Do We Need To Stop Thoughts?
Do you ever feel as if you have become anti-thought? As if thoughts are bad and shouldn't be there? Sometimes we can accidentally pick up attitudes against our own minds that don't serve us very well. I hope you find the video helpful…
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Read my response:
Sometimes people who I speak to have been trained directly or indirectly to think that thoughts are bad - so you shouldn't have thoughts, especially if you meditate, you shouldn’t have thoughts, thoughts are bad, really, thoughts shouldn't be there or you shouldn't pay attention to thoughts, you shouldn't be attached to thoughts…
Thoughts kind of get this resistance around them, like this sense around them that you shouldn't really be having many of them, “you should have a silent mind, a still mind”…
But thoughts can be so good. Thoughts can be so creative and powerful and useful, and thoughts that really come from the source or come from purity of the universe feel really really good. It's the thoughts that come from a very separate or fearful sense of self – it’s those kinds of thoughts that feel bad or negative. They feel bad because they are cut off from who you truly are. It's like a signal - how bad something feels is a signal of how separated it is from who you truly are, how out of alignment it is with who you truly are.
You might be in a meditation - and someone gave this example to me - they were in a meditation and they had a really nice vision or nice thoughts arise, and they were told that they shouldn't follow that or go with that, and they should just focus on their legs or arms.
I would say if it thoughts feel good and you realise that they're making you feel good, and that there's a certain good energy that's feeding them, and that nothing has changed in the world around, but it’s building a certain sense of fun or appreciation…if you stay connected with the idea that it's not just the thoughts, it’s the energy they’re fused with and it's the energy they are coming from that feels good - why not allow that?
Because it is another form of resistance to say no to thoughts and fight against things that feel good, and instead go into maybe denser vibrations like just physical sensations.
If something feels good, that's usually a signal from your whole system that it is good for you. The only downside sometimes is if you're always going with thoughts that feel good, you can lose the source of them. You can become almost (as most of have become) obsessed with just manifestations, obsessed with just thoughts that are arising. And then gradually we lose our sense of connection with where they really coming from and so thoughts start to feel worse and become more dense and become more negative, then take on the life of their own that’s not so useful for us.
But if you really have no resistance, then if you have a pleasant vision arise in yourself - then who’s to say you shouldn't just allow that as well? And the same goes for negative thoughts. When you're having negative thoughts, what gives them a power is our resistance against them. If negative thoughts aren’t fought against then they have no place to really stick or land.
Just allow everything, and allow your main home or focus to be a sense of lightness, rather than being dragged into anything that doesn't feel nice. Allow your home to be a sense of peace or a sense of space or a sense of love - for no reason. You don't need a reason to feel anything. You don't need a reason to feel love or peace or lightness. Although your mind will always demand a reason, and perhaps if you’ve got a very strong “heady” mind it will argue against the idea that you can actually feel good now. It will give you reasons why you can't yet - that something has to be fixed before you can feel better. And is that actually true? Are you actually in fact able to feel some sense of relief or lightness now just by entertaining the idea of it? And the idea of it starts to become a feeling, and then the feeling can take you even deeper.
Hope that’s useful.
Adam Oakley