Trigger-warning: Your egoic mind will not like this post and that’s exactly why you should read it.
A lot of suffering has its roots in our identification with our mind. Resentment about the past, worries about the future, the debilitating voice of the inner critic and severely limiting beliefs... all of the above are based on thoughts that we believe to be true.
Thoughts that we believe in create emotions and emotions inform actions. The result: We suffer, because we believe that we ARE these thoughts and that we ARE our mind.
The French philosopher René Descartes seemed to have believed it as well when he uttered his famous words: »I think, therefore I am.« I don’t know how to break it to you, but he was wrong.
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We are not our mind! (And that’s very good news.)
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Once we realize this experientially, our suffering decreases immensely while we still remain fully functional in the world. Spoiler-alert: We will be even clearer and sharper with access to more wisdom than ever before.
Here’s a bit of collected »evidence« to support my case:
It is well documented, that during deep-sleep our brain functioning decreases dramatically. That’s actually an important process for our brain-health, so I’ve heard. In the so-called NREM stage an EEG would primarily show delta waves, which means: no thought.
Now if it were true that you are your mind and in such a moment of peaceful deep-sleep you alarm clock goes off, then who hears it? If you are your mind and there is no thought-activity, who hears the ringtone? Consciousness/awareness/beingness itself.
A group of researchers conducted an experiment in which they observed the participants EEG during sleep and woke them up in a clear deep-sleep stage to ask them if they were conscious. Turns out they were. If asked immediately after waking them up they would report being conscious without thought activity during in their sleep.
Yet another indicator to disprove the idea of low brain activity = no consciousness or in other words: You are not your mind. You are consciousness/awareness/beingness itself.
Towards the end of her life my grandma was suffering from dementia. One day she told me with a mind-boggling clarity: »Before I had an excellent memory, but now I don’t remember anything.«