book already exists inside me. I saw it as a reality already. I didn't try to achieve writing a book. The book was already there, and all then I had to do was be open to this energy movement coming from within, to manifest what was already there on a deeper level.

And that's why Jesus said whenever you asked for anything, "Believe that you already have received it, and it will be yours."

So if you believe that you already have received it, it means it must already be a reality inside yourself. So you're not coming from lack or scarcity or neediness because then ... there's no power behind your vision or your goal. You're already coming from fullness. So the goal is already a reality inside. You already feel as if you had it.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Right.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): It's already a reality and what you feel ... is the fullness that is already there in the present moment. And then you don't lose yourself, then you are fully there as you begin to respond to this inner impulse. You manifest it in your life in the present moment.

So it's not a future thing really. A powerful goal ... you're not visualizing in order to achieve something in the future, you're visualizing in order to bring something out that's already inside you.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Wow. That's powerful, but I can understand why a lot of people would be confused by it because then how do you ever achieve anything in the future? Isn't that what you're saying too, Kippy?

KIPPY: Right. Right.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): How do you ever achieve anything in the future? Say, I want to be an actress. A lot of people ... have day jobs, but what they really want—I want to be an actress. That's a future goal, I want to be an actor or actress, or I want to get a job working for, you know, a major corporation.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): ... How can you not hold that as a vision for yourself?

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): ...The power that is there inside you that will manifest externally in time and in the future is already there. Get in touch with the power.

What would it feel like if you were an actress already successful? What does that feel like inside you? And where does the power come from with which you can make a difference in people's lives when you are doing something like that? Where does the power reside?

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Yeah, because you say, instead of saying "I want to be a great actress" is "How do I use this talent to manifest in such a way that causes people to feel a certain way?"

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): So it's already a reality inside you, and then you can take steps toward implementing that. But it comes from fullness rather than neediness. The mistake is not finding the place of power that is in the present moment, and believing that something else that is not in the present moment is going to bring you to the place of power.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Okay.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): It won't.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Okay. I just got it, Kippy. I just got it.

...What he's saying is, is that whatever goal that you have or vision that you have must come from the place of being or consciousness ... If it comes from being or consciousness, then it comes through you, out into the world instead of you reaching out into the world saying, "This is what I want for myself."

And so all things—and I can use the example of myself. I have always wanted to do exactly what I'm doing here with all of you tonight. I've always felt that deep inside me this is what I was meant to do. I was meant to be a teacher, I was meant to use television as a platform for helping people to better know themselves.

...Knowing that, knowing that deep inside myself, is what has helped bring this into fruition this way, instead of saying, you know, "One day I want to have a webcast and have a million people on the webcast."

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): You see what I'm saying?

KIPPY: I do, yes.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): That it comes from the inner part of you. There's a feeling that comes from the consciousness part of yourself, the being of yourself that says, "This is what I now need to do." (to Eckhart) And that's why you were saying it doesn't matter what you do.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): No.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): It's how you do what you do. And it doesn't matter what you do, everything that you do has to be fueled by consciousness or the spirit of God ... otherwise, it has no real meaning in your life.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes. And the place of power is in the present moment. That's a vital thing is you can only touch that power in the present moment.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): And so you said last week it's about this step, the step today that it takes to get to the next step, then the next step, and the next step, and the next step.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): You don't get there by thinking, let me, you know.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): No. And even if you're doing something at the moment that life has given you that doesn't seem to be part of your vision.

...Let's say you're working in a restaurant but your vision is being a great artist ... You still need to honor whatever it is that you're doing at this moment fully and completely.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Right.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Because it may, some way it may arise out of that. That may also be part of it.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): That's right. Because every step leads you to the direction. It's the means and not the end that counts.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes, excellent.

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by uberinquisitive

Chapter 10 of Eckart Tolle's "A New Earth" talks about manifestation.
ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): No. And even if you're doing something at the moment that life has given you that doesn't seem to be part of your vision.

...Let's say you're working in a restaurant but your vision is being a great artist ... You still need to honor whatever it is that you're doing at this moment fully and completely.

