When I was younger, I remember criticising myself for each ‘negative’ or ‘critical’ or ‘judgmental’ thought I had with the conviction that if I had that thought I was a’ bad’ person.
I’ve started regular meditation many years ago and for a couple of years or more, before lock-down, I was attending a Buddhist Centre in Holloway Road, London. I liked what the Buddha says about the function of the mind (not of the brain), which is to produce thoughts as much as the function of the heart is to pump oxygenated blood to the cells, and as much as each organ of the body has its own particular function.
Therefore it is the mind that produces thoughts, not me. This understanding removed from me the conviction that ‘I am my thoughts’ and the negative connotation connected with it since every single human being in this planet has ‘negative thoughts’.
The real question is: “If I am not my thoughts who am I?” I am not even my body, since my consciousness comes only from my brain. Am I a spiritual being who has a material body in order to experience 'itself' and grow spiritually or recognised its spirituality and its connection with the Universe (or God if you prefer).
It is true other organs in the body can for example have sensory capabilities, like the stomach for example can taste the sweetness of some food, but the organ that makes us feel the taste (by electrical connections in the brain) is the brain which can transform electrical impulses in feelings, for example,(which is extraordinary!).
So if I am not my body, who I am…and who are you?
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