In the end, I believe it boils down to priorities. If we put the highest value and priority on feeling and being first, we would probably see far greater balance and healthy response in what we end up thinking and doing as a result. I often look to children as a great example of the ultimate feelers and be-ers. We may not always find it convenient as they express their true feelings and demand to be allowed to just be, but it’s definitely authentic.

Oh! To be a kid again!

Tami: Thank you for your post asking “To Think or Not to Think?” I personally THiNK!™ it was brilliant. It is my opinion that overall we do not THiNK! often enough nor do we pay attention to the thoughts we have. I like to ask people…..”Do you ever think about what you think about?

Through research for writing my book I learned that studies show we have anywhere from 12,000-60,000 thoughts a day. Some fleeting like… “I need to do laundry” or “did I turn the coffee pot off?” or “I’m hungry”. But how often do we really pay attention to what we are thinking? Thoughts control our everyday. I invite you to THiNK! Gratitude, THiNK! Joy, THiNK! Love, THiNK! Peace and it will come to you. THiNKing Rocks!™ and it can change our lives.

“Isn’t life grand? Truth be told, it takes so very, very little to be happy.”

Cheers,

Connie M. Williams
Peace of Earth, LLC. &
Rare Earth Properties
http://www.ConnieandSheila.com

Over the past six months, I have been acting on my own “Frontier Identity” (David Whyte strongly influenced my desire to write poetry and recent successes in my new genre of “IT Poetry”). I am now taking my own and the computer industry’s repetitive thoughts to write brief poems about Technology in an IT Poetry Blog. No chatting, just short prose, 20 lines or less. Below is a poem about the Agile Scrum Process and how it successfully addresses repetitive issues on IT projects.

Each poetry piece begins with a repeating thought that can get me down, then I twist it upward at the end into a triumph.

Chaos Theory
————
Processes, Ways

at a glance, chaotic.
upon closer inspection, patterned chaos
same twists repeated

condoned, condemned, enabled, bemoaned
it IS

ready for further twists, intentional
incremental changes, now Structured chaos

allowing inherent Nature, unpredictability
to predictably Create

Beautiful products
every iteration

- Sue Uyetake
December 15, 2009

THANK YOU for your very intelligent and helpful comment. I have felt a bit bothered by the whole “rising above” metaphor ever since I posted this entry, and your response has helped me unravel that irksome feeling a bit. I like what you are pointing to in terms of “opening wider” verus “closing in and clenching” around the thinking process (as an upgraded metaphor that might provide more helpful mileage in terms of how to actually open to awareness without directional reference). Thank you for your helpful insight here and for taking the time to write!

With gratitude, Tami

I have read Tolle’s work as well as much of Ken Wilber’s, and I must say I am not a fan of the “rising above vs. falling below” thought metaphor. I understand what Tolle is getting at with that point, and I suppose it is important to recognize that not-thinking is not the same as being an airhead.

However, the larger point, I believe, is that we can allow a lot more room for whatever thinking is occurring by simply being there, and we can bring presence to it as a witness, not identifying with the thoughts and solidifying them. The metaphor for this is often vertical, like we are floating up in the clouds, it feels light and airy. It’s a wonderful sentiment, of course, but I think it’s a disservice to regard thought in a simplifying metaphor with the “rising above and falling below” vertical dimensions.

Here’s why I believe the positioning of our witness above or below thought is misleading. Most of us, I think, already assume “we” somehow exist in our heads. So, when we imagine rising above thought, there is a vertical element to it, identifying with a sensation further up in the head. Often, when we are not thinking consciously, we are identified with what’s happening all around us and inside of us, and our experience can be closely felt in the gut and the abdomen. Is this below the level of thought? If we feel identified with our thought, are we doing something wrong? If thought is heavy as opposed to light and airy is that bad thinking? It’s all very confusing and misleading. Still, it’s pervasive in the literature of consciousness to position ourselves in our minds with a vertical dimension. However, some authors go the other way: Pema Chodron urges meditators to get underneath the story line. Is this below the level of thought? I think she would say yes, and that’s what she believes is beneficial!

Your question of “To think or not to think” is a fascinating one. Why think? What is thinking exactly? When you point to the loops and repetition of thought, I would argue that this is what much of thought is – repetitive processing of experiences. Is it valuable? Do we need to bring conscious awareness to it? What Tolle is getting at, I believe, is to pay attention to what’s happening now, which is always fresh and non-repetitive, and it does require some “room” in our minds for that experience. We do not have that room when we’re buzzing and circling around with all the considerations we have consciously. So, in line with this point, I advocate for dropping the “rising above and falling below” and instead use the metaphor of opening and closing. Are we opening up our thought? Is that inner loop going to be open to other people’s loops? Or are we closing down and focusing on what’s in our minds with a clenched jaw and furrowed brow?

Too often thinking is confounded with fretting, as though it’s the hard work of really churning something over in the mind. Using the mind for symbolic manipulation is challenging of course, but as Tolle points out numerous times, only if we’re looking for ourselves in the outcome of our thinking. Are we right or wrong? Do we get it? When that happens thinking really is fretting, and it’s unpleasant, circular and exhausting. As you point out, that’s the nature of fear and worry. Do we need that kind of thinking? Well, from my point of view we’ve got it, so what can we do with it?

Thanks again for an interesting post and I look forward to your upcoming work. Kind Regards, Michael

Thank you for the blogging work you are doing. On this particular one I am wondering if you ever have thinking dreams; the ones that wake you up in the wee hours because they insist on re-covering paths that you consciously will to be behind you?

Is our recovering unearthing something from the depths of our being or are we re-covering a path with a material that only makes it harder and more difficult to divert from our walking?

Your blog post reminded me of a quote from another author (who is not in your stable) David Allen. One of his ideas is that there is no reason to have the same thought more than once.

If you can capture the thought, then you can use a conscious process to help you decide what you want to do with it.

On the theme of Davids, I’m really looking forward to listening to your interview with David Whyte. I’ve loved his work ever since “The Heart Aroused”, and will be interested in hearing more about “What to Remember When Waking”.

Dave (yet another David) Gerlits

I believe the saying is something like, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.” That’s kind of what we’re doing when we are, as you say, “thinking about the same thing again and again with no new information coming forward.”

One of my greatest challenges has been to let go of my legal training that tells me I am certain to find the answer if I just look hard enough, analyze the data enough, ask the right questions, etc.–a left-brained process that produces a lot of repetitive thinking—and, instead, allow the way forward to present itself to me. Exercise helps. Stepping away from the “data” definitely helps. But nothing helps me as much as reconnecting with faith in the process of Life itself.

Thanks for sharing more great insights from the edge—you are there.