Something to Think About corner

Ideas and thoughts which invite the reader to draw one’s own conclusions

Cliches

Cliches begin by being really meaningful. If they didn't have something going for them they wouldn't become cliches. But the moment it becomes a cliche it loses its meaning, not because there isn't any, but because the mind has moved on from the original meaning to an outer appearance of meaning - a substitute for thought that the cliche comes to represent. This is never more so than in speaking of spiritual life. 

And if anyone tries to describe higher spiritual experience you enter the world of No-words-can-describe. And that’s where cliche can really come into its own - describing the indescribable so someone can get a taste of it from the very sincerity it bespeaks! Cliches in the making, without having the benefit of first having any real meaning.

In spiritual life there is a nugget of pure gold at the centre of any oft repeated truth, but because the mind has heard before and moved on it just glances and bounces off the surface. To get at the truth of spirituality is like a capsule re-entering the atmosphere from space. To get through the atmosphere and back to earth the angle has to be just right. Too steep and you burn up, too shallow and you bounce off back into space, looking for another planet perhaps. With spiritual cliche this last is what usually happens. 

So take any spiritual cliché, look more deeply into it and find why it was considered good enough to become a cliché in the first place, by turning it into a tool of self enquiry. Then you can tell cliche from cliche…

So really, really useful thoughts or, more accurately, ideas can end up being dismissed as cliches. And ideas alone can become cliched with or without putting them into words if you come across them often enough. And eternal truth has been around, well, for eternity, which is plenty of time for a tired mind to overreact to what it does not give any thought to! 

What is your mind to you?

Answer these questions quickly without giving them much conscious thought.

You have to be completely honest.

There are no right answers.

They are yes/no answers,

so you need not write them down, but you can if you like.

Do you know your mind?

Are you more or less than your mind?

Do you have likes and dislikes?

Do you have thoughts you like to have more than others?

Do you have thoughts you fear or try to suppress?

Do you have thoughts you can't suppress?

Do you like your mind?

Have you ever had an idea that you once wholly believed to be true, but now no longer believe in?

Do you have control of your mind?

Does your mind have control over you?

Do you know your mind?

Do you trust your mind?

Is your mind who you are?



What is your reaction to the statement: all thought is illusion?

So what is the best attitude to have toward the mind?



There are no right answers. 

The purpose is to recognise your first reaction to the different questions.

Go through and see if you pick up any discrepancies between any answers, particularly to similar questions.

Go through again and see if you observe your mind attempting to make ends meet, so to speak, to find consistency in your answers

Just Maybe

Just maybe what you see in life is not everything

Just maybe what you think is not all there is

What you think you need is not what you need

Much of what you know is not what you need to know

What you think does not define who you are

Take Your Measure

Take your measure with a single thought

Taken to its logical conclusion

Why put faith in something changing 

Then wonder at all the confusion

Take your measure with a single idea 

Taken to its logical extent

Why put your faith in something moving 

Then wonder where it went