Don't believe everything you think – Joseph Nguyen

 

 

The one line summary of the book is “Thoughts are good, thinking is not always good!”

 

 Human brain of an adult is about 1400 cc. The surface area is around 1500 to 2000 sq. cm simply because it has many folds. The folding maximizes the brain’s surface – to – volume ratio, or the amount of surface area the brain has relative to its size. These countless folds allow humans to pack in more neurons which, in turn can mean more advanced brain with increased cognitive abilities.

Thinking consistently is important to increase the folds, especially in the young age. But more important is the kind of Thinking we do.

Thinking with an attempt to reach some outcome is healthy. Thinking otherwise is in unhealthy. For eg. Thinking of something else while listening to someone is unhealthy thinking, thinking on the embarrassing moments of the past is unhealthy thinking. Thinking that generates insecurity, shyness, and inferiority complexes should be redundant. In problems, the observations and the analysis we do to get the solution is inevitable. As said by Albert Einstein “We can’t solve problems by using the same level of consciousness we were at when we created them.” ― We need deep thinking for this. Then, why is thinking unhealthy?

 Thinking is the root cause of all our psychological suffering.

The source of thoughts comes from something that is beyond our minds — the Universe, if you carry the willingness. Thinking, on the other hand, is the act of thinking about our thoughts. This takes a significant amount of energy, effort, and willpower (which is a finite resource). Thinking is actively engaging with the thoughts in your mind. You don’t have to engage with each thought in your mind, but when you do, that is thinking.

 What happens in the brain when we are happy?  What kinds of thoughts were going through your mind at that peak moment when you felt the most joy and love?

The answer is ‘Nothing’

 Most people don’t have any thoughts when they are happy and loved a lot. On the other hand whenever we feel extremely stressed, we are having a lot of thinking going on. The strength of the negative emotion we feel is in direct proportion to how much thinking we are doing in the moment. On the other hand, the intensity of the positive emotion we feel is inversely proportional to the amount of thinking we are doing in the moment. In other words, the less thinking we have going on, the stronger the positive emotion we feel in the present.

 Therefore, it’s not WHAT we’re thinking about that is causing us suffering, but THAT we are thinking.

 Be in present

The most interesting and almost paradoxical thing about stopping our thinking is that we don’t have to do anything to minimize it other than to be aware of it. By us becoming aware that we are thinking and that it is the root cause of all our suffering, it automatically makes us conscious to that fact and we become detached to it, allowing it to settle and pass. This takes almost no effort and is done through pure presence in the moment.

If life begins to feel unclear, disorganized, stressful and you’re not sure what to do next, you now know that it’s only because your thinking is stirring up the dirt, making your mind cloudy and difficult to see ahead. You can use this as an indicator to help you realize that you’re thinking way too much. Once we become aware of the fact that we are only feeling what we’re thinking and that thinking is the root cause of our unpleasant experience, we see it for what it truly is. Then we allow it to settle by giving it space, and slowly we will see how we begin to have a clear mind again. The only way out is to stop struggling and allowing the natural buoyancy of your body to take over to bring you back up to the surface with ease. The only way to break free from our thinking is to let go and trust that our natural inner wisdom will guide us back to clarity and peace like it always has. We are ever really one moment away from remembering that we always have that infinite well of clarity, love, joy, peace, and fulfillment.

Anxiety is thought without control. Flow is control without thought.” ― James Clear (author of Atomic Habits)

 Here’s another example that will help illuminate the truth of this topic. When professional or even Olympic athletes are competing, do you think they are thinking and overanalyzing every single thing that’s happening during the game? What thoughts or thinking do you think is going on during the competition for them? The highest performing athletes will describe when they are in their peak state that they are in “the zone”. This “zone” is the state of flow or the state of non-thinking. In Japanese culture, they have a beautiful word to describe this phenomenon: mushin.

Here is the definition from Shotokantimes: “Mushin is achieved when [the] mind is free of random thoughts, free of anger, free of fear, and particularly free of ego. It applies during combat, and or other facets of life. When mushin is achieved during combat there is an absence of loose or rambling thoughts. It leaves the practitioner free to act and react without hesitation.

 Inspiration vs Desperation

There are two sources of goals: goals created out of inspiration and goals created out of desperation. When goals are created out of desperation, we feel a large sense of scarcity and urgency. It feels heavy, like a burden, we may even feel daunted by the colossal task we’ve just committed ourselves to, imposter syndrome and self-doubt begin to manifest, and we always feel like we never have enough time for anything.

 So how can we tell when a goal or dream is created out of inspiration or desperation?

Goals and dreams that come in the form of thought are created out of inspiration. Goals and dreams that come from thinking are created out of desperation.

There is no right or wrong goal, only goals created from inspiration or desperation. It just depends on how you want to feel inside and when you’re aware of these two types of goals and how they manifest, then you’ll be able to feel blissful as you go about creating amazing things in your life.

If most of your goals fall under the category of desperation, don’t worry because most people have goals created from desperation, including the author himself before he knew a better way.

 So how do we create goals and dreams out of inspiration versus desperation?

