Fasting from thought
Overthinking is an addiction. Even most thinking is an addiction, in that it is conditioned, automatic behavior.
It’s weirdly attractive, isn’t it? The good thoughts, like longing and daydreaming, but even the bad thoughts, like stressing and worrying. And wow, the immense addiction to thinking about myself: am I okay, what am I like, what should I do, what do they think of me?
Underneath all that is the conviction that I exist as a separate self, but also that thinking is what makes things happen. If I don’t pay attention to thoughts, I won’t function.
Try fasting. Fasting from giving every single thought your automatic attention. See in direct experience that thought can’t do anything. It doesn’t have the power we believe it does.
Things get done beautifully without thought. Action, work, creativity, interaction all happen without attention needing to go to the thousands of thoughts about them.
For the few activities where thoughts are the activity itself, attention still goes there, not to worry.
But you’ve got to experience this to believe it.
Give it a try. Who knows, it might even happen.
Imagine the mind as a thought-catching sieve. Instead of tiny holes that catch almost all thoughts, clogging up the whole thing, it has large, gaping holes.
Thoughts fly right through. Especially thoughts about nonduality!
What remains?
a lot of the thinking that happens in my mind seems to be sourced from a low-level reactivity bubbling in the background. relaxing the hold on that reactivity automatically quiets the thinking.
I wholeheartedly agree that most thought isn’t helpful. It’s something that we get addicted to, and it takes us away from the peace of our true nature.
But sometimes - as you point out, Kat - thoughts are the activity itself. And they can be useful. We are at times actually doing something pragmatic with our capacity for rational thought - like planning how to get from A to B when we’re on holiday.
The problem comes in trying to distinguish between what’s “good” thinking and what’s “bad” thinking. The clearest way that I’ve found to distinguish between these is by referring to the terms “working mind” and “thinking mind”—as Ramesh Balsekar used to refer to these distinct uses of the mind. When we use the working mind, we’re using it as a practical tool. We’re using it in the way that we should be using it. So if, for example, I need to buy a plane ticket to fly to Rome, I use my working mind to decide when I want to go, to look for flights on the internet, and to book one. If I then start worrying that I might have booked the wrong flight, the plane might crash, or I might not have a pleasant time in Italy, that’s the thinking mind. I’m now using my thinking - or rather my thinking is using me - to create anxiety within myself without any particular purpose. And all of this takes me away from the peace of my true nature.
So I think we should be wary of demonising all thought. Thought is a fantastic tool when we use it in the right way but a dreadful affliction when it takes over our minds. An excellent servant but a terrible master.