Kick the Habit

(For ease of reading and writing, in this article “thoughts” encompasses all mental activities – thoughts, emotions, images, intentions, desires, etc.)

Thoughts occur in the present, and it's possible to observe them happening in the moment. But 99.999% of the time, people are swept up in their thoughts and lose that larger perspective. In all fairness, it's a pretty advanced practice to not do so. We have to begin by learning to greet them at their source, see how they arise and how they enforce and sustain each other. Then we learn to witness their birth and let them go, as they form. This nurtures a feeling of dispassion toward them, which is a precursor to being able to follow them without being engulfed by them.

There is, of course, no need to break out of those old habits, unless one wants to be unconditionally content and in actual control of his/her thoughts and actions.

When living inside of thoughts, we're drawn along by their currents and easily bumped off course by any other errant thoughts that may collide with us. It's like being the ball in a pinball machine instead of standing outside of it and controlling the flippers. And thoughts are never satiated. If we wait for thoughts to complete themselves, in order to feel satisfied, it will never happen. If we wait for the world to fall in line with our thoughts, satisfaction will arise only in fleeting moments, at the very best.

Habits can be hard to change, but they're just habits. And these habits of mental conduct don't define us any more than habits of smoking or overeating do. And they're no more a given way of being, beyond our control.

Sure, pretty much everyone else does it that way. The same could have been said of smoking 70 years ago. With luck, in another 70 years, the majority will have adopted the healthier habit of rising above, and maintaining perspective of, their thoughts.

I wonder - how can we get the surgeon general to put a warning label on the side of our thought boxes?