Thinking Less

I used to crowd my mind with thought in the belief that this is what "smart" people do.

There is nothing wrong with thinking. There is a lot wrong with unnecessary thinking. What I mean by unnecessary thinking is thoughts which are not appropriate to the circumstances I am in right now, within this moment.

Grasping and keeping thoughts was like building a dam in my thought stream. A mind filled with stale thoughts leaves no room for new ideas or the re-emergence of useful past thoughts. The reason I used to hold onto thoughts was an insecurity that those thoughts were valuable and if I let them go they would be lost, along with the identity they represent.

Now I simply trust that the best thoughts I am capable of creating will arise to suit each situation I find myself in. I let thoughts that don't suit a situation dissipate. I think a lot less.

Not being exhausted by so many thoughts means I have much more energy for thought that is appropriate for the now.

I was not able to perceive Planet Happiness when my mind was cluttered with thoughts. A cluttered mind is like an overgrown bush. The deadwood is blocking sunlight, taking up space and strangling itself. Now I prune continually. This writing is part of the pruning.

I found it was just not reasonable to expect my mind to stop creating thoughts. What is very achievable is to allow those thoughts their expression and then let them dissipate. "Relaxing" to me is allowing every thought to slip away without any response at all.

You could choose to call relaxing the mind by allowing thought to arise without response "meditation" if you wish. (You could call it "gazowing" for all I care!)

I don't pay much attention to the doctrines of ceasing thought to achieve this stillness of mind. If I say don't think about bananas what is the first thing you think of?

I think the value in suppression of thoughts arising in the first place, or at least trying to, is in creating frustration, creating suffering. It seems logical to me that one way to understand the nature of suffering is to create heaps of this "raw material" of suffering to examine.

Driving yourself by self-created suffering to escape suffering may be a route to Planet Happiness. Personally I believe have found a gentler vehicle.

https://steemit.com/philosophy/@oppressiphobia/demystifying-enlightenment-religion-not-required