Stop Being Stalked By Predatory Thoughts GF Live 2-07-26

Key Lesson: Starve a fear and feed your freedom.

Key Question: How can we be devoured by any thought? Might as well believe that a shadow can consume the light that creates it!

Second Key lesson: The more any painful thought or dark feeling asks of you, the less you must give it.

Transcript

I have a special story that I've written to help convey the principles that we're going to look at together and then we're going to look at some of the hidden meaning in this story and I hope that I hope that you will understand that the reason that I'm telling you this story which is essentially based on the the title of the talk which Kate if we can put that up that would be great and the title of the talk is stock is stop being stalked by predatory thoughts stop being stalked by predatory thoughts what in the name of heaven is a predatory thought is there such a thing and if there is then what does it mean to us and how do we begin to understand our relationship with something that and now I'll ask you before I ask Kate for the key lesson just to bring us in before we go into this long story that I'm gonna read the dialogue as we go through it have you ever felt like you were literally how shall I say being eaten alive by your own thoughts did it feel like that to you it's quite a phenomena I'm just looking at some of the answers and hoping that all of you who believe somehow or other that you are a different kind of human being than you are one day see that it's thinking in fact it's being consumed by your thoughts that tell you and then give you a sense of self that sits at the root of all of this misery but let me not get distracted here so for most of us we know what it's like where we leave a party we get off the phone might answer an email or a text and within a few moments we're left drained if not feeling dead to life again I want to make sure at least most of us are on the same page you've heard that expression is something eaten eating at you what where does that come from that idea what's what's eating you what's eating you that's what we're gonna look at so before we look at it and just to tie everything together ever so quickly I want to maybe refresh some of your memory and maybe if you've never heard this little story not the one I intend to tell you it's not mine but a woman kindly woman lives in a little hut somewhere in the frigid mountains and one day dead of winter goes outside and finds a frozen snake on her doorstep now how it got there nobody knows but there it is and she looks down at this poor snake frozen stiff and she feels pity for it as one might she takes the snake back into her house warms it by the fire and even feeds it milk perhaps doing as I myself have done once in a while when I find a frog desiccated from being stuck inside or even a little bird you might give it a little what do they call it you know you pump its little heart I've actually had little creatures come back to life that way anyway she's does everything to resuscitate this little creature and as she resuscitates it it starts to come back to life by some miracle and it no more comes back to life the color returns to it then what do you think it does it bites her and she dies now maybe not a story you want to tell your children but perhaps one day when you understand the meaning of it you'll want to help them understand what this story implies everybody's still with me I don't want to lose you right at the outset the story enough is going to that I have to tell you is going to be somewhat of a shock there's no question about it so before I tell you the story take a nice deep breath Kate can we bring up the first key lesson please connects intimately to everything we're going to do read along with me it's very short might want to write it down starve a fear and feed your freedom starve a fear and feed your freedom what does that mean let's see from time to time I tell a story using certain characters in repeated roles but always in different circumstances to produce a sensation of pictorial emotional set of images to help make sure the lesson gets down into where it's meant to get down inside of our heart mind so often I use a story about a detective the detective in this story represents the parts about ourselves the parts of ourselves that are authentic seekers that want to know what in the world is going on I can see things taking place but I don't understand them I see this person behave this way I catch myself in the throes of something I can't believe that I've been captured by and I want to understand it more than I want to explain it to myself this is what the detective represents a higher part of us seeking to understand the nature that presently holds it in sway so he's always reading the papers to hear to find out about places where certain phenomena is going on and he hears as he often does about another small hamlet a town where people are just kind of walking around in a trance and then just disappearing and of course that's fascinating to him because he seen similar things all around but he's never understood how that happens so hearing about this fact of this sudden disappearance of people he decides he's going to take off and find out in this town what it's about now let me bring you in right away have you not seen the sudden disappearance of somebody you're you you could be sitting at a dinner table and somebody makes a little passive-aggressive comment or somebody flatter somebody else and suddenly you you see this person and they're still at the table but they've disappeared maybe their eyes have kind of waxed over