Nagging, distracting, and often negative thoughts can plague us daily. Sometimes it can be the same thought going around and around in our heads like a broken record. Other times it can be a succession of thoughts, one triggering another like falling dominoes. Either way, when we become aware of it, we see these thoughts have no basis in our present reality and we can become annoyed at their manifestation.
Thoughts can even bombard us in our dreams or when we wake up in the middle of the night. Has it ever happened to you that you woke in the middle of the night, glanced at the clock and were unable to get back to sleep due to a flood of thoughts pouring out of your head? Thoughts can run amuck when we think about our relationships, things we must do, future plans, what this or that person said, if only I had done or said something different. The possibilities are infinite. Can we ever learn to stop our thoughts?
Sadhguru explains how to gain respite from endless mind chatter.
Sadhguru: If you want to ignore the content of your mind, if you are willing, one thing you can do is just say “I am very stupid.” If you are stupid, you will not attach any significance to your thought. If you think “I am very smart,” you will attach too much importance to your thought. You just have to see “I am quite stupid.”
It takes a lot of intelligence to see “I am stupid.” The difference between a stupid person and an intelligent one is that an intelligent person knows he is stupid but an idiot does not. Look at it in terms of existence and you. If you look at with what organization, capability, and certainty a simple ant is conducting its life, you will see that you are quite stupid. Have you seen, even a simple ant – such a tiny thing – is dead sure of what he wants with his life. He knows what to eat, what not to eat, what is nourishing for him, what is not. He does not read that microprint on the back of the package. He just knows what he wants.
If you know “I am stupid,” then you will not attach too much importance to your thought and you will start looking at life. If you start looking at life more, your intelligence will definitely flower. Then, thought is not a process, thought is not a problem, because not much thought will be there. If you don’t pay any attention to your thought, it will just die. Don’t pay attention to it. But you cannot stop paying attention to it unless you think or see that your thoughts are so petty and quite stupid compared to the rest of the existence. Without a single thought on their mind, an ant, a bird, and a bee all just know what to do.
If you become like this, once in a way when you consciously think, it will be crystal clear. It will be like a knife which cuts through everything. Right now, thought is all over the place, so it has no penetration. If you rest it, once in a way when you pull out your sword, it will cut through everything. But if you are doing this with everything that comes your way all the time, your sword will become like a stick. You must keep it sheathed. Then, when you pull it out when you need it, it is a useful weapon.
Excerpt: page 35−36 of Sadhguru’s book, Mind Is Your Business, available from IshaShoppe or Amazon.com
Plus receive a free eBook by Sadhguru
