Let’s take our third step in learning about a state of total freedom from the disturbing overactivity of the mind. But wait, did I just say “mind”? That was a big mistake! From now on, to be truly accurate, we will stop treating the mind as our problem and talk, instead, only about the “thinking machine.” The mind is very different from the thinking machine. Many misuse the term “mind.” It is our common tendency to mix these two terms. Because of this tendency, we have come to believe that the mind should be disposed of and eliminated altogether. But this, as I mentioned in the very first article of this series, is a very wrong move.

The thinking machine is the trouble-maker of your life

So far, we have learned two lessons about the thinking machine. The first lesson is that this machine is not ours, and that there is nothing personal about it. The thoughts we are so ashamed of are not our thoughts at all. This is a highly important step; in fact, the most important: starting to see the thinking machine from the outside. This is the true meaning of the instruction, which you may have heard from proponents of Hinduism and Buddhism, to watch and observe one’s thoughts. What you call “my thoughts“ should be actually perceived as something that happens to someone else. Our second learning iss that it is the job of the thinking machine – a quite ancient job indeed – to look for problems – for what is missing and for what seems wrong and needs fixing. This means that when you keep listening to the thinking machine, it makes you feel that there is always some problem in your life. You enter a sort of a problem-consciousness which creates in you a state of constant discomfort. You feel like you are always in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, and that life is somewhere else, forever a missed opportunity. Of course, this is simply what thinking machines do. They don’t have bad intentions. They just try too hard to protect you. In reality, there are very few real problems and even they don’t require thinking from morning till nighttime. When you realize that it is only the thinking machine that gives you the feeling that there is some problem to fix, you can simply stop listening to this very feeling. And guess what – you are then free. Completely free. Problem-free.

The thinking machine as a control freak

In addition to these two important insights, there is one more crucial term that is realted to this problem-maker called “the thinking machine.” This term is “control.” The thinking machine always tries to control reality – to ensure that everything will be alright. As we already discussed, this tendency originates from a healthy role that this machine plays in your life: making sure that there is no danger for the organism. But because it wants to make sure, it starts producing endless thoughts about past, present and future – always thinking what should have happened and what should happen. The first thing it does, as a result, is create the feeling that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. The second thing is the constant feeling that everything must be under perfect control to avoid any problem, danger or difficulty. It is a crazy task, isn’t it?

Does that work for the thinking machine? You tell me. Obviously, it doesn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting right now to read this article. The thinking machine cannot control almost anything. It really doesn’t know how. It is like a secretary that keeps trying to ensure that the day’s schedule would work perfectly but keeps realizing that everything is going out of control. That is why the thinking machine keeps running scenarios, and usually the bad ones: what might happen and how things might go wrong. It hopes that by thinking repetitively about everything, it will somehow prevent danger, because it has mentally covered all possible scenarios. It is almost like a very primitive form of superstition: “If I think all day long, nothing bad will happen.“ The big problem is, of course, that we believe it. We trust the thinking machine. It has gained our trust, because it makes us think that overthinking and overplanning are more reliable tools than being silent, relaxed, present, and attentive to whatever comes our way. Even worse, the thinking machine tells us that to be silent and relaxed is the most unreliable thing that one could do. After all, it goes against our survival instinct and thus implies being completely unprepared! So imagine how much energy you need to invest in meditation to begin to be able to trust this new strategy of life.

This shift is like really sending a new signal to the brain, saying “I don’t need your survival instinct. I trust this state of relaxation.” The hysterical condition of the thinking machine seems quite reasonable. But, again, does it work? The answer is simple: if this worked, you wouldn’t need to be in any state of tension whatseover. Since the thinking machine does all this good, hard work for you, you should be utterly relaxed having such an efficient secretary by your side. In reality, we are almost all day long in a state of tension. This tension gets ahold of our body and creates psychosomatic disorders. It gives us back pains, muscle pains, neck pains, and headaches. In short, it doesn’t work. So why do we keep on trusting it? Only because we have never really stopped to think about it intelligently. Remember that within our mind there is also a function of intelligent thinking, and that through this intelligent thinking we can start looking at this blind trust in the thinking machine and question it.

