Thoughts are not who we are
4th April 2022
Our thoughts are not real. They’re just objects passing through our minds. Ideas, concepts, opinions, images, projections, stories…all told by a narrator that is as unique as are the random thoughts that it observes.
We’ve forgotten who we are. We’re the basic consciousness underneath all the noise. Underneath the self judgement, the happy thoughts, the self-confidence, the dread, the fear, the hope, underneath all that, we’re the observer, the neutral eye that sees it all.
In our forgetfulness, we get lost in the objects that appear in front of us. Sometime momentarily, sometimes for days, sometimes is all we’ve ever known. Spiritual and psychological suffering ensues.
Physical pain is the way the body has of telling us what it’s good for us and what is bad for us in the physical world. Suffering is our real self’s way to express when we’re getting it wrong spiritually. When we’re putting our attention and attachment in the wrong things.
This is a simple concept. But not an easy one to remember at all times, as the thoughts in our heads are so sophisticated that once immersed in one it is very difficult to find our way out. Specially when we don’t even know we should try and get ourselves out of it.
Meditation and spirituality are just practices that help us awaken to this truth regularly. They point us again and again the way to freedom. But it’s a practice. Every moment. Every day. One step at the time, remember who you are.