Published 02/09/2010 - 2:34 p.m. EST
Is the Mind Everything or is
it Nothing
The mind is everything. The mind is
nothing. This paradox holds the key to everything.
It is the mind that controls and creates our
thoughts. It is our thoughts that create our
reality. Everything we think, everything we
experience is a projection of our thoughts.
This is so basic
to the human condition that its truth is taught by
many great masters. In the bible it says "Let this
mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." Many
spiritual seekers try to get rid of the mind and
think it is bad. It is not the mind that is bad
but the attachment to the thoughts that the mind
creates. In Buddhism, the Second Noble Truth warns
that attachment is the cause of all suffering.
Attachment refers to all things intransient and
this includes ideas and thoughts.
The egoic mind
keeps us stuck in our story (She never listens to
me, He doesn’t like me, I’ll never be good enough
for him). Because the more we think the thought,
the more we look for evidence to support the
thought, it eventually becomes a belief which can
be so powerful as to trap us into a feeling that
there is no way out. In its severest form this
leads to suicidal tendencies; however many are
simply depressed and anxious, but even more of us
go through life as automatons, like zombies just
trudging through the day. We can hardly wait for
the work day to end so we can to go home and for
the work week to end to get to the weekend. Moving
from day to day and task to task never living up
to our capacity, our joy, or our passion.
There is a teacher
who has developed a way out of this cycle of
lifeless existence. This person was severely
depressed for over ten years when she was in her
thirties. During the last two years of this period
she could rarely get out of bed and obsessed over
suicide. And then one day out of deep despair she
received a great insight. She realized when she
believed something should be different than it
was, she would suffer and when she did not have
these thoughts she felt peaceful. Everything wrong
in our life is really a belief about what is wrong
in us.
This person is Byron Katie and out of
her insights came a process she calls "The Work."
Katie saw that most people sought happiness by
trying to change their external circumstances to
match their thoughts. But, if we questioned the
truth of our thoughts and became o.k. with what
is, then we could experience a life of joy and
passion. What would I be without the thoughts that
I have? This one question is the question she asks
us to ask of all the judgments we have about other
people and situations. When we go through the
process we realize that what we are thinking is
what is going on inside ourselves. This process is
empowering because it takes responsibility away
from others and let’s us find our own answers.
The Work
is perfect for this economic time. Many of us are
in fear about possible job loss. How would you
feel without the thought, "I might lose my job?"
Peaceful? Relaxed? Happy? Why do you want to
create a life based on fear? It only brings
suffering into the now. There is no joy in that.
If you want to create, create a vision of
abundance, but get your mind out of the future.
Katie’s work is unique because it lets you have
the experience of knowing how your thoughts create
your reality and can lead to suffering.
Fearful (or any
limiting) thoughts are not in alignment with
Universal Flow and will, therefore, restrict our
energy flow. Since it takes energy to hold these
thought patterns in our body, the holding on makes
us tired and also affects the way we breathe. It
prevents us from breathing deeply and completely
and limits the life force available for the
creation of the good, the holy and the beautiful.
When we
change the way we think about things, we change
the way we breathe. And when we change the way we
breathe, we change the way we think. The breath
puts us into the present moment, not in the past
or future where thoughts reside. This is why
Eckert Tolle supports breathing as a practice for
creating present moment awareness and why he
supports Katie’s work as "a great blessing for our
planet." And this is why we marry Katie’s work
with Transformational Breathing.
The two are
inseparable and are powerful tools for
transformation and evolution into joy. The Work is
about taking personal responsibly for our thoughts
and our life. Let’s just stay with the belief that
we create our reality and everything around us is
a projection of our thoughts. If this is so, then
what powerful creators we are, for we created
everything we have. There is no judgment as to
whether it is good or bad; it is our creation,
created out of love for us to learn and grow. If
we accept this, then we must also accept that we
can change it too. We can create anything we want.
And if we can create anything we want, then what
are we waiting for. The world needs us to show up
in our greatness. We can do this. But we have to
first change the way we think and breathe.
You can learn
more about The Work by going to www.thework.com.
Katie explains the process and provides free
worksheets to help you through the process. It is
also taught as part of the week long Personal
Transformational Breathing Seminar.
Dave Krajovic
Dave Krajovic,
CPA, MBA is a Master Breather. With advanced
training in many alternative healing modalities,
he is cofounder with his wife and partner, Pat, of
BodyWorks Healing Center in Plymouth, Michigan and
the Global Breath Institute. He is dedicated to
spreading the word about conscious breathing and
empowering people through the healing experience
of Transformational Breathing.
You can experience
the power of Transformational Breathing and learn
of these teachings in the Personal
Transformational Breathing Seminar held over two
three day weekends this May 1-3 and May 15-17.
Is the Mind Everything or is it
Nothing
The mind is everything. The mind is
nothing. This paradox holds the key to everything.
It is the mind that controls and creates our
thoughts. It is our thoughts that create our
reality. Everything we think, everything we
experience is a projection of our thoughts.
