There’s silence inside of you all the time. You might think it’s noisy in there, inside your mind but it’s not. We’re always concerned with our thoughts, but actually, it’s completely silent in there.
What is Sound?
Sound is a vibration that happens in the air, and then comes into your ears. It is translated into a perception inside your brain. We know this from from brain science. Right?
There’s no air inside your head. (Well maybe you are an airhead. I’m not going to say… smile)
But there’s no air inside your head. There’s no sound in there. All there is is just perceptions, interpretations… going and going and going. And they’re not as compelling as we like to think they are.
Really take some time and listen to the things going on in your so-called mind. You’ll find that they’re boring and repetitive. A lot of them don’t make a lot of sense if you really pay attention. It’s just a bunch of stuff being repeated.
You can use your thoughts to broaden your perspective. You can use your thoughts to figure things out so that you know how to interact with other human beings. We need to do that. Words help us navigate. We need road signs Right? You see a road sign you automatically read it: Go that way. This is such-and-such street, and so-and-so store. These things are useful. But they’re not that compelling. The thoughts aren’t you.
You can be the master of it. You can be you. You are the awake point. You are the aliveness that’s inside of yourself. These things that arise in awareness are just something that’s happening. Something going on.
Thoughts are only a thing I can use. Like my hands are a thing I can use.I can move them around. I can do whatever I want to with them: play some music, knit a sweater, cook dinner. Whatever I want to do with my hands I can do with them because they’re my hands.
It’s the same thing with my thoughts. I can do with them whatever I want. Sometimes they’re useful. Sometimes they just kind of drift around on their own. I watch and see where they go. But it’s me watching where they go and what’s going on without getting lost.
This inner fantasy that we become lost in is way less compelling than we think it is. We allow it to rule us because we think that’s easier. Lazy! Lazy!
It feels like it would be a big job to be in charge of yourself because you think that you are very this very complex thing. But you’re not a complex thing. You’re a very, very simple thing. Words, and bodies, and society and all those things are complex. You are not complex. You’re very simple. So you can take charge of yourself easily.
You are the one that’s awake right this minute looking out. Looking at me, looking at you. You’re awake. Yes.