[Brief foreword: I have been mostly quiet since COVID hit and then the George Floyd tragedy. Too much change and gravitas to offer much (one exception here on my other blog as I hope we think big for the bigness of the times), and the channels are clogged with everyone having thoughts and opinions, many good ones, some not as much. So I resume with a little modest thought, not equal to the gravitas of the times. But I have wanted to say this for a while. JS]
I started the last book I published (The Power of Your Past; the art of recalling, reclaiming and recasting) nine years ago now, making me less than prolific, with a bit of a slam on one of the big mindfulness heroes of our time, Eckhart Tolle of the The Power of Now fame. I wanted to make a point that the mindfulness practitioners, and stay-in-the-now fans somewhat miss. That it is natural to have memories and to think about them, savor and review them with friends or in moments of solo reflection. And that we can get value out of this remembrance work, from having fun, to extracting life lessons and wisdom, and we can even recontextualize (the “recast” word from the subtitle) our memories at different life stages, interpreting them with deeper and more useful lessons than the original ones we came to.
So I want to apologize to Eckhart now—he did not call me and object so he must not have taken my critique too hard—and he did sell about 250 books to every one of mine, beating me out in the volume department by a bit. Still I rarely slam anyone and am not sure I needed to in my book. I was a little condescending with something like, “poor man, he does not use his past.” I think he was right now, that he and many like him do not have much of anything to learn from their past and so they have little use for it.
How did I arrive at this conclusion? I broadened my point of view I guess. Did more reading and meditating. I do still think there is great value for many in recalling and working with our pasts. But it is not for everyone and I used to think it was a near universally useful step.
So my apologies, Eckhart. Our friendship can flourish now. Glad I finally went public with my correction. Now I can move on, and no more slams.
Stay radically present.