Question: Thoughts from Monkey Mind vs. Thoughts in Meditation
What are the differences between normal thoughts and thoughts from the meditative mind?
Each has it’s own flavor.
Mind Chatter
Our typical thoughts are like a feedback loop. They tend to go something like:
“I wonder if it will rain today. Last time it rained the gutter overflowed. I should have someone check out my gutters. I think Michael knows someone who does that. Michael has that weird dog. I wonder why his dog is weird. Do they have psychotherapists for dogs? I should make an appointment with mine… I’ve been worrying a lot lately. I wonder if it’s because I think too much?”
As you can see, the topic begins with thoughts about rain, but quickly ends up in a random spot having occupied minutes of reality with an internal journey that is something like a runaway train. When this happens we are often utterly unaware of what is happening around us. Notice how often there are references to “I” and “me”.
So, the qualities of mind chatter are:
• They feed into the next like a runaway train, on a seemingly random journey
• This train of thoughts pulls us away from awareness of what is happening
• These thoughts are self-referential
Thoughts in Meditation
In contrast a thought that arises in a mind deep in meditation might look like:
“Is there really a self?”
or
“There is only this moment.”
These thoughts tend to be:
• Singular
• Amazing clear and self contained
• Most often not coming from a self-referential perspective
Each has it’s own flavor.
Mind Chatter
Our typical thoughts are like a feedback loop. They tend to go something like:
“I wonder if it will rain today. Last time it rained the gutter overflowed. I should have someone check out my gutters. I think Michael knows someone who does that. Michael has that weird dog. I wonder why his dog is weird. Do they have psychotherapists for dogs? I should make an appointment with mine… I’ve been worrying a lot lately. I wonder if it’s because I think too much?”
As you can see, the topic begins with thoughts about rain, but quickly ends up in a random spot having occupied minutes of reality with an internal journey that is something like a runaway train. When this happens we are often utterly unaware of what is happening around us. Notice how often there are references to “I” and “me”.
So, the qualities of mind chatter are:
• They feed into the next like a runaway train, on a seemingly random journey
• This train of thoughts pulls us away from awareness of what is happening
• These thoughts are self-referential
Thoughts in Meditation
In contrast a thought that arises in a mind deep in meditation might look like:
“Is there really a self?”
or
“There is only this moment.”
These thoughts tend to be:
• Singular
• Amazing clear and self contained
• Most often not coming from a self-referential perspective
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