Note: Our next Coming Home zoom gathering will be on Wednesday, March 27 from 9-10:30am Pacific. This event is free, and all are welcome as we explore, Freedom Beyond the Sense of the Separate Self. Please click here for details and registration.
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Do you look to your thoughts for guidance on the spiritual path? Do you trust what your mind tells you? Then no wonder you continue to struggle.
As someone said to me many years ago, “The mind takes upon itself a job that it is totally unequipped to do.”
What is your mind telling you about your true desire for peace and freedom? Here are some possibilities.
- It creates imagined pictures of what peace is like, which make you think it's not present now.
- It
tells you to keep searching for the next teacher, retreat, or book so you can finally find the key to end your suffering.
- It gives you contrary information: Keep practicing…practices don’t matter. Embrace the story…lose the story.
- It works hard trying to figure out the experience of knowing beyond the mind—which is
impossible.
- It is harsh and critical, asking what’s wrong with you and why you don’t get this understanding already…especially since you’ve tried everything.
If you’re seeking guidance, be very discriminating about where you look. And looking toward the mind to guide you
on the path of awakening won’t support you.
The mind will be happy to take on the job, but it’s not an accurate source of wisdom or direct knowing. It can’t point you to the awareness that lies beyond itself.
The thoughts
that appear in the mind arise from fear and our need for certainty. They're trying to know what can’t be known with thought, trying to define the indefinable.
The mind wants to keep control whereas reality is known only by complete surrender into direct experience.
If the mind is not your guru, then where do you look?
With the invitation to turn away from thinking, a friend I spoke with recently immediately saw a well of deep emotions he had been avoiding for decades. Others find a fear of silence, a fear of disappearing, a fear of not knowing.
These are the emotions that keep the sense of the separate self firmly in place. And these are what's asking for your heartfelt and loving attention.
Thinking is a way to medicate your fears. By giving attention to thinking, we ignore
them and wish they would go away while we continue to feel frustrated that we’re not yet free.
Can you feel the inner division in this scenario? The true medicine for the mind is to stop.
- Stop paying attention to the content of thoughts.
- Stop touching them with interest.
- Stop letting them control what you think, say, and do.
- Just stop.
And when you stop,
what happens? You’re in the realm of silence…not knowing…pure openness…
As my friend turned away from the mind and into his in-the-moment experience, I asked him if a prayer was arising. He reflected deeply and offered, “Everything belongs.”
Feel into that…everything belongs…
Don't look to the mind for the peace you long for. Find it right here...in the silent overflowing fullness of the infinite now.
Much love to you,
Gail
Note: Our next Coming Home zoom gathering will be on Wednesday, March 27 from 9-10:30am Pacific. This event is free, and all are welcome as we explore, Freedom Beyond the Sense
of the Separate Self. Please click here for details and registration.
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