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The peaceful observer
Carameltail
UK Veteran
in Meditation
Be the observer of your thoughts.
You are not your thoughts and/or feelings.
Observing your thoughts can help you transform and release 'negative' thoughts and feelings. And it can help you grow and connect with others.
7
Comments
Simply put! ????
Iz plan!
Right on....
The dude abides.
Well put. Well... I'd add "or the observer" to things you're not.
And the observer arises dependently on the objects which might be thoughts or otherwise. In other words a moment of observer there must also be a moment of the observed which could be senses or a contact with the mental aspect. At least from a point of view.
Musical Interlude ...
Wot no observer?
My thoughts are rather difficult to observe. They seem to come only in response to stimulus, like little rapid cascades of realisation, for the rest what I observe in my mind is just emptiness.
My verbal thoughts are like powerful rivers. It’s easy to drown. To extricate myself I sometimes transpose them into visual thoughts. I see them as a clear, mountain stream, sprinkled with sunlight. I scoop individual words, like fish, hold them up and look at them. I visualize the letters in a luminous rainbow color, then release the word back into the stream. That exercise slows the current and creates an opportunity to get out.
I classify thoughts as sankharas. Sometimes their content is relevant, because I intended to think. Most times, though, the thoughts were unintended and their content irrelevant. Either way, I find all thought-streams can be backtracked to a feeling. There’s a catalyst behind the feeling, but identifying the feeling seems sufficient. Some streams are clinging triggered by a pleasant feeling; others are distraction triggered by either an unpleasant or neutral feeling seeking a pleasant one. That is where I find it easiest to redirect the streams into a pleasing or neutral spiritual feeling.