Examing the Reality and Truth of Your Thoughts
Unlike intuitions, thoughts are clearly located in the mind. Although they may have some wisdom to them, for the most part, our thoughts are stabs at truth and tell us little about how to live in the present moment. Instead, thoughts keep us at arm’s length from the moment. They keep us living in a mentally fabricated reality, the realm of ideas, instead of in the present moment. Thoughts from the egoic mind interfere with life instead of enhancing it.
The truth about our thoughts runs contrary to our deeply held belief that our thoughts are important and meaningful. Somehow, we’ve been convinced of this instead of seeing the truth—that our thoughts keep us from reality and from being present in the moment. Our conviction that thoughts from the egoic mind are necessary, true, and meaningful guides for life is part of the illusion and what helps hold the illusion in place.
Thoughts are the structure of the ego and what maintain it. Without thoughts, the ego wouldn’t exist. The belief that thoughts are important, valuable, and meaningful is the lynchpin that, when removed, causes the whole game to fall apart; and where we land is smack dab in reality, in this alive moment.
Aside from conditioned ideas and beliefs, thoughts are largely about the past and the future. It’s obvious how our thoughts about the past and future keep us from the present moment, even if it’s less clear how other thoughts do. When we are thinking about the past or the future, we are mentally reconstructing images of the past and the future and seeing ourselves in them.
Who is it you see in the past or future? Isn’t what you see just an idea of you? In those images of the past or future, you see yourself at a distance, as if you were viewing the entire scene. Meanwhile, who are you really? You are not this thought of yourself in the past or the future, but for the time being, you are identified with it, just as you become identified with a character in a movie.
While that is going on, you no longer are in touch with what’s going on in the moment, with the sensations and the experience of the moment. Instead, the moment has been covered over by thoughts of some other moment in time. The present moment still exists, but it’s not being experienced purely, simply.
A part of us doesn’t want to experience life purely and simply: the ego. It wouldn’t exist without the mental drama it creates. It exists and thrives on thoughts about the past and plans of the future. It constantly mulls over the story of me: “How’s it going for me?” “How am I going to do?” “How did I do?” “What do I have to do to get things to go my way?” Evaluations and plans are the stuff the ego feeds on, which cause it to loom large in our consciousness, blocking out awareness of other aspects of reality. When we live in the egoic state of consciousness, life is about the story and how it’s going, and all the worries, fears, concerns, and problems entailed in that. That is the ongoing drama the ego is engrossed in.
However, there is another life living itself under or behind or beyond all that drama, and that is reality. Reality is unfolding beautifully moment by moment, and it allows the ego’s drama to take center stage as long as it will. Eventually, the ego’s drama will get old, and reality will break through, and we will choose reality over the ego’s entrancements. That point in our evolution is the beginning of a new awareness and a new willingness to realize the Self.
Many lifetimes are spent immersed in the egoic state of consciousness and its lessons. These are important lessons that the Self willingly embraces for the unique experiences they provide. The Self is curious and wishes to explore every experience, even limited and unfulfilling ones. It has no problem with being involved in the egoic state of consciousness. The Self chooses to explore egoic consciousness for a time, but it also chooses to wake up from it. Everyone will awaken in one lifetime or another. Then reality, which has been there all along, will be seen in its purity.
In the meantime, the ego, the me, appears to exist, although it actually only exists as a thought. It appears the ego is having thoughts, but the ego, itself, is a thought. The ego seems very real, and yet it has no substance. If you look very closely, you see that the ego is composed of thoughts about me, and nothing more.
Furthermore, those thoughts about me are constantly changing, so the idea me is not even stable or continuous: One moment you are clever and the next moment you are not. Your ideas about yourself are always changing. Take your self-image, for instance: You look different in your mind’s eye from one day to the next, depending on who you are comparing yourself to or what other ideas or beliefs are moving through your mind.
Exercise: Examining the “I” Thought
Who or what is the I that you imagine yourself to be? When you say “I,” what do you imagine? What thoughts and images make up the I? Is the I the same throughout your life or even throughout your day? Have you always imagined and talked about yourself in the same way?
How hard is it, really, to change the description and images that go along with I? Isn’t it only a matter of exchanging thoughts and images for other thoughts and images? How difficult is that? Is the I who you are? Who is it that is able to think about the I? Could that be who you really are?
