A Helpful Analogy For Working With Our Frenzied Minds
The Wild Stallion And The Tamer
I’ll start this off by posing a seldom asked question: What is the mind? Mickey Singer defines it as a field of energy that can create thoughts. So the brain does lots of things, but the mind is the entity within it that creates thoughts. And let’s face it, most of those random thoughts are the bane of most people’s existence.
In fact, quieting our noisy minds is central to many spiritual traditions, notably Buddhism, Hinduism, the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Mickey Singer and many more. A fundamental precept within all these traditions and teachings is that our minds/thoughts are not who we are. Who we are is the conscious being that is aware of our thoughts.
A tough concept to grasp
That last sentence is extremely difficult for many people to comprehend. Their reaction is, “What?! Of course I’m my thoughts. They constitute my personality. They make me, me.”
In truth, however, our thoughts are just reactions to experiences we’ve had over the course of our lives that we’ve stored in the misplaced belief that doing so will protect us.
For example, if your first true love cheated on you and broke your heart when you were in high school, forty years later your mind still…