or they're looking off in the distance sitting in a restaurant you can look at somebody and they're just not there even though their body is they're there but they have disappeared do you get the connotation here of what I'm describing to you of course we will have to see this in ourselves won't we but let me not delay the telling of this story so he wants to know what's causing this disappearance and these people to go through whatever they're going through and so for the sake of time because I have a long story to tell you he arrives in this small town and maybe the first place that he stops is a place to to buy himself a grocery store and he's there in the grocery store and he notices somebody talking to what looks like the corner of a refrigerated storage place and he can't understand it he's watching and all of a sudden he sees the person kind of reach over doesn't know what they're doing and all of a sudden the person kind of has like a little tension come over their body their eyes wax over and the person starts to look different person doesn't look like the same person anymore sort of a variation on the theme but one that isn't very pleasant to look at just take in the impression of this story so he sees over and over again something like this happen and he cannot for the life of him figure it out what's going on can't see it so one morning on the third day he's sitting in a small diner and he's seated at the at the counter and just off to his right more or less visual but peripheral he sees there's a young woman and out of the corner of his eye like he'd seen before he notices this woman it looks like she's talking to herself now I don't know if you've noticed sometimes people have these ear buds on and stuff like that or on the phone and it looks like they're talking to themselves but if you look closely you can see they're in some conversation well he's thinking well maybe she's you know engaged in a conversation so he turns around just to look but there's no ear buds or whatever they call them in her ear seems like she's just talking to herself now he's even more interested because this has come before each instance where he saw somebody go through this strange transformation and so he turns to look a little more squarely at this woman she doesn't notice that he's turned to look at her her attention is elsewhere and he sees as he turns there's like this sort of little shadowy creature in the shadow of the napkin holder on her table and he's a little stunned to see it it's a small creature it has no ears has no eyes just multiple legs no arms or hands basically just a mouth so little legs and a mouth now that would be shocking wouldn't it and he's shocked because it's the first time he's ever seen anything like that so he's watching this and the more that she starts to talk to this little creature the more features he sees the creature take on so at first it's just little legs and a mouth but as she's engaged in this dialogue it it ears grow eyes appear little arms and little hands and then he notices that is all this taking place whatever this little creature is it starts reaching out to her with a certain look on its face I have to make sure everybody's still here you still here still listening to this story don't try to get ahead okay good now as he's watching all of this happen and this little creature is doing this well what is she gonna do he she reaches over and she picks it up and he's watching all this barely in the palm of her hand and the minute she picks it up what do you think it does it bites her and the moment it bites her her eyes go vacant just like he saw the other people only never understood why people eyes went vacant the way they did and now he's unbelievably drawn into this story this explains maybe a lot of things he's never understood before so again have you ever seen someone suddenly go vacant you know that that that stare into the future out into space this is what he sees her being like and as he's watching this take place she's listening to whatever the creature is saying after it's bitter bit but bitten her and then a strange thing starts to happen she begins to take on some of the shape and even the size the coloration of this little creature which is unbelievable and he's looking around now to see if anybody else is seeing what he's seeing but nobody else is basically seeing what he's seeing because by and large he doesn't know this yet most everybody in that restaurant has already been bitten by a similar creature so he's looking at this woman and for lack of a better word and there's no way to explain this but but an exchange seems to be taking place and the exchange is that it looks as if she kind of has some of that same shape and coloration no one else could see it but he can and she's somewhat embodying this creature that he saw and that no one else does and as this is taking place finally he just can't sit there anymore he wants to if he can save her from this final transformation where as he's seen before people just kind of walk off or sit at that bus stop in a dangerous glazed over state and he rushes over to where she is but he stops midway because he sees that she somehow or other has said something to this creature and whatever it is that she said in a very pronounced fashion that he can't hear causes this creature to kind of reverse osmosis it begins to take back its features the little eyes disappear little ears disappear arms and hands and the thing shrinks and runs away back into the shadow from out of which it came and disappears now I need to tell you this is a bit of a true story but you'll see why in a moment so he