Creating goals and dreams from divine inspiration isn’t something you have to try to do. We naturally have thoughts of infinite inspiration all the time. The only difference between us and children is that we have learned to shut down all these thoughts of inspiration which contain our dreams, hopes, and goals that we truly want to see manifested in the world. Our minds are filled more with reasons of why we can’t than thoughts of what we want to create.

We innately have an infinite flow of inspiration that comes through us, but we block that flow as soon as we begin thinking about the thoughts we have, which causes self-doubt, self-sabotage, and anxiety.

If we simply do not think about our thoughts, any sort of thoughts about dreams, goals, and desires that naturally arise are all from the divine and that is how you “create” goals out of inspiration versus desperation.

A question that greatly helps me to settle the thinking and tap into the limitless well of possibilities of what I could create is: “If I had infinite money, already traveled the world, had no fear, and didn’t receive any recognition for what I do, what would I do or what would I create?”

What’s paradoxical (like everything in the duality of life), is that when we create something without conditions or reasons, we actually immediately feel all of the positive feelings we want.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ― Albert Einstein

Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think that you can or can’t, you’re right.” If we walk around our lives thinking we can’t, then we immediately block ourselves from the limitless possibilities of what we can do in any given moment in time. But when we release the brake in our mind and realize that it’s just our thinking holding us back, we automatically return to our natural state of abundance and unlimited possibilities and in that moment, we can receive any answer we need on what to do

In short, know that you already know and if you don’t know, know that you can know what you need to know.

So why don’t more people listen to their intuition if it always knows what to do and creates abundance whenever it is followed?

Ans: It’s Fear.

 This is why magical things and miracles happen when we trust our intuition. We are literally stepping into the zone of pure possibility. It is for this reason that we only need to know the “what” of what we want to manifest, but not the “how”. The only way you can enter this space of miracles is through non-thinking. If we think, we immediately get ejected out of the space and enter a state of anxiety, worry and suffering. Our thinking will try to predict what might happen based on the past. This is why most people get more of the same of what they have always gotten. They try to use their limited personal mind to create something they have never experienced before, innocently not realizing that they must step into the unknown by entering the state of non-thinking and listening to their intuition.

Thinking is NOT an effect of our experiences, but the CAUSE of it. The thoughts in our minds are not facts.

 Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional

 Pain is unavoidable, but how we react to the events and circumstances that happen in our lives is up to us, and that will dictate whether we suffer or not. Being physically struck by an arrow is painful. Being struck by a second emotional arrow is even more painful (suffering). The Buddha explained, “In life, we can’t always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional.”

“One who looks around her is intelligent, one who looks within her is wise. “Thought is not reality; yet it is through thought that our realities are created.”

 Without the difference in the perceptions the world is same.

If you survey 100 different people and ask each of them what they think of our prime minister, how many different answers do you think you’ll get? Even though it is the same exact person we’re talking about, we will get 100 different answers because most people live in their own thoughts and perceptions of the world. The meaning (or thinking) we give an event is what determines how we ultimately feel about it. That meaning or thinking is the filter through which we see life from then on — because of this, we live through a perception of reality, not in reality itself. Reality is that the event happened, with no meaning, thinking, or interpretation of it. Our feelings do not come from external events, but from our own thinking about the events. Therefore, we can only ever feel what we are thinking.

 A Young Monk & the Empty Boat (A Zen Story about How Thinking is the Cause of Our Own Suffering)

The monks had many obligations in the monastery, but one of the most important ones was their daily routine where they had to sit down, close their eyes, and meditate in silence for hours at a time. The young monk had difficulty staying focused during his meditation practice for a variety of reasons, which made him very mad. He brought his mat, sat down, and started meditating. But soon a flock of birds splashed down in the lake near where the monk was meditating. He again got angry.  He then took a boat, rowed it down to the middle of the lake and started meditate there. He saw a boat heading straight towards him. He shouted, “Steer your boat away, or else you will hit my boat.” But the other boat kept coming straight at him and was just a few feet away. He yelled again but nothing changed and so the incoming boat hit the monk’s boat. Now he was furious. He screamed, “Who are you, and why have you hit my boat in the middle of this vast lake?” There was no answer. This made the young monk even angrier. He stood up to see who was in the other boat and to his surprise, he found that there was no one in the boat. The monk found his anger dissipating. At that moment he remembered his mentors’ question, “Do you know what is really making you angry?” And then wondered, “It’s not other people, situations, or circumstances. It’s not the empty boat, but my reaction to it that causes my anger. All the people or situations that make me upset and angry are just like the empty boat. They don’t have the power to make me angry without my own reaction.”

 How human experience is created?

The principles were first discovered by Sydney Banks. At its fundamental level, the human experience is created by these three principles: Universal Mind, Consciousness, and Thought.

Thought is like the DVD that contains all the information for us to be able to watch the movie on the TV. The TV and DVD player is like Consciousness — it allows us to have a mechanism to bring the information on the DVD to life for us to be able to watch and experience the movie. The electricity that’s needed to power the DVD player and TV is like Universal Mind in the sense that it is the invisible energy/force that connects and powers all things. It is the Source from which everything can work and function.

 

So think before you think!!!!!

 

Disclaimer:

The summary written by me is just an attempt to preserve the good points stated by Joseph Nguyeen.

In this article I have mixed my experiences, observations, foresights and my perceptions to land on a point.

 

Vinay Wagh