There are two ways to look at the mind: one is to see it as a thing, a tool, an object; the other is to see it as a process, a movement of energy.
Trying to understand your mind in the first way will tend to reinforce your sense of self, but trying to understand your mind in the second way will tend to dissolve your sense of self.
The problem with seeing the mind as an object is that you might start thinking that you're wrong, broken, or defective if your mind misbehaves in certain ways. You might think that there is something wrong with you because you can't stop yourself from being angry, or you can't stop yourself from having unkind thoughts about other people.
That's unfortunate because it leads to blaming yourself for problems over which you have little control. It also leads to seeing mental health issues as moral failings instead of biological ones – which reinforces stigma and makes people hesitant to seek help.
Trying to see your mind as a process or movement of energy—something that flows through you—takes all of this onus off yourself.
Once you start to become an observer of the mind, you will begin to see that there are a lot of strange and even contradictory thoughts that flow through the mind. Thoughts that come from your conditioning, from other people's influence, from your upbringing and culture. You see, a lot of the thoughts aren't really "you" at all.
Train your own mind by learning to be an objective observer. When the thought comes up, just say to yourself, "Oh, I'm having that thought again. Okay, so now I will observe it. Where did it come from? What else is going on right now? How is my body feeling as I have this thought? "
And when you learn to be an impartial observer of the mind, you can watch the thoughts come and go without getting caught up in them or believing they are really you. You can watch them like an outsider would watch someone else having weird thoughts—which gives you tremendous freedom from being reactive or conditioned in your thinking. Instead of believing everything your mind says, simply observe and question it: Who is thinking this thought? Is this thought true for me? Where did this thought come from?
It's as simple as sitting by the side of a river and watching the water flow past to become an observer of the currents of thought that run through your mind. Alternatively, while someone sits in the woods and observes the birds soaring through the sky, simply sit and observe.
Tune into your thinking mind and see what you find. You may find yourself surprised at the way it works. When you think about something, do you automatically believe it? The thoughts that pass through your mind originate in your consciousness. They are not you; they are simply thoughts – things that happen to you.
So start noticing when a thought enters your mind and ask yourself what it is that's happening. For example, if you're thinking about getting up from this chair to make yourself a cup of tea, what exactly happens? A thought comes into your mind about making a cup of tea. The moment it arrives, do you believe it? Did you know that most people don't question their own thoughts? But why should you believe every thought that enters your mind?
I would like to ask you a question:
What do you think about when you first wake up in the morning?
Do you have any thoughts or images in your mind?
If so, what are they?
Do you believe that your thoughts and images are real?
Do you believe that your thoughts and images are permanent?
Do you believe in your thoughts and images, even though they change from moment to moment?
How do thoughts and images come into being?
How do they arise and vanish from your consciousness, uninvited?
At the beginning stages of practicing this exercise, you will find it difficult to be an observer of your mind. You will have a tendency to believe everything your mind thinks.
The reason this happens is that we have been conditioned to believe everything our minds think. Being an observer of your mind is a new way of thinking that can feel awkward and uncomfortable at first.
But with time, patience, and practice, you will begin to see the benefits of being an impartial observer of your thoughts.
This simple exercise teaches you how to stop giving so much power over yourself to the contents of your own mind. As you learn to do this, the more power you will gain over the contents of your own mind.
Once you allow the momentum of your mind to slow down and eventually calm, you will begin to get a glimpse into what I call your True Nature. It is not the conditioned self-image that you have created but the deeper layer of awareness underneath.
Tune out of the speeding train of thought, break off your identification with the voice in your head, and you will begin to experience yourself as pure awareness – without judgment or opinion. This is where your true freedom lies.
Meditation is the best way to calm the mind and open your heart to God.
There's a lot of disagreement about what meditation is. Some spiritual traditions criticize meditation as something that separates you from the rest of the world. But this isn't true: when you meditate, you're doing nothing more than training your mind to focus on something that matters to you. You are not separating yourself because it's only by focusing down on something in this way that you can discover who and what lies behind all the thoughts and distractions that fill our heads.
Tuning back into yourself while tuning out the rest of the world is not a bad thing – it's an essential part of being present and awake.
The simple fact is that most of us go through life reacting to everything we feel, think, or experience. We are slaves to our thoughts, feelings, and sensations. In this state, we are not in control of our lives. We react to the world around us, and as a result, we create more problems for ourselves and others.
Trying to change without gaining some distance from your thoughts is like trying to bale water out of a leaky boat by scooping it up with another leaky bucket.
When you were young, you were probably taught that thoughts are an expression of your mind. In reality, they are not, and the distinction is a very important one to understand.
Treating thoughts as an expression of the mind makes you believe that there is a "you" behind them – and this causes you to feel the need to control them. You forget that they are just a passing parade of sensations, emotions, and thoughts.
You have no control over what passes through your mind. It's not up to you whether or not something will cross your mind at any given moment. Thoughts just pop up, seemingly out of nowhere. And yet, most people believe that they are responsible for them.
It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that we have some control over our thinking processes: "I really should think about such and such," or "I have been thinking about this for far too long." But these types of statements reflect an incorrect assumption about the nature of the mind and its relationship with thoughts, which can cause unnecessary suffering.
With this practice, it is helpful to regard thoughts as neutral phenomena – neither good nor bad – in order to distance yourself from their content and resist judging yourself for having certain thoughts.
After you master the method of being an observer of your thoughts, you will learn who you truly are and what your true self is. Your entire life transforms as a result of that realization. And then miracles begin to happen. At that very moment, the Fifth Dimension will be ready to welcome you.
We love you dearly.
We are here with you.
We are your family of light.
A'HO
Aurora Ray
Ambassador of the Galactic Federation
Copyright 2021 Aurora Ray. All rights reserved.
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