rushes over to this young woman and he says unbelievable my god what in the name of heaven is that thing she pauses gauging his sincerity and she says to him you could see it see it yes I could see it what what what was that she says well I have to tell you not everyone can see what you just saw but I I can tell you what I call it I don't know it's real name he said what do you call it and Cato post this now she said it's a thoughtling it's a thoughtling he says what a thoughtling please enlighten me said well I again as best I can she said a thoughtling is a hungry thought that lingers on long after its charity after its quality and character has been manifested by some reaction and once its shape is conceived and then coupled with whatever that particular reaction that causes it to appear that that thought thing that thoughtling acts as a proxy for the reaction that spawns it so that now the name of whatever that name may be triggers that initial reaction and the repeated reaction strengthens the name and she goes on surely you've seen this he says I don't know what you're talking about she says well let me ask you a question have you ever been sitting maybe at this coffee shop and you heard someone talking and they brought up a name that sounds like someone you know and that person you know caused you to in the past to cause this pain and the next thing you know that that name sets you off has that ever happened to you she said to ever get set off by a person's name that's not even there maybe they're even dead and he thinks about it for a second he says well yeah of course I have she said how about the tone of a person's voice have you ever been have you ever suddenly had a reaction come up because of the tone of a voice someone uses you with you he says well yeah of course I have well what about this how about just a hint of some unwanted news she said do you ever get a hint of unwanted news and the moment it comes up something in you starts thinking money health problems and so you have this name you have this thought that appears that is basically the encompassing description of whatever that reaction is that's brought it up she says have you seen that because well now that you have mentioned this yes she's those are thoughtlings those are the lingering thoughts produced by an initial reaction that took on the name and shape and quality the memory of that whole thing and all you need is that name to be brought up inside of you or for something inside of you to bring it up and the next thing you know you've been bitten by a thoughtling about this you've ever looked in the mirror and been bitten by a thoughtling she didn't say that to him I'm saying it to you ever look in the mirror and the thoughts goes oh no oh my god well where does that thought come from a thought saying that can't be me what's happened to me that thought belongs to a reaction filled with resistance and the rejection of what is because it doesn't look like it's supposed to are you all following me I better check in with you and make sure we're all on the same page here you're getting the the drift of this idea of a thoughtling a lingering thought connected to the reaction that produced it and then all you need is the thought again and the reaction repeats itself in this strange strange cycle he said yeah I said I have seen that seen it too many times where I feel he said now that you've brought it up I actually can feel it's like a bite it's like I've been bitten by a fear like like some anger I was bitten by anger or dread or doubt he said are you trying to tell me that when these negative states come up and I have that reaction that produces them that it's because of a thoughtling she goes pretty much he said you know I've it's too much to believe I mean but I saw it with my own eyes I'm beginning to doubt that I saw it and by the way you will doubt to what you see for a long time you have to see it multiple times before that picture takes on a true place in your spiritual memory she said I know she said I'll tell you what's more unbelievable than that is that billions billions of human beings have no idea that they're being eaten alive every time they pick up a thoughtling and get bitten by it and they don't know it because part of the poison of that thoughtling includes what is always given to the person bitten to blame someone or something outside of them for the pain that follows and then the resistance to the pain is what causes the eyes to glaze over they're literally carried off into a world where there's nothing that can change except for the extent of whatever the resistance is to having been bitten by something that they picked up still with me out there yes claudia thoughts that bait you but it's more than thoughts that bait you it's thoughts that you don't know are waiting for you that's why I called the talk stop being stalked by predatory thoughts and I asked have you ever felt like you're being eaten alive so back to the story so the detective says but where where does this thing get the power that it needs to do this she says well again I'm not the master of this description she said but I can tell you that theoretically speaking no thoughtling is actually alive itself what do you mean no thoughtling actually is alive by itself how does it live she said thoughtlings are parasitic they derive their temporary existence from the unwary individual that it deceives into picking it up so it can feed and she said it feeds not just to sustain its nature but to give it a temporary body which incidentally she said is why they're always hungry and ready to feed she said you're blowing my mind she said