I CTRL+F searched my e-book version of 'The Power of Now' by
Eckhart Tolle and found these:
Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind,
which is to say as long as you are unconscious, spiritually
speaking. I am talking here primarily of emotional pain, which is
also the main cause of physical pain and physical disease.
Resentment, hatred, self-pity, guilt, anger, depression, jealousy,
and so on, even the slightest irritation, are all forms of pain.
And every pleasure or emotional high contains within itself the
seed of pain: its inseparable opposite, which will manifest in
time.
Be alert as you practice this so that you do not unwittingly
transform clock time into psychological time. For example, if you
made a mistake in the past and learn from it now, you are using
clock time. On the other hand, if you dwell on it mentally, and
self-criticism, remorse, or guilt come up, then you are making the
mistake into "me" and "mine": you make it part of your sense of
self, and it has become psychological time, which is always linked
to a false sense of identity. Non-forgiveness necessarily implies a
heavy burden of psychological time.
All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological
time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress,
worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not
enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness,
bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much
past, and not enough presence.
Does the past take up a great deal of your attention? Do you
frequently talk and think about it, either positively or
negatively? The great things that you have achieved, your
adventures or experiences, or your victim story and the dreadful
things that were done to you, or maybe what you did to someone
else? Are your thought processes creating guilt, pride, resentment,
anger, regret, or self-pity? Then you are not only reinforcing a
false sense of self but also helping to accelerate your body's
aging process by creating an accumulation of past in your psyche.
Verify this for yourself by observing those around you who have a
strong tendency to hold on to the past.
Die to the past every moment. You don' t need it. Only refer to it
when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of
this moment and the fullness of Being. Feel your presence.
Whenever two or more egos come together, drama of one kind or
another ensues. But even if you live totally alone, you still
create your own drama. When you feel sorry for yourself, that's
drama. When you feel guilty or anxious, that's drama. When you let
the past or future obscure the present, you are creating time,
psychological time - the stuff out of which drama is made. Whenever
you are not honoring the present moment by allowing it to be, you
are creating drama.