The mind is primarily the instrument of the ego, since so much of our thinking is an attempt to get the ego what it wants. Nevertheless, it can also be the instrument of the Self. Occasionally, thoughts instead of the intuition are the vehicle for communicating the Self’s inspiration and plan. When thoughts from the Self appear in the mind, they ring of truth and are accompanied by excitement, happiness, relaxation, and mental clarity. On the other hand, thoughts that come from the ego and have little truth to them are accompanied by mental confusion, energetic contraction, and tenseness in the body. Whether a thought results in expansion and peace or contraction and tension is how we can tell how true a particular thought is and where it is coming from.
In addition to serving the ego, the mind also helps us balance a checkbook, draw a blueprint, read a map, evaluate possible escape routes from danger, and do a myriad of other mental tasks. We need the mind to function, but it is also full of useless and incorrect information, conditioning, that passes as facts. We need the aspect of the mind that allows us to do mental work, but we don’t actually need the egoic mind to function.
Self-realization entails a certain mastery of the mind that includes being aware of our thoughts and being able to discriminate between ones that have some truth and usefulness and ones that don’t. This takes some practice, but most of all, it takes sensitivity to the signs that something is true or false. Not only do we need to be aware of our thoughts, but also of their impact on us energetically, mentally, and emotionally. Here is an exercise that will help you notice the effect your thoughts have on you:
Exercise: Exploring the Effect and Truth of Your Thoughts
What are you thinking right now and how does it affect you? Does it make you feel expanded or contracted? Some thoughts cause us to become more contracted and ego-identified, while others cause us to become more expanded and aligned with the Self. Those that do the latter could be said to be truer than the former. This is because truth puts us in touch with Truth, or reality, while what is not true puts us in touch with what is not real: the ego.
No matter how hard we try, we can’t control the coming and going of thoughts. They come out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. Spiritual seekers, in particular, often feel discouraged because they have certain thoughts they don’t want to have. Everyone has thoughts they would rather not have. This is part of the human condition, which includes having a mind that has been conditioned, or programmed.
Becoming Aware of Your Thoughts
Although we can’t control our thoughts, we can learn to become more aware of them. This may seem like a simple thing, but becoming aware of our thoughts is a very big step in evolution. It requires dis-identification from the egoic mind, which is why it is such a big step. When we aren’t aware of our thoughts, we are likely to be identified with them, and therefore identified with the ego, and we are likely to respond automatically to them, without questioning them. Doing that results in a lot of suffering and more difficulties than necessary because the ego isn’t a very wise master.
When we are identified with the egoic mind, we believe we are who we think we are: our self-image and the labels we have for ourselves. But is that who you are? If that is who you are, then who is it that is able to think about this question? What is it that is aware of the ideas that make up your self-image? What is it that is aware of the coming and going of thoughts?
This idea me may seem to reside in the body or the mind or both, but what is it that’s aware of the body and the mind? Could that be who you are, and the body and the mind are just functioning within that awareness? In that case, would you be limited to just the body and mind, or could you actually be anything you are aware of right now? Could all of it be you? What if that were true? What would that mean? Life would be lived from a very different place.
These questions can wake you up out of the egoic state of consciousness. Questioning the assumptions of the egoic mind is a very powerful tool for awakening. Becoming aware of the egoic mind, its thoughts, and their truth or falseness can help us bust through the web of illusion cast by the egoic mind, which fools us into thinking we are separate, when we aren’t. Becoming more aware of the egoic mind can also free us from the suffering that the ego’s mistaken beliefs and perceptions cause.
Exercise: Who Am I?
What are you aware of right now? If you are aware of a thought, ask: “Who or what is aware of this thought?” If you are aware of a feeling, ask: “Who or what is aware of this feeling?” If you are aware of a sensation, ask: “Who or what is aware of this sensation?”
The tendency is to become identified with the thought, feeling, or sensation and lose awareness of our true nature, which is pure Awareness. The purpose of these questions, this inquiry, is not to come up with answers, but to point you to the experience of who you are. If you find yourself thinking about the answers, go back to the questions and stay with the experience that the questions lead you to, which is an experience of not knowing instead of knowing. The real you is there in the not-knowing.
