“WE ARE NOT OUR THOUGHTS…”
by Kelvin Chin
Meditation Teacher
Here’s the evidence:
If we were, we’d cease to exist when we sleep. Because sometimes we don’t have any thoughts when we sleep.
You wouldn’t know who you are when you woke up!
Right?
So something else must be having those thoughts — our mind, our consciousness. That is what’s experiencing the thoughts we have. That’s what continues even when we’re asleep, so we don’t forget who we are when we wake up!
That’s “who we are.”
Our mind or consciousness.
So when you think you are your thoughts, think again.
Thoughts are “something that you have.”
Why is this an important thing to understand?
Because understanding changes our attitude — and attitude changes our thoughts and behavior.
So by understanding we are not our thoughts, we develop a more relaxed attitude towards our thoughts. They don’t control us. We (our mind) control our thoughts. And that affects our behavior. We can feel more relaxed knowing that we are in control of what we can control.
And that starts with controlling our correct understanding of who we are in relation to our thoughts.
The next step is to “expand our capacity for experience.” Expand the 8-inch bucket of our mind.* Then we can experience more directly and more freely what is experiencing all of our thoughts. Our mind.
And that freedom further increases our experience and awareness that we are separate from our thoughts.
That’s ultimately how we can reduce and overcome anxiety of any kind.
*Listen to the “Houston Astrodome Analogy” audio for what the 8-inch bucket means.
Kelvin H. Chin is a Meditation Teacher, Life After Life Expert, and Author of “Overcoming the Fear of Death,” “Marcus Aurelius Updated: 21st Century Meditations On Living Life” and “After the Afterlife: Memories of My Past Lives.” He learned to meditate at age 19, and has been teaching Turning Within Meditation and coaching others in their self-growth for 40 years. He helps people understand their life challenges through their individual belief systems, and helps them find their own solutions. His past life memories reach back many centuries, and he accesses those memories in his teaching and his coaching in the same way all coaches draw on their own available experiences for perspective and effective analogies. He can be reached at www.TurningWithin.org.