Thought without a Thinker

So many are trying to overcome the mind, thinking, and have a better life. We know that drama comes from our heads and we are trying mightily to overcome it. We read so much literature, eastern and otherwise, pointing us in the direction of the mind as the source of human misery. It all makes so much sense. The problem has to be stinkin’ thinkin’. Doesn’t it?

But wait. What if I told you that negative thinking is not the problem by a long shot? What if I told you the problem was thought itself, but in a way that we have not realized before? What if I told you that there is no thinker!?

Here is the problem. We have identified ourselves as thought. We think we are thought.

It is as if we had identified ourselves with our right hand. We experience what the right hand experiences, we feel what it feels. We adopt the perspective of the right hand. We think we are the right hand. As long as we never question ourselves as the right hand we never know what the left hand is doing! Our experience of life is relegated to that of the right hand only.

But in the brain there is no thinker. Thought just happens. Thinking is a function, not a person. It is a byproduct of language and association. But since we identify with it, our experience of life is restricted to the content of thought – good or bad. The practice of Witness Thought Transformation breaks the bonds of this identification and we finally experience freedom from the mind.

The message is that we can work on our negative thinking, but as long as we believe we are the thinker, we live in thought’s prison.

The Witness Consciousness Two-Step

I am finding that Witness Consciousness has two distinct steps to it. The first of course is the initial thought watching. This leads to a huge breakthrough in awareness and a “knowing” that is easy to experience. But then I have observed that without practice people go back into their ego and the drama of the world. The knowing that comes with the initial breakthrough never leaves however.

This requires step number two. In a way, this is more work than the first step. Practice! Yes, we need to keep watching our thoughts in order to stop the slide back into the ego mind and the patters of unconsciousness that we all have. This requires a sustained effort at “watching” over a period of a year or two until it becomes second nature. That’s why building a community of watchers is so important in order to support the practice.

Does anyone else have thoughts on this two-step process?