Look to the Source ….. Our Thoughts Create Our Reality

If we seek to live life fully we might look at where we have become trapped in our routines. Destructive behaviors are the cause of our suffering. When a bee settles on a flower to extract its nectar, it is intoxicated by the taste and unaware the night is descending, the bee becomes trapped in the flower as the petals slowly close. As human beings, we can use our intelligence and remain in our awareness so that our habits do not shackle us and rob us of our freedom.

Scattered, random thoughts and afflictive emotions obscure the natural and luminous nature of the mind. Awareness is lost when we narrowly focus on ourselves and what the “I” is experiencing. This kind of tunnel vision creates a breeding ground for a strong sense of ego. When we cannot transcend our habitual ordinary ways of thinking, we become mired in our confusion. Not recognizing the pristine nature of the mind, we suffer since there is a great deal of attachment to the “I”. An endless stream of thoughts, one thought running into the next, sometimes linked and often not linked, traps us in a perpetual cycle of confusion and pain.

I use a technique for this “monkey mind” whereby each thought remains in its own place. It would not make sense to drag a caterpillar from its cocoon and expect it to make honey; that would be unnatural. Similarly, if we placed a honeybee in a cocoon, it would not know how to transform into a butterfly. So, proverbially speaking, the caterpillar should remain in its cocoon, and the honeybee should make honey.

When we experience each thought in its completeness, the energy of the thought arises and dissolves in its own place. Therefore we need not tamper with our thoughts; it seems that further elaboration only causes bewilderment and confusion. On the other hand, when the energy of the thought is complete and independent, it is liberated upon arising and leaves no trace.

If we cannot see the nature of each thought as complete and independent, it is because we are attached to the “I” and what the “I” creates. If we think, “I am going to do this,” we create a continuity for this “I”. If we think, “I want this,” you mentally select one button, and if we think, “I want that,” we select the next button. There is no space for each thought to be complete and independent because we are thriving on the illusion of continuity.

When I am watching my own thoughts, I feel that an independent thought has a different energy, an energy that is fresh in vivid awareness. It is not dependent on further support. If we follow our thoughts in pursuit of our illusionary “I”, our entanglement with each thought is what enslaves us. This mental confusion compels us to follow the first thought with a second thought and that thought with a third thought and so on and so on.

Therefore each thought does not exist independently and we find ourselves trapped within our illusionary story based on an illusionary self. Unaware of the pure nature of mind and experience, one can be helplessly controlled by disturbing emotions and one experiences an endless stream of mental and physical stress and suffering.

If we have the courage and use our will power to rest, between our thoughts in the vast space of nothingness, we will discover that the source of our thoughts is pure energy arising from emptiness. In this state of timeless purity, nothing truly comes into existence and nothing solidly exists, so there is no obstruction and the fictions that seemingly fueled our enslaving habits of the mind will find no fertile ground in which to grow.

We do not reject our thoughts and feelings since they are all valid, however we need not cling to them as if they were fixed and unchanging. Allow everything to arise as a sheer inspiration; allow everything to be a celebration. Whatever arises is perfectly fine, and if nothing arises that is fine too.

With a flexible mind, we can direct our lives with sophistication. We will recognize the luminous quality of our true nature, clear essence will appear everywhere. And this is an amazing way to live and be. 
……Love and blessings Christina