Going Beyond Thoughts

To go beyond the confines of the thinking mind takes uncompromising honesty, allowing yourself to listen carefully to your mind so you can transcend the illusion of ego to the true you - a higher consciousness. As long as you remain attached to your thoughts your journey will remain encumbered. There is something beyond the perception of your senses that you are unaware of while the ego has its hold on you. That something is the extraordinary being beyond thought.

Once you are able to let space form between thoughts a new realization will awaken in you like a newborn child. It will need to be nourished and handled with great care and affection. The child is Presence. Presence has always existed in you but you have been unaware of its existence because of the thinking mind. The subtleness of Presence is easily masked by thoughts of dissatisfaction, judgment, beliefs, desires and other ominous thoughts. Presence must be met with an open mind; a mind that is not hampered by thinking.

To form a space between thoughts you must be quiet and very still. Your body must be comfortable, motionless and at ease. Your back must be straight while sitting either in a chair or cross-legged. Breathe in and out of your nose paying very close attention to your breath at the tip of your nose. After five minutes or so, imagine your breath traveling down to the base of your spine, swirling around that area for awhile, and then up and out as you exhale. This practice is for calming your mind. In the beginning your thoughts will be random and meaningless but they will soon become more quiet and recognizable as thoughts.

When your mind is relatively calm begin intentional thinking. If you are a wood worker, for example, you could think about building a bird house. If you are a chef you might think about making a cake. If you are an artist you could think about painting a picture. Intentionally think for about 30 seconds and then suddently stop thinking. For just a brief moment there will be no thoughts - a space or gap, and then an unintentional thought will come up. The unintentional thought is automatic and can be anything. It might be a fleeting thought of something in the past or the future. It might be a thought of something happening in the present moment like an itch or a sound.

For a few seconds simply sit in the zone of unintentional thinking and witness the thoughts as an observer. And then once again begin intentional thinking. Stop thinking and notice the space. Don't try too hard when doing this practice. The trick is to be as relaxed as possible and enjoy the process. Do this thinking not thinking for five or ten minutes and as often as possible; every day or at least every other day.

Soon you will experience longer and longer spaces between your thoughts. At some point the space should be long enough so that you get the feeling you are existing in the presence of something greater than the mind. The feeling is sometimes referred to as the true being or a new self. This is the beginning of the true meaning of life. It is not an illusion as before when there were thoughts of resentment, anger and frustration. The new life is brand new, an opening of the mind you have never experienced before.

To be continued.