Spin Cycle

[ Guest post from Dan. Please enjoy !]

The thought process creates a world of “things”. A “sofa ” thing, a “cat” thing, an “it’s 11:30″ thing, an ” I have to meet someone later ” thing, a “life is unfair” thing, or a “life is wonderful” thing. Thoughts create many “things”.

A “thing” is simply the content of thought.

And then the body forms judgments based upon the belief in these “things” as actual, existent entities, desiring some of these “things” and rejecting others.

Therefore, the “life is unfair” thing will create an unpleasant experience in the body as it attempts to reject and avoid it. The “people love me” thing engenders pleasant reactions in the body as it attempts to grasp and maintain it.

When unpleasant “things” are encountered, movements take place to replace these unpleasant “things” with happier and more acceptable “things.”

These movements can consist of the attempt to think up other more pleasant “things,” to change our physical location in hopes of spawning desirable “things,”or to engage in acts which we believe will replace the undesirable “things” with more acceptable “things.”

This manifests itself in such activities as watching a movie, calling up a friend to talk, drinking alcohol or taking drugs, or attending a satsang.

The hope is that the undesirable content of thought can be replaced with a more desired content. We engage in activities, both mental and physical, in the attempt to create pleasant thought content.

Sometimes we are more successful than others, and for longer time periods.

Yet since the production of thoughts is spontaneous and seemingly arbitrary,
this endeavor to control the process is futile.

Meditation, reading spirituality books, watching videos, and attending satsangs may result in the production of pleasant thought content yet as soon as the activity changes, such as going to work, answering the cell phone, paying the bills, etc., unpleasant thought content returns. Resulting in a wash, rinse, repeat cycle of spiritual activity in hope of release from this perpetual suffering.

All the while, the focus is on the content of thought and the ability to manipulate it.

What if, instead, the focus shifted from the content of thought to the thought process itself?

To the mechanism in which the body reacts favorably or negatively to this thought content?

What would happen if this process and mechanism was thoroughly investigated and understood?

Ironically, it’s the greatest and deepest of the sufferings,
the depressions and despairs of life,
these things that are most reviled and rejected,
that offer the greatest opportunity for exposing the whole charade.

********************************************************************

Thanks to Dan for the entirety of this post.

The original post may be read here: https://www.facebook.com/braying.jackcass/posts/362758733822362?comment_id=1999877&notif_t=feed_comment_reply

Edited only for spacing.

Pic comes from here: https://standinginanopenfield.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/washing-machine-man1.gif