Saturday, November 21, 2009

The inner voice

Human beings think; optimistic thoughts, pessimistic thoughts, fantastic thoughts, stupid thoughts… This is one characteristic which makes us different from the animals. Certain areas in the brain (the language centers) process and produce thoughts. Our brain is wired for thinking. All human beings think, the Zen monks, the Yogis, all of us. Problems begin when we create beliefs and belief systems with our thoughts and then mistake our mental creations for the truth. And the crazier beliefs we create, and the more we believe in our crazy beliefs the more problems we create to ourselves and others.

Thoughts are not a problem, if we don’t make them into a problem. Those who are in the beginning stages of meditation practice often turn thoughts into a big problem. Those who have practiced some sort of meditation regularly over a longer period of time know that thoughts do not disappear. It is a matter of finding ways how to deal with them in a relaxed way. I can have wonderful, warm and friendly thoughts. And I can have amazingly stupid thoughts. Wonderful thoughts never create problems and stupid thoughts are just stupid thoughts popping in. I am not stupid because I have stupid thoughts in my head. A part of me can observe the thoughts and question them. This proves that I am not my thoughts.

The less energy we put into the thoughts, the less problematic they become and therefore we think less. We no longer create huge catastrophes within ourselves and around us.

The question is: Who is this observer of the thoughts? Who judges them? Who believes that they are true? Who notice that they are just thoughts?