If you believe your thoughts, you will be in trouble and disappointed - Understanding Our True Self - Part 22
Breaking Free from the Illusions of the Mind: Why Believing Your Thoughts Leads to Suffering and Disappointment
Thoughts are fleeting impressions, born out of the mind's endless engagement with memory, imagination, and interpretation. They are like clouds passing through the sky—transient, insubstantial, and often misleading. Yet, many of us grant them the power of truth, believing thought as though it holds some undeniable reality about ourselves, others, or the world.
To believe your thoughts is to build your house on shifting sands. One moment, the mind tells you that you are capable and loved; the next, it whispers of unworthiness and rejection. This constant fluctuation traps us in a cycle of elation and despair. Thoughts, no matter how persuasive they appear, are only reflections of conditioned beliefs, experiences, and fears projected into the present.
Thoughts arise effortlessly, like a machine that never rests. They do not require purpose or meaning; they simply emerge, feeding on the momentum of their own existence. One thought leads to another, and soon, a cascade of narratives unfolds, each feeding the next. Left unchecked, this process creates an endless loop, with no other fuel than the energy we give it through attention and belief. The mind’s ceaseless production of thoughts is not a reflection of truth but of its mechanical nature, spinning stories without pause.
When you identify with your thoughts, you hand over the reins of your inner peace to something inherently unstable. Disappointment becomes inevitable because thoughts are rarely aligned with reality as it is; in fact, they are always a step behind. By the time we form a thought, reality has already moved on. Thoughts thrive on interpretations—what should be, what could have been, or what might happen. The more you invest in them, the more tangled you become in a web of expectations and assumptions that the world seldom fulfills.
We also tend to build our sense of self around these fleeting thoughts, allowing them to define who we think we are. When a thought tells us we are unworthy, we embody it as truth, labeling ourselves as failures. When a thought presents an imagined future, we identify with the outcome, setting ourselves up for suffering if it doesn’t materialize. This fusion between thought and identity creates a fragile self-image, constantly reinforced or threatened by the endless activity of the mind. Instead of recognizing thoughts as temporary and impersonal, we weave them into a story that dictates our emotions and actions, forgetting the deeper truth of who we are.
But if you pause and contemplate, you’ll find that thoughts are just that—thoughts. They have no power except the power you give them. In the stillness of pure awareness, you can see them arise and dissolve without attaching your identity to them. This shift from identification to contemplation is a gateway to liberation.
To remain free, recognize that thoughts are tools for practical life, not arbiters of truth. Use them wisely, but do not let them use you. When you stop believing, every thought, disappointment diminishes, and clarity blossoms. In this clarity, you discover the vastness of what you are—unchanging, untouched by the transient flickers of the mind.
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