In yesterday's post I began by briefly touching on mind chatter followed by consciously (or unconsciously) guiding what I've decided to call the thought stream. To attempt to remain consistent I'll be referring to "thought stream" as the flow of thoughts in whole - the greater process. "Thought patterns" on the other hand will be definitive components and characteristics of the thought stream; having the ability to be arranged and tweaked to produce an intended and resourceful thought stream. The stream is composed of and directed by patterns that create a sequence of events; a personal processing system for filtering stimuli and assigning meaning. More on this another day.
Yesterday's post then concluded with the natural tendency of the mind to break things down into pieces and classify them as good or bad. This process is dualistic thinking and dualistic thinking has many advantages and limitations.
Good and bad (dualistic) thinking has the advantage of providing us with the ability to process information and make a decision with a preconceived result. If you see a car is coming and you want to cross the street a common response would be that walking in front of the car is a bad idea. In this case dualistic thinking is an absolutely wonderful tool and without it we would likely cross the road for a limited number of times before being flattened by oncoming traffic. Using the cross walks, looking both ways and being aware of traffic is then a good thing. So dualistic thinking is a very valuable tool in this example. Now let's say that your mind is strongly dualistic, breaking down each choice into good or bad and it's served you well for years. Over time you've conditioned yourself to know how to cross the street without being aware of the thought stream. Suddenly you're faced with a change. You now need to cross the street immediately (maybe there's an emergency); the cross walk is 50 yards away and a car is coming. A strongly dualistic mind will create a great degree of nervous tension in breaking the rules and navigating away from the personal protocol for safety - even in this state of urgency. Clearly breaking the rules will be resourceful in this emergency, yet it feels uncomfortable. To the degree our minds operate dualistically and unconsciously it will feel uncomfortable to make the resourceful adjustments to respond most efficiently and appropriately to the event in this moment and both the problem and solution will remain outside of ourselves.
The remedy to this type of unconscious dualistic thinking is the conscious neutral mind. The conscious thinker sees the thought stream flowing from conditioning and then makes adjustments in the thought patterns to change the flow of thought to create the desired outcome. The neutral mind assists this process by allowing the changes to take place because the neutral mind is much less attached to previously held truths. While the dualistic mind needs badly to analyze and break things down into good or bad, yes or no, true or false, right or wrong types of responses; the neutral mind neutral mind retains a great degree of objectivity that adjusts to each particular situation uniquely.
How do we cultivate our neutral mind? It is in my opinion a product of expanded awareness. When our awareness expands to allow us to see and experience our responses as predominantly a product of our conditioning and past situations, we have the chance to consider more openly that what we have always held to be true may indeed only be a piece of the puzzle. And that other seemingly conflicting ideas are also in their own right a necessary piece of that same puzzle. Just as the right side of the body is codependent of the left side. Then how do we expand our awareness? By paying attention and redirecting our attention when our minds begin to take on typical thought patterns.
Try this exercise in awareness of thought. Give yourself 5 minutes of quiet time without external disruption. Set a timer to keep this exercise brief, focused and effective. Close your eyes and over the next five minutes let your mind do whatever it wants. Do not guide the mind with any type of mantra and be only slightly aware of the breath. You want the mind to do whatever it wants over the next 5 minutes. When your timer goes off notice what is on your mind at that moment. Then ask yourself what thought came before the present thought. How did the previous thought transition into the current thought when the timer went off. Then step back one more thought. What thought lead into the thought that lead into the last thought. Keep stepping back a thought at a time to see how each previous thought transitioned into the thought that followed. This is an interesting exercise and can demonstrate how thought patterns can powerfully create a thought stream of unintended direction. Notice anything interesting?
In my next post I'd like to dive into the awareness piece a bit more. If you found anything I posted here interesting or have something to share please comment. If you took the time to try the 5 minute exercise I'd love to hear how it went.
Have a pleasant evening.
Gratefully,
J
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