Thinking: The Space Invader
Most people assume that thinking is a virtue and the zenith of human creativity but fail to appreciate that worry, fear and anxiety are thinking operating at an intensified vibration. Everyone knows how difficult it is to stop thinking when agitation or intense feelings arise, as any emotional disturbance fuels the thinking process. Unless someone is prepared to stop thinking or daydreaming in the good times, it will be impossible to halt the thinking momentum when difficulties arise.
Most people assume that thinking is a virtue and the zenith of human creativity but fail to appreciate that worry, fear and anxiety are thinking operating at an intensified vibration. Everyone knows how difficult it is to stop thinking when agitation or intense feelings arise, as any emotional disturbance fuels the thinking process. Unless someone is prepared to stop thinking or daydreaming in the good times, it will be impossible to halt the thinking momentum when difficulties arise.
To master the thinker is the most challenging task of the spiritual process. It does, however, yield great self-knowledge and clarity when the practice becomes second nature and the mind becomes obedient to the power of a superior intelligence. In the process of mastering the thinker, it’s important to understand the psychology of thought. A single thought is not thinking. Random images are unavoidable so it’s to be vigilant and consciously alert so as not to allow the next frame to move. The thought will disappear when consciously present in the senses. Once the idea of this is grasped and someone sees in their own experience how effective this is, there’s a much greater sense of being in command of the inner space. Then, when it’s necessary to take some practical action in the world, the mind will function with much greater efficiency, and afterwards obediently return to a state of neutrality.
The main difficulty is commitment to the discipline of being still. The human mind fears stillness even though it may appear to co-operate for a while, especially in the early stages. Once it grasps you’re serious, however, it’s amazing the range of plausible excuses it makes to avoid making time to be still. The mind has become habitually attached to the momentum of thinking as a means to safeguard its aversion to stillness. This is because the mind equates the state of inner peace as the ultimate dread and fear. The spiritual liberation that everybody yearns to realise is none other than the state of no thought. When this state can be contained and integrated as a way of being, the whole perspective of what it means to be a man or woman of the earth is radically changed.
The solution to mastering the thinker is the purification of inner space. Whenever the demands of the self are transcended, a little piece of space within the subconscious is reclaimed. This creates, over a period of time, a perimeter of purified space that is impenetrable to negative thoughts and emotions, not unlike a castle moat which prevents the intrusion of any hostile forces. As intelligence dissociates from identifying with erroneous thoughts and memory impressions, the perception is actually withdrawing from the thinking band of the human psyche into the pure psyche, where any unnecessary mental association is transcended.