it's about time she said imagine how much life has been given away imagine why the world is the way it is what do you think makes mobs what do you think causes wars not just nationally but between individuals somebody says something to you and instantaneously every bit of that tone turns into a time and that time is condensed into a thought and that thought of that person or betrayal turns into a torment that is summarily resisted and that reaction just drives that loop round and round and round until a person has no idea whatsoever that they're actually feeding the very thing that is stealing their freedom in that moment he said but that's that's what I'm asking you about what what what in the name of heaven sustains them not to mention actually allows them as I've seen to to to to basically take a life that they give nothing back for she said well let me try again thoughtlings are incarnated they're sustained and maintained by the attention we give them which is why of themselves they have no power and certainly can't connect with anything until we pick them up now let me repeat that thoughtlings are incarnated sustained and maintained by the attention we give them without our attention they have no life and cannot feed so that we are complicit in the continuity of this strange sense that we have of feeling like you know I'm so drained I know people do you know people they are they can they can be so negative for so long their health just deteriorates and then they blame the world for the condition they're in if not blaming the circumstances for this constant conflict they say they wouldn't experience if it wasn't for what was going on around them all of that's a lie these things that feed on us that steal our life these negative thoughts and feelings cannot live without the attention we give to them but we give it to them because they they beckon to us that they're hungry for our life but pretend like they're interested in our life so these little thoughtlings bring up this or bring up that that you can't see behind what they brought up was some kind of reaction and then that reaction begins to sustain that relationship that drains us the way that it does they cannot be maintained without the attention we give them without being identified with them so the detective says all right look this is maybe the biggest story I've ever stumbled on so I have to ask you again because I saw it and I'm not asking just out of curiosity he said I saw you reach over and pick one of these things up and I'm pretty sure that I saw one bite you which from the rest of my experience not just looking back on my own life but all the people that I saw prior to watching you that spelled the end of them it was so strange to see haven't you ever wondered how it is and we can be we're not judging ourselves and we're not judging other human beings how in the name of god does a person begin to take on that that coloration that that posture that that that facial expression that deep anger that cannot be here how how does a human being become so ugly stupid and spiritually speaking and I'm describing it to you it's because they do not know we are not aware of the fact that these things exist meaning that this relationship exists what what the woman in the opening story picked up the snake that was frozen out of compassion defrosted it and it bit her and she died so we believe somehow there's this evil snake and this good woman no there is this thoughtling and there there is this nature that requires it and between the two of them it creates an identity that we're so used to being familiar with that we don't know what else to do except pick up the snake pick up the thought engage with whatever that suffering is telling us that it'll stop if we just do this that or the other so he said I have to understand this because it I thought I saw it bite you but either you're immune but then he said you said something and whatever it was that you said I couldn't hear it it made that little thing jump out of your hand and go back into the shadow from out which out of which it came and just disappear there he said and now that I know these things exist because I I really don't like to to concede but I can see how many times I've sat in my own living room and been bitten by a thoughtling and then convinced the day is going to go a certain way or that I'm not worth something or whatever it is that's going on I'm beginning to understand that kind of psychological poison but I so that's why I want to know what did you say to make that thing withdraw as it did she said to her look she said there's no magic to it at all none and I want to be very clear with you it's not the words that's themselves that terminate this unconscious relationship with a thoughtling it's not the words themselves that terminate this unconscious relationship with a thoughtling he said I get it what did you say I said what comes to me that thoughtling was saying you know what you need to go back and think about what he did how cruel that was and how it broke your heart that thoughtling was inviting me into the past a thoughtling can invite you into the future where fear waits for you a thoughtling can invite you into judging yourself or other people you have to be the one and I'll get to that in a minute she said so for me I've been bitten so many times by that anger or that betrayal or that I've been bitten so many times I said to it just what I felt and what I saw okay what he said she said I just said you know what you're no longer of any interest to me I have no interest in you and that's all that you have to say that's all you have to know because the