I don't think I agree with that. If you really wanted to be a great artist, you would start painting now, regardless of your circumstances. If you are having a vision (or, rather, a daydream), it remains a vision.

Many great artists lived in poverty. The weren't interested in their physical needs, they just did what their souls compelled them to do, whether they were successful or not, whether they were recognized or not. They didn't jus dream about it, while they were washing dishes.

To be 'great' at anything, you have to live and breathe it with a passion.

[Angela]

Cantando, you may be right that someone who wants to be an artist would be wise to quit his dishwashing job and go paint, but what Eckhart Tolle is saying is Do what you're doing when you're doing it. Whatever your next right action is, whether it's painting, doing the dishes, or meditating about your vision, be present and honor the moment.

And by the way, I don't believe that great artists don't worry about their physical needs!

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by Angela

And by the way, I don't believe that great artists don't worry about their physical needs!

Granted, my comment was rather extreme.
Nevertheless, if an artist/musician/writer has an overriding passion for his calling, he/she just gets on with it, lives it and does it, regardless of any financial compensation or recognition within their own lifetimes. Take Van Gogh and Mozart as examples. If their physical needs are met, then fine, if they are not, that doesn't hinder them or dampen their ardour.

[Acting Like Godot]

The simple, practical approach to integrating LOA with the Power of Now is as follows.

Just concentrate on whatever you're doing. For example, if you are washing the dishes now, concentrate on washing the dishes. If you are reading a book now, concentrate on reading a book.

And if you are doing your IM visualisation now, concentrate on doing your IM visualisation. When you're done, go do whatever you need to do, and concentrate on it.

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

The simple, practical approach to integrating LOA with the Power of Now is as follows.

Just concentrate on whatever you're doing. For example, if you are washing the dishes now, concentrate on washing the dishes. If you are reading a book now, concentrate on reading a book.

And if you are doing your IM visualisation now, concentrate on doing your IM visualisation. When you're done, go do whatever you need to do, and concentrate on it.

That may work for some of the more mundane, everyday manifestations, but I seriously doubt if it would work for manifesting the vision of being a ‘great artist’, with its compartmentalized approach of, for example, ‘I’ll do the housework first, then I’ll visualize being a great artist for twenty minutes, then I'll take the cat for a walk’.

A great artist is born with genius. No one ever became one by creating a picture of it in their mind. Accept it and get over it.

You can improve your skills through daily practice, and perhaps reach a level where you are competent enough to go professional, but you will never be ‘great’ unless you already have that genius within you. The world is full of mediocre artists, writers, musicians and performers who think they are ‘great’ because they have an inflated image of themselves. Yes, some do become rich and famous, not through their talent, but through their pushy egos.

The whole of these teachings can be summarized in one sentence:

Be in the present moment.

It’s not new, it’s not difficult to do, it’s not some mysterious, arcane secret. You don't need a guru to explain it.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cantando

A great artist is born with genius. No one ever became one by creating a picture of it in their mind.

It depends on what you mean by genius.

I don't think anyone can claim to be a genius, unless he actually produces works of genius. However, the actual production of any artistic work begins in the artist's mind. Example here:

"[Michelangelo]] viewed sculpture as a release of the figure that was trapped in the stone or marble. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

In other words, Michelangelo looks at a big block of raw stone, and in his mind's eye, he already visualises the figure he will make from it.

The visualisation must come first. Quite similar to blue feathers, actually.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cantando

you will never be ‘great’ unless you already have that genius within you.

You will never be "great" unless you produce great works. And in the production of great works, the mind comes first.

Otherwise brain-dead, comatose people could also produce great works.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cantando

It’s not new, it’s not difficult to do.

Actually I think it is very difficult to do.

Much, much harder than manifesting blue feathers or a couple of thousand bucks out of thin air. Which is the kind of thing I do quite easily.

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

It depends on what you mean by genius.

I don't think anyone can claim to be a genius, unless he actually produces works of genius. However, the actual production of any artistic work begins in the artist's mind. Example here:

In other words, Michelangelo looks at a big block of raw stone, and in his mind's eye, he already visualises the figure he will make from it.

The visualisation must come first. Quite similar to blue feathers, actually.

