Thought Bubbles
February 21st, 2012 by Wayne (Wirs)
Steele Creek Park, COE Camp, Whitney, TX—In awakening to yourself as a Vast Living Openness, it is crucial to recognize that thoughts are no more important than random sounds.
Let me say that again: When it comes to realizing your true Self, thoughts are no more important than random sounds.
More below the break (huh?).
A Practice
Sit still in a quiet room. Listen for the next sound. Focus though, not on the sounds but on the open vibrancy (you as the Vast Living Openness) as you await the next sound. Recognize the expectation, the aliveness, the Aware Life Force.
Then, when you hear a random sound, notice how the sound isn’t important. It is just a random sound that showed up, and went away.
When you wake up, you tend to see thoughts the same way—like random sounds. They won’t be nearly as important to you as they used to be. You’ll start to see them more like “thought bubbles”—tiny impersonal things which randomly pop into your mind.
To realize enlightenment/Oneness, it is not required that you quiet your thoughts.
What is critical is that you stop taking your thoughts so seriously.
Try to see your thoughts as no more important than the sound of a bird chirping, the creak of an old house, or the lapping of water against the shore. See your thoughts just as impersonally as a random sound, then push them away and focus once again on your Vastness.
Note: Conditioning is why we take our thoughts so seriously. One of the big advantages of living as a Soul is to dramatically weaken this conditioning. When you truly live as a Soul, the majority of your taking-life-seriously type of thoughts lose their mental energy and simply fall away. (Why take this life seriously if you live forever?) Sadly, these “taking-life-seriously” thoughts are the dominant thoughts plaguing Mortal-identified people.
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Thank-you. Wayne
See Also: Techniques
February 21st, 2012 at 10:25 pm
“What is critical is that you stop taking your thoughts so seriously.”
That is not easy to do when you’ve lived your whole life believing that you are what you think and the world is what you think it is.
It requires what seems at the time is a very real and personal death.
And I guess it is a death…..It’s just that death isn’t what you “thought it was” either.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:45 am
@kv: “It requires what seems at the time is a very real and personal death.”
Rather than an all or nothing death, I believe it can be softened with a “dying.” I lived for two years as a Soul, softening every day until finally the personal self fell away (that was the death).
February 24th, 2012 at 2:43 am
Thx, Wayne. I totally agree with this practice.
Many traditionals suggest focusing breath before seeing the thought.
But I feel using sounds is easier way to recognize and stay in the Vast Living Openness.
And in this Openness, it will become easier to see the thought just like the sound of a bird chirping and easier to feel the thought as “none of my business”.