No Thought is Worth Thinking About

Mary H/ April 27, 2013/ Paul Brenner, MD, PhD

(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 Gurdijieff’s work was his
awareness of how addicted we are to the familiar and the insanity of our
minds. One method Gurjieff 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