Mindfulness of Thinking

We often treat thoughts as if they are facts. For example: “I am no good at this,” “He’s is a jerk,” “Nobody understands me,” “I am brilliant,” etc. When we have a thought many times it can condense into a belief. A belief is just a thought or thoughts that I have a lot of the time. Beliefs can then be taken as facts. For example: “The world is flat” – enough people had that thought often enough for it to be assumed to be a fact for centuries! When we start to pay attention to our thoughts, with a gentle curiosity, then we move away from believing that the thought is a fact.  This makes it possible to shape a destiny through mindfulness and wisdom.  We can wisely choose which seeds of thought we want to cultivate.

"Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows them/her/him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.  Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks, or acts happiness follows them/her/him like his never-departing shadow"  From the The Dhammapada: The Buddha

 

"To discover our inherent freedom, we do not need to give up the world, our preferences, relationships, desires, feelings, compulsions, obsessions, memories, or emotions. There is only one thing that needs to be done. That is, to no longer identify with our thoughts. Our thoughts are the world and the source of all confusion, disharmony and suffering. The way that identification with thoughts comes to an end is to see that thoughts do not belong to us and to realize their utter emptiness. They have no inherent reality. None. They cannot lead us to freedom, have nothing to do with freedom, and only lead to living an imagined life. This can be directly realized through consistent and penetrating meditation practice".  Matt Flickstein

Please join us to explore mindfulness of thinking through guided and silent meditation, group sharing and a short Dharma talk. Being curious about thinking is often supported by spiritual friends and community sharing.