Big Peace December Day 15.
After a roller coaster weekend for me, I want to go back to observing my thoughts. So thought I'd share this exercise.
The renowned meditation teacher and writer, Stephen Levine,
talks about seeing our thoughts as boxcars on a freight train.
He asks us to imagine standing at a railway crossing, watching a
freight train passing by and challenges us to try to keep looking
ahead into the present, rather than being pulled towards looking
into each of the carriages:
'As we attend to the train, we notice there's supper in one boxcar,
but we just ate, so we're not pulled by that one,' says Levine.
'The laundry list is the next one, so we reflect for a moment on the
blue towel hanging on the line to dry, but we wake up quite quickly
to the present once again, as the next boxcar has someone in it
meditating and we recall what we're doing.
A few more boxcars go by with thoughts clearly recognized as
thoughts. But, in the next one is a snarling lion chasing someone
who looks like us. We stay with that one until it's way down the line
to see if it gets us. We identify with that one because it 'means'
something to use.
We have an attachment to it.
Then we notice we've missed all the other boxcar streaming by in
the meantime and we let go of our fascination for the lion and
bring our attention straight ahead into the present once again.'
I loved this description of the way our thoughts work while in
meditation. But I also think it's a wonderful description of how
our thoughts operate in general.
Without the instruction or intention to keep our eyes straight
ahead in the present, how many of us realize that we have a choice?
How many of us remember that we can simply focus on another carriage
- the one with the supper or the laundry list in it? Or simply focus
on looking straight ahead into the present?
How many of us realize that whatever we put our attention on can
eat us up, whether it be a lion or a thought?
Negative thoughts are like snarling lions - they have us hooked. We
are attached to them and we do focus on them and wrestle with them
because we think if we don't, they'll eat us.
The irony is that the more we wrestle and fight them, the more
power we give them. However, to step outside and be able to observe
our beliefs dissolves their power.
Meditation is a great way to start training the mind to start
observing our thoughts versus be eaten by them.
Today, see if you can observe your thoughts rather than be in them.
Sounds more simple than it actually is.
When I first tried this I was completely freaked out.
('You mean they are just 'thoughts' not reality. So what's reality????)
Just try it and see how you feel.
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