I want to quickly discuss the origin of thoughts and how we can investigate them and validate the truth of this through our meditation practice.
Every time we sit down to meditate,
We're basically doing a little sort of scientific experiment on our own minds.
It's subjective,
Of course,
But we see out through our own subjective lens,
So it's worth investigating the reality of our minds.
And this is the hypothesis.
I'm going to propose to you that you don't choose the thoughts that pop up.
They simply arise.
Now,
You can force a thought in.
If I said to you,
Hey,
Think of a giraffe.
That thought of the giraffe pops in,
But you didn't choose which other associated thoughts came.
You can force the giraffe in,
But nothing else is your choice.
The other thoughts,
The connected thoughts,
Sort of just come.
And,
You know,
That same analogy can apply to emotions,
Moods,
Memories,
Future planning,
All that sort of stuff.
You,
Whatever you is,
The thing in control,
Can make a choice and choose.
But if we sit in silence,
You'll notice that thoughts keep coming.
And despite your best interests,
They'll keep coming.
You can't stop those thoughts coming.
Some people claim they can.
I'm not convinced.
But what I do know is,
Is that when I go into silence,
Thoughts just come.
And when they come,
They're basically meaningless in the sense that if these thoughts are arising and they're just popping up,
They have no inherent meaning.
They're just like flashes,
Just iterations,
Just wisps.
But my attachment to those thoughts,
My association to them,
My grasping on them,
Gives them meaning.
And I'll give you a little example here.
Let's say there's a topic that is stressing you out,
Or you've just broken up with someone,
Or a family member has passed,
Or you've got a stressful future meeting coming up.
Whatever.
There's something bothering you.
And you are just sitting in silence,
Either meditating or just going about your day,
A whole bunch of thoughts will come up.
Everything will come up.
You'll look around the room and you'll see objects,
And those objects will trigger thoughts.
You'll remember things that aren't related to that thought process that's causing you to stress.
Hundreds,
Thousands of thoughts pop up.
And you don't latch onto any of them.
You don't latch onto any of them.
But if we go with the breakup example,
You're thinking all these different thoughts,
They're neutral,
You don't care,
They're meaningless.
But then the thought of your ex comes into your mind and you latch onto it.
You're like,
Oh my god,
I'm thinking about that person again.
Oh,
And you feel all this distress and pain,
You're really at the breakup.
You think about what you've lost,
You think about all of that issue.
But another way to look at that thought of the ex is in the same way as every other thought.
You know,
You're looking around the room,
You see a tissue box that makes you think of tissue boxes.
And then it goes.
It's like,
Okay,
There's no emotional connection to that thought.
You remember that there's a tree outside that needs to be pruned.
There's very little to no emotional connection to that.
The dishes need to be washed.
You've got to call a friend.
All of these things have no emotional connection,
No real emotional weight behind them.
But when that bad thought comes along,
You attach to it and you dwell on it.
So really,
The thought of the ex is just like all of the other thoughts,
But our attachment to that thought,
Our grasping upon that thought is the thing that's causing us the distress.
So what I've learned,
Or what I'm experimenting with,
I suppose,
Is just observing the arising of those thoughts when I'm meditating.
And we're going to give that a practice now.
Basically,
What we're going to do is go into silence for maybe a couple of minutes.
And we're just going to watch the thoughts as they arise and do our best not to attach to them.
And when you notice a thought arising,
Just observe it and just ask yourself the question,
Where did this come from?
Or,
Did I choose to have this thought?
So when you recognize that you're thinking,
Just turn,
Observe it,
Note it mindfully,
And just ask,
Where did this thought come from?
Let's give it a try now.
Okay,
So how'd you go?
I find this is quite beneficial because it shows us that we do not choose the thoughts that pop up.
And it sort of proves to us that thoughts are random.
I know when I did this practice earlier in the day,
I had a variety of thoughts of a totally different nature.
I was thinking about so many different and disparate things.
I didn't choose any of them.
They just popped up one after the other,
Randomly.
And then I thought to myself,
If one of these thoughts was triggering,
For lack of a better expression,
I would dwell on it and hold on to it and sort of ruminate on it.
But then compared to all of the other thoughts,
Those other thoughts just go.
So really it's myself grasping,
Grabbing,
Clinging to that thought,
Making it a mind state that causes the distress.
So if we can take this practice into our day,
If we note ourselves dwelling on something that's not happening,
We might not recognize when the thought came,
But we might be able to detach,
Step back and just say to ourselves,
Thank you,
Thought.
Cool.
Glad that you're here.
I see you.
Now it's time to go because I didn't choose to have you.
And then from that space,
That detached space,
We can move on.
Of course,
Until the next thought comes.
So I encourage you,
Take that into your day.
Just remember,
You are not the author of your thoughts,
But through our meditation practice,
We can choose how we respond to the thoughts that arise.
Have a great day.
