Ask yourself this question: what do you believe governs your experience more - the thoughts that you experience or the wind in the trees, or the sensation on the bottom of your foot?
I think clearly the answer will be “your” thoughts.
Why is that? Why do we give the experience of thoughts so much more attention than any other aspect of our experience?
It is because, I would argue, that we believe in some sense we just are our thoughts. If you play close attention to your thoughts (and you may have to do some meditative exercises to slow things down), you’ll discover phrases like “I’ll just do this…”, or “I’m tired today, it must be cause I did…”, or “this person is really annoying [me]”.
You’ll discover a bucket load of “I, me, mine” thoughts.
You’ll also discover that you take these thoughts very seriously, like they are valid, and that deserve your utmost attention. Attention that other aspects in experience don’t get. In other words, you’ll attach in some mysterious way to them.
This is because these “I, me, mine” thoughts swirl around this core idea of a limited entity, or object, which has the label “me”. It’s a kind of complex mental object - which thought loves to describe and assert agency to.
Even as I am writing this very article I notice thoughts arising like “where am I going with this article?”, implying that there is this “me” who is choosing the direction of this article, writing it with my hands on the keyboard, coming up with sentences and so on.
But all of these thoughts are kind of implied, vaguely pointing in the direction of this supposed object, this supposed “me”.
It is in self-enquiry that we discover that, after all, there is no such object or entity which thought calls “me”.
Take my writing example - the thought implies that “I” am coming up with ideas for this article. But what is this “I” that is supposedly coming up with ideas? They are just appearing - there is no discrete “I” entity that can be observed which is producing these words. They just appear.
Likewise, who is this “I” who is writing? The sight of hands moving, sensations on the fingers, sounds of the keyboard, thoughts leaping out - all arising, with no “me” being involved.
This vague idea of a “me”, which is associated with so many thought forms, patterns and habits, only survives by remaining always out of the spotlight, only ever implied. Once the spotlight of self-enquiry is shone on it, it is revealed as being an empty concept.
So what is to be done about such thoughts?
Precisely nothing.
They arise, yet hopefully after reading these words you see that these thoughts are no different than any other experience rising up in Awareness. Don’t “buy into” them, don’t take them seriously. Treat them like the sound of a bird in the distance - remarkable, in its own way, but a curiosity - nothing to worry about, nothing to attach or hold on to.
Of course, even in writing this there is the subtle implication that there is a little “you” who can make the decision to just watch the thoughts, to not take them seriously and so on.
Truly, it is all grace, gift.
There is nothing “you” can do because there is truly no “you” who has the ability to do any of this. But these words are grace, any insights that may arise because of them are grace, and so on.
We are the Universe waking up, or God-becoming-God, or whatever other metaphor you wish to use - and we are all One “thing” rising up out of the murk of sleepy unawareness.
May you all be richly blessed.
awesome stuff