Where do our thoughts come from? I know that’s a strange question, but let’s investigate. Do we create them? Can we control them? If we can, are all our thoughts positive and pleasant? Not mine!
Thoughts arrive like visitors. We notice some of them when they appear, and others slip in through the back door of awareness. It’s worth taking a moment to think about thoughts. For me,
- they are a surprise, like snowflakes on the sidewalk
- they take the form of ideas, memories or fantasies
- they can be random or repetitive
- they evoke physical responses, for example: thoughts of food whet my appetite; a memory brings joy or sadness; fantasies… well you know!
We usually take thoughts seriously, and we attach meaning to them. We even combine thoughts to form causal relationships we call beliefs, for example:
“Walking under a ladder brings bad luck.”
“People with more education get better jobs.”
Even though we don’t create our thoughts, we take credit for them; we say, “I think,” I know,” and we refer to them as “my thoughts.”
Thoughts are no more true than the ads we watch on TV. Byron Katie says unquestioned thoughts can cause suffering. She questions their truth. If I believe I’m too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, too smart, too dumb (pick one), she challenges, “Is that thought true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? How do you react when you believe that thought? And without the thought?”
Questioned or not, thoughts appear. There’s a thought arising right now, and another, and another judging that one! Thoughts are a functioning of the universe. Woops…that’s a belief. Did you notice?
Everything on this blog can only come from thought.
Please question everything.