The remedy: focus only on what you are doing now

There is a simple practice that can release you from this control freak. First, begin to notice this tendency of the thinking machine to always move forward and prepare you for the next assignment or experience. While I am writing this article, the thinking machine already prepares in advance my next moves. And it does so even unconsciouly. It tries to control my future reality, like a really nagging organizer. As soon as you become aware of this tendency, choose to do the very opposite: place your being inside whatever you do. Bring your entire presence into your current and actual activity, as if you you are spreading your presence throughout wherever you are and whatever you do. Trust from your innermost that when the next thing comes your way, you will meet it with the very same presence that you are giving now to where you are. Often, the thinking machine presents us with alternative images, the so-called better situations that should have happened right now instead of what we’re really doing. If a thought comes and suggests such an alternative reality, just smile and return to engage in what is in front of you.

Feel as if this were the only thing in the entire world that you could ever do. Imagine that nothing is going to happen after this one and only action that you take. Ask yourself: “What would it feel like if this were the only thing in the world that I ever had to do?” This will make you feel much slower from the inside. You will actually feel that the day goes more slowly. It is a very strange feeling that suddenly you have time for everything. But it is not really time that is changing – it was only the thinking machine that gave you the feeling of constantly being on the rush. Without it, you have all the time in the world for what you are doing right now, because this is the only thing that you really do. Everything else is just control and imagination of control. Until our next article, move in this way from one thing to another, and you will quickly find out that the thinking machine has become far less powerful.

Über den Autor

Avatar of Shai Tubali

Seit dem Jahr 2000 ist er internationaler Referent, Autor und spiritueller Lehrer. Von vielen er als einer der führenden Experten und Innovatoren Europas auf dem Gebiet der Chakren und des feinstofflichen Energiekörpers angesehen. Derzeit mit Sitz in Berlin, bereist er Europa ausgiebig und leitet Seminare und Retreats in Deutschland, der Schweiz, Österreich, den Niederlanden, Kroatien, Spanien und Griechenland. Früher Leiter des Berliner Zentrums ‚Ganzheitlich Chiro-Yoga‘, hat er nun das neue internationale ‚Human Greatness Center‘ gegründet: als Modell einer ganzheitlichen Lebensweise im Lichte der Chakren, das auch die vielen von ihm entwickelten therapeutischen und meditativen Methoden vorstellt. Sein Traum ist es, dieses Wissen über das integrale Leben in alternative Modelle des Schulsystems umzusetzen.

Als vielbeschäftigter Autor seit 1996 hat Shai 23 Bücher in Englisch, Deutsch und Hebräisch veröffentlicht, die nicht nur hoch originelle spirituelle Sachbücher beinhalten, sondern ebenso Prosa, Poesie und bald auch akademische Forschung. Mehrere seiner Bücher erschienen in noch weiteren Sprachen, darunter Chinesisch, Taiwanesisch und Koreanisch. Einige wurden zu Bestsellern und zwei wurden bereits bei Buchwettbewerben ausgezeichnet.

Gleichzeitig ist Shai als begeisterter Doktorand an der University of Leeds in Großbritannien gerade dabei, sich im Rahmen seiner Doktorarbeit mit dem Gebiet der Philosophie der Mystik zu beschäftigen. 2018 experimentierte er auch mit Filmproduktion, also dem Schreiben und Regie führen des Kurzfilms ‚After the Future‘, der auf Dutzenden von Festivals gezeigt wurde, vier Preise gewann und nun von einem US-Verleiher vertreten wird.

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Nimm an der Schule der Meditation teil und werde zertifizierte*r Lehrer*in

Die Schule der Meditation mit Shai Tubali ist ein acht-monatiger Kurs, der als Reise zu tiefer Selbsttransformation belegt werden kann oder als Zertifizierungsprogramm. Er basiert auf dem Verständnis, dass wahre Meditation keine Technik ist, die wir praktizieren, oder eine Übung zum Entspannen, sondern eine Art der Kunst.

Es ist ein Bewusstseinszustand und eine Art zu leben. In der kommenden Schule mit Shai Tubali wirst du lernen können deine meditativen Fähigkeiten von Grund auf aufzubauen, durch alle sieben Ebenen des Seins, auf tiefe und bereichernde Weise. Du kannst vor Ort in Berlin teilnehmen oder online, vom November 2019 – Juni 2020. Melde dich hier zur Schule der Meditation an: http://shaitubali.com/de/schule-der-meditation/

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