Perpetual Thought and Letting Go

Letting Go.

Of What?

Thought...actually, identification with thought. I'm not really sure it's possible to let go of thought entirely in the waking state of consciousness.

It seems there's a continuous flow of thought from the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we fall asleep at night (unless you're like me and you have an 8-month old baby, in which case you fall asleep whenever you can, night or day.)

Have you ever wondered why the thoughts never stop?

I have. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." I see that as thought creating the "I" in "I am." In other words, thought generates the ego. The separateness. The transitory individuality we cling on to for dear life.

Without thought then, it follows there is no "I" or ego. And the ego is all about survival. Survival is basic programing for all life forms. Humans are unique in that they have word-based thoughts. These thoughts reinforce the separateness of the ego illusion.

So in order to survive, the ego must perpetuate thought.

That is why, for as long as we're awake, we're plagued by an endless stream of thoughts.

It may or may not be possible to slow down that stream, or even live in the waking state without thought (at least thought as we know it), but I am not experiencing that right now, so I'll leave that question for now and talk, instead, about what I know.

Let's assume, that like me, you have thoughts all the time. If you accept this, then it isn't a bad thing, or a good thing for that matter, it just is.

The problem doesn't lie in the existence of thought, it lies in the identification with thought.

Letting go, then, would entail observing a thought without following it. Without feeding it. Without believing it or judging it.

This doesn't not apply to practical thought, of course, otherwise we could not function in day-to-day life. It applies to psychological thought (a topic for another blog).