One of the ways to drop the mind is to become aware of our thoughts – observing the thinker. We watch ourselves with the intent of understanding rather than judging. In the mirror of our minds, pictures appear and disappear. Knowing that they are entirely our own creations, we watch them silently come and go, alert, but not perturbed. We see the picture, but know that we are not the picture. Non-judgmental observation brings everything into awareness. We wake up, out of inattention and imagination.
Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our life and we will call it fate – C.G. Jung
Eckart Tolle said that observing the thinker brings more presence. The moment we realize that we are not present, we are present again. This creates a space of no-mind with the amount of inner peace we experience as indicator of our progress. The shadow side of mental life is one continuous stream of suffering. The more we become merely the watcher, the weaker our mental formations become. It is impossible to be aware and create suffering for ourselves at the same time. Realizing that it is our thoughts, that are busy making us unhappy, breaks our unconscious identification with them. Observing the mind without identifying with it, we withdraw our energy from it.
I have learnt that no matter what my mind throws at me, the best response is not to react. My mental world can do an about-turn so fully, so suddenly, that it is as if what came before, never was. I can’t afford to be sucked into my mental world’s dark thoughts before the turn, nor attached to it’s rose-coloured outlook thereafter.
This requires vigilance. Whenever the ego starts up, we remember that we are merely the witness busy identifying with our movie character. We return to awareness and then keep watch for any inner movement towards loss of peace. The biblical admonition of ‘do not be anxious’ is not a soothing ‘there there’, it’s a warning. Whenever we become aware of the slightest negativity within, it is a signal for us to wake up, to get out of our heads back to presence.
In the world, yet not of the world, Self looks clear-eyed upon its affairs.
Dropping the mentalizing
Don’t bother walking a mile in my shoes, that would be boring – spend 30 seconds in my head, that’ll freak you right out! – Anonymous
Sound familiar? I find that I can deal with this reality very well. I cope well with life. I am good at tackling situations as they come up. What I don’t cope well with is mind about life, with the sub-realities that I live in in my mind. Especially when I am tired, my mind starts to wander. The scenarios it creates for me then drain whatever energy I have left.
Indulging ourselves in mind’s TV channels is fruitless. We waste time and energy in thought and emotion, in scenarios that we can’t do anything about. It wears us out and makes us less capable when the moment for action comes. Our mental scenarios create emotional and physical reactions as if we were going through the actual thing. If we stop this, we have a lot more energy to accomplish in the present moment what we can actually do something about.
Stuck in our head, we think that we are living, but we are merely theorizing about it. Only if we step out of our mind, do we really start living and being on the earth fully. We need to feel fully, but not mentalize the feeling.
Don’t spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves, that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim – Tyler Knott Gregson
Get in touch with me here if you’re done with fate directing your life.