The truth about our thoughts runs contrary to our deeply held belief that our thoughts are important and meaningful. Somehow, we’ve been convinced of this instead of seeing the truth—that our thoughts keep us from reality and from being present in the moment. Our conviction that thoughts from the egoic mind are necessary, true, and meaningful guides for life is part of the illusion and what helps hold the illusion in place.
Thoughts are the structure of the ego and what maintain it. Without thoughts, the ego wouldn’t exist. The belief that thoughts are important, valuable, and meaningful is the lynchpin that, when removed, causes the whole game to fall apart; and where we land is smack dab in reality, in this alive moment.
Aside from conditioned ideas and beliefs, thoughts are largely about the past and the future. It’s obvious how our thoughts about the past and future keep us from the present moment, even if it’s less clear how other thoughts do. When we are thinking about the past or the future, we are mentally reconstructing images of the past and the future and seeing ourselves in them.
Who is it you see in the past or future? Isn’t what you see just an idea of you? In those images of the past or future, you see yourself at a distance, as if you were viewing the entire scene. Meanwhile, who are you really? You are not this thought of yourself in the past or the future, but for the time being, you are identified with it, just as you become identified with a character in a movie.
While that is going on, you no longer are in touch with what’s going on in the moment, with the sensations and the experience of the moment. Instead, the moment has been covered over by thoughts of some other moment in time. The present moment still exists, but it’s not being experienced purely, simply.
A part of us doesn’t want to experience life purely and simply: the ego. It wouldn’t exist without the mental drama it creates. It exists and thrives on thoughts about the past and plans of the future. It constantly mulls over the story of me: “How’s it going for me?” “How am I going to do?” “How did I do?” “What do I have to do to get things to go my way?” Evaluations and plans are the stuff the ego feeds on, which cause it to loom large in our consciousness, blocking out awareness of other aspects of reality. When we live in the egoic state of consciousness, life is about the story and how it’s going, and all the worries, fears, concerns, and problems entailed in that. That is the ongoing drama the ego is engrossed in.
However, there is another life living itself under or behind or beyond all that drama, and that is reality. Reality is unfolding beautifully moment by moment, and it allows the ego’s drama to take center stage as long as it will. Eventually, the ego’s drama will get old, and reality will break through, and we will choose reality over the ego’s entrancements. That point in our evolution is the beginning of a new awareness and a new willingness to realize the Self.
Many lifetimes are spent immersed in the egoic state of consciousness and its lessons. These are important lessons that the Self willingly embraces for the unique experiences they provide. The Self is curious and wishes to explore every experience, even limited and unfulfilling ones. It has no problem with being involved in the egoic state of consciousness. The Self chooses to explore egoic consciousness for a time, but it also chooses to wake up from it. Everyone will awaken in one lifetime or another. Then reality, which has been there all along, will be seen in its purity.
In the meantime, the ego, the me, appears to exist, although it actually only exists as a thought. It appears the ego is having thoughts, but the ego, itself, is a thought. The ego seems very real, and yet it has no substance. If you look very closely, you see that the ego is composed of thoughts about me, and nothing more.
Furthermore, those thoughts about me are constantly changing, so the idea me is not even stable or continuous: One moment you are clever and the next moment you are not. Your ideas about yourself are always changing. Take your self-image, for instance: You look different in your mind’s eye from one day to the next, depending on who you are comparing yourself to or what other ideas or beliefs are moving through your mind.
Exercise: Examining the “I” Thought
Who or what is the I that you imagine yourself to be? When you say “I,” what do you imagine? What thoughts and images make up the I? Is the I the same throughout your life or even throughout your day? Have you always imagined and talked about yourself in the same way?
How hard is it, really, to change the description and images that go along with I? Isn’t it only a matter of exchanging thoughts and images for other thoughts and images? How difficult is that? Is the I who you are? Who is it that is able to think about the I? Could that be who you really are?
The mind is primarily the instrument of the ego, since so much of our thinking is an attempt to get the ego what it wants. Nevertheless, it can also be the instrument of the Self. Occasionally, thoughts instead of the intuition are the vehicle for communicating the Self’s inspiration and plan. When thoughts from the Self appear in the mind, they ring of truth and are accompanied by excitement, happiness, relaxation, and mental clarity. On the other hand, thoughts that come from the ego and have little truth to them are accompanied by mental confusion, energetic contraction, and tenseness in the body. Whether a thought results in expansion and peace or contraction and tension is how we can tell how true a particular thought is and where it is coming from.
