Be Free in ‘23

Today dawns the start of a new year and you, like many people on this first calendar day may be contemplating how you might begin something new, change your ways, or adopt some new resolution or behavior, or habit.

I would like to offer what I have been practicing these past few weeks as something you might find worthy of adopting yourself. By way of foundation let me first address a different approach that I have tried and failed that has, in part, led me to this alternative practice.

If you have been around New Thought philosophy for any length of time, you’ve heard that the way to improve your life experience is “change your thinking.” Heard it before, right? As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that working for you?” Not great, right? It sounds right of course, because what plagues us, what causes us distress, anxiety, pessimism, and all so-called negative experiences are the nagging thoughts in our heads. So logic would tell us that if we could just control our thoughts then we could control our experience and be happy and free, right? But from a practical, realistic standpoint, how capable are we of controlling our thoughts? Dismally incapable.

Thought activity is a great mystery. Even though we are aware of thoughts, we know very little about how they arise. The best answer is that they are a product of our conditioning, effects of what we have experienced in the past that color our perceptions, opinions, and beliefs that take form as thoughts. If that is the case, how can you control what has happened in your past that is the genesis of the nature and content of current thoughts? If you still believe you have some control over your thoughts then perhaps some further observation might be useful. When I observe thought activity, all I can say with any certainty is that “thoughts arise.” Unpredictably. Just try and predict what your next thought will be. Go ahead, try it now. Sure, after we become aware of a thought, we can analyze its origin but that’s after the arising has happened unwittingly.

Since we all want to be happy, why wouldn’t we exercise control over our thoughts to think happy thoughts, instead of those that bring us down? We would if we could, but we can’t.

So what’s the way to happiness and freedom when discursive thoughts seem to have a life of their own apart from our ability to influence mental activity? The answer is so simple and basic, it has likely eluded you, as it has eluded me. The answer is not in doing battle with thoughts. That only makes them stick around, and raises the anxiety level. As the expression goes, “resistance causes persistence.” And the only power a thought has over our experience is the extent to which we engage with it. Even a troubling thought that we do not want gets perpetuated by taking a position of resistance. The more attention we give it, positive or negative, the stronger its hold on our experience.

However, when we go to the source, the root of thought, we are in the realm of our true nature, which is immune from the dualism of good and bad, right and wrong, like and dislike, etc. How to get there? Very simply. As thoughts arise, inquire with the question, “who is aware of this thought.” We never do this. We are so devoted to the objects of perception, that we overlook the part of us that is aware of perception. We are so enthralled with what we are perceiving that we overlook our true nature, which is the capacity to be aware of objects in our experience, including thoughts. This is nothing more than reversing our direction of attention. We are in the habit of going outward with our attention so we give all kinds of attention to thoughts (or any external object). By reversing our attention we become aware of our capacity for attention which is pure awareness. When you stop and simply recognize the awareness that is at the root of perception you recognize Presence itself. Pure presence, pure sense of Being, and pure awareness are synonymous with your true nature, your Buddha nature, the Christ of you. Jesus said, “go into the closet and close the door.” This is what he was referring to. This is the Light he said you and I truly are. The Light of Knowing is pure awareness. When I recognize this pure sense of Being, thoughts dissolve, the mind sinks into the heart of Being, and there is a deep and prescient silence. A peace that surpasses understanding. Here I notice that the I am that I am is prior to and immune from the seeming problems of the world that engage my mind and tell me that wellbeing is bound by circumstances and restores a sense of equanimity and freedom. Here I take refuge from the mind and its endless trepidations and rest in the stillness and spaciousness of essential Being. Here I am free.

A happy new year begins with a fresh moment of awareness of that essence of you that has never endured unhappiness. As I have been practicing this awareness over the past several weeks, I have discovered that I have fewer and fewer thoughts about myself and all the mind's concerns. There are longer periods of spaciousness and inner quiet. There’s no question that I am happier for having taken this about-face in where I look for it. May it be so for you as well.

Happy New Year.

Rev. Larry