Through our social conditioning we are taught to think. But what really is that thinking process that we have been taught to be so valuable. It is a way of labelling things and with this labelling comes, judgement. We look at a situation or another’s actions and immediately pass judgement. We look at the situation of a person and we think in terms of good or bad or in our mind we have some running commentary. It is such a habit or conditioned response that often we do not even realize that we are doing it.
But when we actually look at the words or thoughts that we have, we can see that they are also our own interpretation of things. When we say that something or someone is good or bad, what does it really mean? When we use the word love or tree, do we all have the same image in mind? No, these words are all subjective. We each imagine them based on our personal experiences and conditioning. Therefore, what has one meaning for one has another meaning for someone else.
We are so busy thinking, labelling and judging that we are really cluttering up our attention. Eckhart Tolle, in Stillness Speaks, sums this up by saying,
“How easy it is for people to become trapped in their conceptual mind.
The human mind, in its desire to know, understand, and control mistakes opinions and viewpoints for the truth. It says: this is how it is. You have to be larger than thought to realize that however you interpret “your life” or someone else’s lie or behaviour, however you judge any situation, it is no more than a viewpoint, one of many possible perspectives. It is no more than a bundle of thoughts. But reality is one unified whole, in which all things are interwoven, where nothing exists in and by itself. Thinking fragments reality-it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.
The thinking mind is a useful and powerful tool, but it is also limiting when it takes over your life completely, when you don’t realize that is only a small of aspect of the consciousness that you are:”
It is when we can get to that place where our thoughts do not dominate our lives that we can gain awareness. When we can listen with our eyes, and not label each and everything we see, that true is revealed. Within this state of attentiveness we discover truths and who we are. It is what Krishnamurti terms “the interval between thoughts” that we become freed from the conditioning that creates judgements. Krishnamurti says, “It is only when the mind is not giving continuity to thought, when it is still with the stillness that is not induced, that without causation – it is only then that there can be freedom from the background.” This is the place we are looking for, that stillness without thought. This is the state of heightened awareness. It is a place, were we are in tune with our higher selves and the inner voice within us. It is a time when we are truly in communication with the Divine spirit with in us. This is spiritualism. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Spiritual Awakening is awakening from the dream of thought.”
References
Krishnamurti, J. The Book of Life. Harper Collins, San Francisco 1995
Tolle, Eckhart. Stillness Speaks. Namaste Publishing, Vancouver 2003
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