Either you are using your mind, or your mind is using you.
Michael A. Singer
Are you using your mind or are you being used by your mind? Most of us are being used by our minds and have come to believe, because it is normal, it must be okay.
What are you talking about, crazy lady?
Well, most of us listen to our minds, believe what it has to say, and then proceed to follow its directions. We do what the mind tells us to do.
Why is that not wise?
The mind is crazy, that's why. If you take the time to step back and watch it you will see how crazy it is. It goes on and on nonstop. Never, I mean never, does it stop talking. It is telling you what is good or bad, right or wrong, what should be or shouldn't be when it knows nothing. It bases all of these judgements not on the reality of what is but on what memories it has stored in the past. It thinks it can actually control life and get it to do what it wants. It does its best to convince you of the same with its never ending, "You gotta do this, change that, go there, avoid this, fix that etc." Not only that but it has a tendency to be very dark. 60,000 thousand thoughts a day, scientists tell us, and 80 percent of those thoughts are negative. No wonder so many of us are miserable!
The mind is a great tool...it can do great things: thinking, planning, solving problems etc but it is just a tool we are supposed to be using. It isn't supposed to be using us. The mind isn't supposed to be telling us what to do, we are supposed to be telling it. Imagine your body as the vehicle you have been given to drive in this existence, and the mind as a very depressed copilot that got drunk, then stung by a scorpion. Are you going to say, "Okay...you drive. You can handle this life better than I can?"
Well that is basically what most of us do...and how well do you think this mind drives in that condition? Not very well. It is all over the road, swerving here and there, bumping into guardrails and other vehicles in its attempt drive away from this or that, hitting the ditch again and again. How many times has it rolled? Man, it isn't fun when mind drives, is it? Most of us are broken up, bumped and bruised as we sit in the passenger side, our foot glued to an imaginary brake and our white knuckles clinging to whatever we can hold. Yet, we let it drive. And the sad thing is...Mind cannot take us to where we really want to go. It just gets us lost. Sigh!
Mind isn't supposed to be driving these cars. We are!! We need to take the wheel back. Though we cannot stop the copilot from talking nonstop about its negative view of life, we do not have to listen or follow its directions. We do not have to follow its advice. We can keep our eyes on the road in front of us, appreciating the scenery, as we relax and let go a bit into auto drive. There is a force pulling this car along. Trust it and trust yourself behind the wheel of your life. Don't let mind drive!
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/ The Temple of the Universe ( August 14, 2023) Moving Beyond the Edges of Mind. https://tou.org/talks/
No comments:
Post a Comment