Well, yes, we may have differing ideas as to what ‘genius’ and ‘great’ mean.

For me, it would be someone like Mozart, who could hold a whole symphony in his head, then write it down with hardly a single correction. Then again, a composer could work for years on a work and it could still be considered ‘great’.

The truth is most of us are average, by definition. There are only a few true greats who truly stand out, who can manifest ‘great’ visualizations, precisely because of their genius. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to improve, in fact, I support that, but for Tolle to talk about having a vision of becoming a great artist and manifesting it, whilst working in a restaurant, is rather fatuous and gives people false hopes.

I agree that visualization comes first, but in the case of geniuses (from what I have read), a magnificent work can inexplicably manifest in their mind with little conscious effort. The genius comes in communicating, through their chosen medium, that internal experience.

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Actually I think it is very difficult to do.

Much, much harder than manifesting blue feathers or a couple of thousand bucks out of thin air. Which is the kind of thing I do quite easily.

We are always in the present moment. We just have to say, 'I am here, now'.

I could spin that out into a 200 page book, speak with a German accent, and sound like I am channeling something, appear on the Oprah Winfrey show, and make a lot of money, but I can't be bothered.

So, that is the content of my new PD book:

'I am here, now.'

No charge for that, by the way.

[Geiger]

Originally Posted by Cantando

for example, ‘I’ll do the housework first, then I’ll visualize being a great artist for twenty minutes, then I'll take the cat for a walk’.

If you think of what you will do later (i.e. the future) you are not in the present moment.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cantando

We are always in the present moment. We just have to say, 'I am here, now'.

Well, if you can achieve that, good for you. However, I do not think it is easy. Among other things, it implies extremely strong powers of concentration.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Geiger

If you think of what you will do later (i.e. the future) you are not in the present moment.

This is an incorrect understanding of Tolle's idea. YOu can read the book to find out.

Tolle doesn't say that you should never think about the future. He says that if you need to think about the future, eg plan a schedule for next week, then do so ... concentrate fully, do your thinking, plan your schedule and finishi your planning. Well, you're planning, be present in the now - PLAN, do not let your thoughts drift to other matters.

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by Geiger

If you think of what you will do later (i.e. the future) you are not in the present moment.

Er ... I think you should be addressing that to ALG. That's precisely what I am questioning (see previous posts).

[Cantando]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Well, if you can achieve that, good for you. However, I do not think it is easy. Among other things, it implies extremely strong powers of concentration.

That would give me a headache. Just relaxing and thinking about nothing in particular does it for me, and I suspect for most people as well.

[Acting Like Godot]

Then this is nothing more than a misunderstanding of tolle's words. Refer to his 1st book again, especially the parts that discuss what he calls "calendar time".

Perhaps I shall put it another way and then it will become clear. Tolle is really advocating this;

Control your mind completely;

Think nothing except what you consciously choose to think about;

Do not ever permit any irrelevant, random or stray thoughts to arise;

Recognise that all painful memories and all fears of the future are unnecessary, since neither the past nor the future can exist except in your mind, that is, they are illusions;

When there is nothing you wish to think about, simply do not think.

-----

On a side note, many traditional forms of meditation are simply ways of practising presence in the now. Eg a common form of meditation is to focus your attention fully on observing your breath or a candle flame, and think NOTHING else for an hour or two.

[fwellers]

Originally Posted by Cantando

We are always in the present moment. We just have to say, 'I am here, now'.

I could spin that out into a 200 page book, speak with a German accent, and sound like I am channeling something, appear on the Oprah Winfrey show, and make a lot of money, but I can't be bothered.

So, that is the content of my new PD book:

'I am here, now.'

No charge for that, by the way.

Realizing the truths that Tolle's books point to, that we are all connected, that there really is no time or space etc..., realizing the eternal present is not that easy at all. Well, on the one hand it may be as easy as turning on a light switch. That seems to be the intellectual path. But that can take you only so far by itself. It takes practicing 'being present', in order to illuminate your intellect. For me it takes all of that.
What Tolle does so well, is to explain the same truths over and over, in different ways so that eventually we can all 'get it'.