#4 No Thought Is Worth Thinking About
(Original Post from Dr. Brenner’s personal Blog, April 27, 2013)
Years ago I read the book, In Search of the Miraculous, by P.D. Ouspensky. He wrote about the teachings of a Philosopher/ Psychologist, G.I. Gurdjieff. What impacted me the most about Gurdjieff’s work was his awareness of how addicted we are to the familiar and the insanity of our minds. One method Gurdjieff recommended to release us from mental bondage was through self- witnessing.
Approximately 60 % of our thoughts are negative. Years ago, one morning, I wrote down all of my thoughts and in the afternoon, tried to identify which were which were learned and mine. To my amazement, none of my thoughts were mine. The voices in my head were those of my parents, sisters, teachers, peers and society. Thoughts are learned voices in our head. These voices run our lives and in a very subtle, unconscious way teach us to manipulate others in order to get the love we want. These inner voices diminish who we are. They teach us that we are unworthy of loving ourselves and receiving love. Over time, these thoughts lead to a sense of inadequacy and feelings of being less than others.
Over the past thirty some odd years, I have practiced witnessing the incessant chatter of my mind, what the East Indians refer to as, “the monkey brain”: ”Paul, that was really stupid.”, “What in the world were you thinking.” “Why can’t you be nice.”; “Wake-up!”; “Stupid!”; “Watch the car. What were you thinking!”; “You should… It would be nice….” etc., ad nausea. This self-noise leads most people, following a compliment from another, to question, “If you only knew me?”
The mind is the source of our creativity and our destruction. The mind can bind us or separate us from others. The mind is the source of duality, an “us” and “them” reality. Historically our ancestors used their minds to control their outer environment and provided a tribal sense of safety. Now, it is finally our time to call into focus and heal our inner life in order to assure our collective survival. It is our time to realize that the only thought worth thinking is, “I am love made visible.” Once you embrace this truth, you realize “so is every other human being on this planet and so is this shared gift of life.”
Paul Brenner, M.D., PhD