Toying with Thinking

I think and I think and I think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness a million times, but never once into it. <Jonathan Safran Foer>

Thoughts can lead you to places, afar, unknown and unexpected. As I write this, I recall Joseph Nguyen’s definition of a thought: energetic mental raw materials which we use to create everything in the world.

The thing that is astonishing is, as you start dwelling on the thought, you start ‘thinking’, and thinking, as one would suppose it to connect with the inner self, actually drives one away from the very inner core. This notion challenges the fundamental construct that has been commonly interpreted all this time. Thinking creates barrier between oneself and universe.

Thought, as Joseph says in his book ‘Don’t believe everything you think’, has some unknown source, name it universe, for the sake. We might have no control over it. Yet, dwelling on the thought, or ‘thinking’, is an absolute act of ‘choice’, and very much under control of ourselves. Easier said than done, is it?

But the ‘choice’ part cannot be conflicted. Initially, it indeed is a choice, and as we keep making the wrong choices, a long chain of thoughts is built before it is too late and we lose the power to choose. It all boils down to ‘mindset’. The shift in mindset can be exponentially helpful to change one’s life, and might as well be sourced through ‘thoughtlessness’.

But how?

Indulge in a morning ritual that allows you to be with yourself for some time. Let the thoughts flow, let them come and go. Pop and disappear, without dwelling on it. Meditation is one. However, there is an extension, easier to do that I have figured out.

When you travel in that rickshaw for your office in the morning, or stand in queue at the bus stop, do not consume any kind of content, and let the thoughts be. Watch the bikers making way by stomping on footpaths, wearing fancy helmets, people opening their shops and priests performing morning rituals in the roadside temples. Observe and do nothing. This practise helps in being present, in the very moment. Isn’t thoughtlessness a synonym of being in the present? Something that we indeed are taught in all the books and banters?

As Dicken Bettinger rightfully said: “We are ever only one thought away from peace, love and joy – which comes from a state of no thought.”

Until next time.