authority that you saw such as you saw it is no greater than the understanding of how a man or a woman in my case has been complicit in the continuation of their life cycle because that's the only way the cycle of their life goes on is that we're complicit with feeding and as we feed part of feeding it and by the way one of its favorite foods is blaming because the more we blame the more we resist the more we resist the more we insist something else is doing this to us no nothing is doing anything to me my whole life anytime that little thoughtling came along and it showed me a picture of this you know that music we've only just begun and they started crying well what what why does what does that elicit inside of you I'll tell you what it elicits inside of you something you never had something you wish you have or something that you can't get over losing a thoughtling she said so there's no magic our authority is as great as our understanding our understanding is only as great as our awareness of this consciousness let's bring up a key question I've written out Kate's going to post it how can we be consumed by any thought might as well believe that a shadow can consume the light that creates it how can a human being be devoured by any one thought and don't dare lie and say that you're not the one thought that seems like that thought you hear that person's name and suddenly you remember how bad that was how angry he was how betrayed she was betrayed you and that one thought you see is not one thought thoughtlings and I alluded to this have lots of little legs what does it mean thoughtlings no thought exists independent of the thought that supports it no thought can describe itself no thought has meaning by itself so every one of these thoughtlings this lingering thought is actually connected to a host a trail a legion if you will of associated memories experiences so the minute the one thought bites suddenly you are dragged down and into that labyrinth that legion of that legion of associated thoughts and feelings with that condition so that's how we're consumed by a thought but we have yet to realize you and I are not meant to be consumed by a thought do you know have you seen in yourself sufficient evidence one thought about my health about my money about my husband about my wife about my children about what I own about what I don't have one thought and the bite the bite is on and then we disappear don't we we disappear into that cloud of associated thoughts and every thought produces yet another reaction and every reaction drives the next set of thoughts so for your edification and I don't have time to go through it with you can you name a few of the thoughts that you don't know have been stalking you until they bite like do you think you're stalked by something from your past until your past pounces on you how can your past pounce on you when it doesn't even exist and except for the way it's been imagined how can how can my past bite me how can anything bite me unless I picked it up so now what is the hunger of these predatory thoughts because if you're following me in order for the thought to continue to exist in order to perpetuate the reaction that created it that thought is hungry that nature where thought and reaction are the same for us hope it's not too deep our reaction brings up thoughts and we think our thoughts are separate from the reaction that produced them we believe because we don't know what else that the thoughts we have about this reaction are separate from the pain of the reaction I'm in and so I look to the thoughts to explain to me the pain when the thoughts are the continuation of the painful reaction are you able to see this with me I hope you can so we're getting this idea that that we're stalked by hungry thoughts and they're hungry because that's the only way that the reactive nature has its continuity so literally something wants to be sustained literally something needs the continuation of a suffering that only takes place because we're involved without knowing it in feeding that reaction and the thought that produced it or the thought that produced the reaction one and the same thing so these thoughtlings are the proxy the the the the manifestation of what doesn't seem to be the reaction that produced it because the thought and the thought self seems separate from the reaction that bring them up but we can begin to see the whole of the work that we're talking about here is this beginning to understand that it seems as if we are ambushed something pounces on us but we aren't really being ambushed we're walking sorry we're not really being ambushed we're walking into the bushes of a mind that lives in the dark of itself where all of these things live in the dark waiting just like a mosquito or a line waiting for what they need to live so this proxy this thoughtling is in fact created by an unconscious nature that never stops comparing what should be to what isn't when i feel like you shouldn't be that way i've just been bit by a thoughtling why because i don't have the thought you shouldn't be that way unless a nature inside of me has already told me who and what you need to be so that i'm not troubled by you you must make your own list i haven't time i'm almost out of it this morning so the minute that this mind this unconscious nature calls to you call so much to see we believe that resistance to a thought here's this thought about this person we believe that not wanting that thought proves we don't want it no not wanting a thought makes us give our full attention to the thought we don't want so here i am i go i don't want that and what am i giving