Freedom from The Thinking Machine – Lection 5 10. Dezember 2019 Allgemein So far we have learned four important principles about the thinking machine: 1. The thinking machine is absolutely not “ours.” It is neither personal nor special. Therefore, there is nothing to be ashamed of or to try to correct and improve. In fact, the thinking machine is not improvable; it is just what it is, so leave it be. 2. The thinking machine is a primitive function of the brain. Its primitive role is all about looking for problems for your protection – which creates the biggest problem for you. When you stop listening to it, you realize that here and now, you have no problem at all. 3. The thinking machine is the control freak in you. To make sure that there are never problems for you, it always tries to control every moment and every future moment. But because it cannot control, its desperate attempts to control puts you in a constant stress. 4. The thinking machine is not really the mind. It is just a tiny part of the mind, which means that most of your mind is actually completely free at this very moment. It is just a matter of where you put your attention. This last sentence – that it is all a matter of where you put your attention – is such an important point that we now have to dedicate to it an entire article. There are no powerful thoughts Sometimes we feel that certain thoughts have control over us. This means that it feels like they are bigger than us and that we are helpless or powerless to change them. First, it is really important to remember that you are not meant to change these thoughts. Trying to correct or improve them is like trying to reach a perfect world peace: impossible. Thoughts are what they are. They do not obey your will and you will only make it worse if you try to make it better. But there is something deeper than that. Every thought started pretty small. To grow, it needs food and water, just like any other organism. Now, who is the feeder of the thinking machine? Let me guess… I think it is you! And what are the food and water of thoughts? Attention. Your attention. Whenever you give a thought much attention, it begins to become stronger and fatter and taller. If you do that for 20 or 30 years, it becomes a pretty massive being. The next step a thought takes is that it wants not only to feed on your attention but to eat you. Like a parasite, it considers you its host, and it wants the whole of you for its own survival. This is not only a metaphor. When you feel that thoughts have become so powerful that you can no longer contain them, remember that it is only you who have made them that powerful. No thought in the world has a power of its own. They depend on the host. When you are healthy and balanced, you are no longer an attractive host: since you do not pay them attention, they just leave and look for another host. The unbelievable power of attention The thinking machine cannot control you, as long as you do not listen to it. This is the good news: just as you have nourished the thinking machine, you can also starve it to death; just as you have given it attention, you can also take it away. You are in full control here with a complete choice. When you realise that, you are free forever. What we have forgotten is that between the moment in which a toxic thought appears in the thinking machine and the moment that it gets ahold of you, there is a gap. Because we are so used to being slaves of the thinking machine, we no longer notice this gap. But this gap is where your choice lies – where you can make the choice whether to give this thought attention and to identify with it or not. I call this the “law of attention.” Only if you are going to decide that this thought is yours, it will become a part of you. If you do not accept the thought as a part of you, it can do nothing to you. In the absence of your identification, the thought is powerless and you hold the power. This is the true meaning of being the master of your mind. You do not need to control the thinking machine. You just need to own your mind and to decide what you let in and what you stop feeding forever. Stop feeding poisonous thoughts There are many thoughts in the thinking machine that are truly toxic. Avoiding them would be just as wise as avoiding poisonous food. While many thoughts in the thinking machine are plainly stupid and meaningless – more like a state of daydreaming – the real danger is the toxic thoughts. Let me rephrase in light of the law of attraction: the real danger is your identification with such toxic thoughts. Identifying with them makes you miserable, drained and also physically sick. Take for example the thought, “I hate myself.“ I wonder if you know this thought. This thought, as much as it seems to be your own thought, is not yours. Everyone has this thought flying around over their heads. And everyone can choose to either become hosts of this thought or reject it. Many choose to give it attention and so, begin to imagine that they hate themselves. Fed by this attention, this toxin begins to penetrate your body and to distort your whole being. The law of attraction tells us that when we give attention to a toxic thought, it creates a toxic reality. Outside this thought, there is absolutely no real meaning to this thought. But You make it real. So if you think, “I hate myself,“ this thought is your prison – and not the reality of your life. As soon as you think, “I hate myself,“ you have coloured your reality with the colour of this thought, and this will make you feel differently – actually, horribly. On the other hand, if you do not give the thought attention, you will feel absolutely nothing! After all, it is not reality that is making you feel bad – it is the thinking machine that makes you feel bad. Without the pollution of the thinking machine, reality (almost any reality) is quite manageable. Detect toxic thoughts Here is a good practice: create a list of toxic thoughts to which you keep listening (perhaps for already many years). Take your time; do this for at least half an hour. It might take you some time to disassociate from these thoughts and to understand that these thoughts are not you. You might require a process to realize that these are just thoughts, and that only because of your persistent identification, they seem to be an integral part of you. Then look at each of these thoughts and ask yourself: Is this thought a reality or just a thought? Do I have to give it attention? Why? What happens in my body, emotions and behaviour when I give it attention? What could happen in my body, emotions and behaviour, if I stopped giving it attention? What happens when I remember that I actually have a choice – that I am completely free? Aside from this list, try to look at all the moments in which you feel unhappy, miserable, confused, or frustrated. During such moments, ask yourself: What thought is making me feel like that? Do I have to give it attention? Can I find this gap of choice? What happens when I move my attention away from this thought? Hinterlasse einen öffentlichen Kommentar Antwort abbrechenDeine Email Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht.KommentarName* E-Mail* Meinen Namen, meine E-Mail-Adresse und meine Website in diesem Browser für die nächste Kommentierung speichern. Überschrift E-Mail-Benachrichtigung bei weiteren Kommentaren.Auch möglich: Abo ohne Kommentar. Durch Deinen Klick auf "SENDEN" bestätigst Du Dein Einverständnis mit unseren aktuellen Kommentarregeln.