Observe the Mind

 The unobserved mind is the problem.

Eckhart Tolle

Hmmm!  It is not the event, the person, the weather, or the nasty feelings we are observing that is the problem...it is the mind that is observing them that is.  What should be our object of attention then?  The external situations passing before us or the mind?  

Observe the Mind 

The mind needs to be observed before we can observe anything else cleary. Until we observe and see how the mind operates nothing else will make sense. We will continue to believe what this unobserved mind is telling us...we won't see how mixed up it is making things. All things will be distorted and misunderstood.They will be observed through a thick pair of lens that are not the right prescription.

Observe the mind first. Watch it.  See how it operates and how you tend to believe all the stories it is telling you. How you gladly put those dizzy-making lens on and view the world through them. Catch yourself thinking, making judgements, perceiving, preferring, avoiding or pushing away. See yourself lost in thought.

How do we do that?

Be willing, first of all to step away ...to consider the possibility that this is so and gently step back, creating a space between you and your thoughts so you can observe them.  No one is asking you to "stop thinking"...that would be impossible.  Just make a committment to observe your mind and become aware of the space that exists between thoughts.  In that space realize , "Just then I didn't think." 

Then take it a step farther, before the unobserved mind  pulls you away again, "Prior to that I was thinking about....and I was feeling.... " 

You are using thought to reflect on previous  thought but it is an awareness based thought. When you become aware that you were thinking and can reflect on it with thought...than you are not lost in thought anymore.  You are actually observing your mind...so for that moment the mind is an "observed" mind rather than an unconscious unobserved mind. ...and you are the conscious observer.  You are the awareness. 

It Takes Committed Practice

The more you catch these spaces and catch yourself thinking  the bigger the space will become between each thought and the quicker you will realize you just ran off.  With much practice you will catch yourself while you are lost in thought instead of afterwards and eventually you will be able to catch yourself before you go off on a thought tangent. 

You will also  begin to see the patterns and habits of the mind and be able to observe how they are more destructive than productive. How they not only add to your suffering but are often the cause of it. You will be able to see that what you are seeing through those thick lens is not truth and you will take the glasses off.   You will go beyond the distorted thoughts and perceptins, ideas and beliefs to what is truly real in you.  You will have clarity.

The world you observe then will not be the same one you see now.  It will be perfect just as it is.

Observe your mind!

All is well.