what am i picking up i'm actually picking up the thought i say i don't want and when i pick it up because it's full of conflict boom i get the bite and when i get the bite now i'm in the i'm in the circulation of this unconscious nature as all of these thoughts feed reactions reactions feel thought and you just go 10 miles down that rabbit hole and wonder like the detective wonder where do these people go where did my life go where did my life go nothing can take the life that god gave you god did not put the spirit of fear in a man or a woman and yet my life has gone i'm explaining to you where it has gone it has been given away by a nature that we don't understand and until we do understand we will keep picking up these thoughts being carried off in the story they tell us so that that reaction that follows can sustain the existence of this unconscious nature that is a predator that lives to consume what doesn't belong to it and that can only get what doesn't belong to it through an act of unconscious will on our part and every time some constant state of stress anxiety some insecurity you know the drill this deeply conflicted nature cannot see itself if it could it would go wait a minute why why do i want to revisit something i have no authority over yeah i felt like i was a victim 20 years ago or 10 minutes ago but whatever it is that's gone but you see it's not gone because the memory of it the thought of it the reaction that was ingrained in that moment as we identified with it it sustains and now it's a hungry thought it's still imagine this the thought that produces the pain is still asking you to find a solution to the pain it has incarnated that's how it works a thought thinks about itself it takes from itself what it needs and then it reacts to its own conclusions and we don't see these thoughts or actually the continuation of the reaction that creates them but and let me get near the end here sitting sitting sitting at the dinner table with friends in the coffee shop lying in bed waking up in the morning have you ever have you ever awakened in the morning to to a a feeling of dread or anxiety go to bed thinking about something then wonder why you wake up in that state well first of all you went to bed feeding something that had no right to be in that bed with you and the result of waking up feeling whatever it is that's made some something dreaded is coming something bad you get some new whatever it might be and and and in that moment what do you where does your attention go it doesn't just go on the condition that that consciousness is blaming for that fear or dread but the minute that the consciousness bites onto the image the picture what oh my god the projection of what that pain is going to mean the minute that happens you're feeding that fear you're feeding that pain and if i haven't made this point i must make it now and thoughtlings no matter how much you give them are always hungry they're always hungry that's why you can feed this anger you can feed this sense of righteousness you can feed this until the cows come home and lose your life doing so and it's still not satisfied christ called it mammon it's insatiable and only understanding this as we're capable of doing so produces for us as it did for our here for our hair for the lady hero in our story what did she say she said you know what i i had so many dances with this dark thoughtling that i i began to recognize it when it came and sooner or later i began to see it and when i began to see it i started to understand how it is that it gets into my hands i pick it up and i she said and the more i realized that that predatory thought can't take a bite unless i bring it in and i bring it in because it evokes interest and the interest it evokes in me is that if i pay attention to it i'll be free of whatever the painful reaction is i'm in the she said it was all a lie and when you see something all a lie you lose interest in the liar that's at every level you see something's a lie you lose interest in it at at you lose interest in the liar the lie that your worth as a human being depends on how others see you and when they don't live up to how you expect to be seen to validate your worth now you have a reaction and the reaction blames people like that and so you avoid people like that believing somehow or other that you're not going to get bit when avoiding any moment is being bit by the reaction that produces that resistance go back and listen to this talk we must make it our work to be increasingly aware of the presence of any fearful anxious regretful or otherwise angry colored thought or feeling and then simply refuse to continue feeding it and here's the great secret kate the last key lesson if you would please the more any painful thought or dark feeling asks of you the less you must give it the more any painful thought or dark feeling asks of you the less you must give it you can begin to starve what has been feeding off of you the death of that relationship is the birth and the rebirth of a new nature inside of a human being created to be sustained by the light created to be sustained by christ by god by the living word by whatever word you want but not the thoughtling do this what i'm describing and you'll see it takes no effort whatsoever to send any hungry thoughtling back into the shadows from out of which it came but you must see that for yourself if you just look you will see if you see you will start to understand and according to the depth and breadth of your understanding you will begin to have authority over these predatory hungry thoughtlings

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