In addition to serving the ego, the mind also helps us balance a checkbook, draw a blueprint, read a map, evaluate possible escape routes from danger, and do a myriad of other mental tasks. We need the mind to function, but it is also full of useless and incorrect information, conditioning, that passes as facts. We need the aspect of the mind that allows us to do mental work, but we don’t actually need the egoic mind to function.
Self-realization entails a certain mastery of the mind that includes being aware of our thoughts and being able to discriminate between ones that have some truth and usefulness and ones that don’t. This takes some practice, but most of all, it takes sensitivity to the signs that something is true or false. Not only do we need to be aware of our thoughts, but also of their impact on us energetically, mentally, and emotionally. Here is an exercise that will help you notice the effect your thoughts have on you:
Exercise: Exploring the Effect and Truth of Your Thoughts
What are you thinking right now and how does it affect you? Does it make you feel expanded or contracted? Some thoughts cause us to become more contracted and ego-identified, while others cause us to become more expanded and aligned with the Self. Those that do the latter could be said to be truer than the former. This is because truth puts us in touch with Truth, or reality, while what is not true puts us in touch with what is not real: the ego.
No matter how hard we try, we can’t control the coming and going of thoughts. They come out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. Spiritual seekers, in particular, often feel discouraged because they have certain thoughts they don’t want to have. Everyone has thoughts they would rather not have. This is part of the human condition, which includes having a mind that has been conditioned, or programmed.
Becoming Aware of Your Thoughts
Although we can’t control our thoughts, we can learn to become more aware of them. This may seem like a simple thing, but becoming aware of our thoughts is a very big step in evolution. It requires dis-identification from the egoic mind, which is why it is such a big step. When we aren’t aware of our thoughts, we are likely to be identified with them, and therefore identified with the ego, and we are likely to respond automatically to them, without questioning them. Doing that results in a lot of suffering and more difficulties than necessary because the ego isn’t a very wise master.
When we are identified with the egoic mind, we believe we are who we think we are: our self-image and the labels we have for ourselves. But is that who you are? If that is who you are, then who is it that is able to think about this question? What is it that is aware of the ideas that make up your self-image? What is it that is aware of the coming and going of thoughts?
This idea me may seem to reside in the body or the mind or both, but what is it that’s aware of the body and the mind? Could that be who you are, and the body and the mind are just functioning within that awareness? In that case, would you be limited to just the body and mind, or could you actually be anything you are aware of right now? Could all of it be you? What if that were true? What would that mean? Life would be lived from a very different place.
These questions can wake you up out of the egoic state of consciousness. Questioning the assumptions of the egoic mind is a very powerful tool for awakening. Becoming aware of the egoic mind, its thoughts, and their truth or falseness can help us bust through the web of illusion cast by the egoic mind, which fools us into thinking we are separate, when we aren’t. Becoming more aware of the egoic mind can also free us from the suffering that the ego’s mistaken beliefs and perceptions cause.
Exercise: Who Am I?
What are you aware of right now? If you are aware of a thought, ask: “Who or what is aware of this thought?” If you are aware of a feeling, ask: “Who or what is aware of this feeling?” If you are aware of a sensation, ask: “Who or what is aware of this sensation?”
The tendency is to become identified with the thought, feeling, or sensation and lose awareness of our true nature, which is pure Awareness. The purpose of these questions, this inquiry, is not to come up with answers, but to point you to the experience of who you are. If you find yourself thinking about the answers, go back to the questions and stay with the experience that the questions lead you to, which is an experience of not knowing instead of knowing. The real you is there in the not-knowing.
Gina Lake is a spiritual teacher who is devoted to
helping others wake up and live in the moment through her many books,
counseling, and intensives. She has a master's degree in counseling
psychology
and over twenty years experience supporting people in their spiritual
growth.
Her latest book is Loving in the
Moment: Moving from Ego to Essence in Relationship, available on Amazon.com.
Her website offers information about her books and consultations, free
e-books,
book excerpts, a free monthly newsletter, a blog, and audio and video
recordings: www.radicalhappiness.com.
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1 Response to "Examining the Reality and Truth of Thoughts" 
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said this on 13 Feb 2010 1:17:28 AM EST
excellent thorught provoking to reach MANONASHAM
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