This is not just a cute philosophical or spiritual quote, by the way. If applied directly and fully, it can completely change your life. Let me elaborate. (Warning: long thread ahead) 1/? https://twitter.com/motstravig1/status/985524336592334849 …
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Here's what I mean by "belief": When you think "I'm in the mood for some ice cream", and you accept this as a factual statement about reality, that's a belief (and a relatively harmless one, under most circumstances). 6/
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Likewise, when you think "metaphysical claim X is the truth", and you accept this as a factual statement about reality, that's a belief (and one that has historically led to a huge amount of violent conflict). 7/
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Same with thoughts like "I'm not good enough", or "person Y deserves to be punished", and so on. Basically, if you accept a thought as a factual statement about reality, you're believing something. 8/
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It turns out that as you learn to turn down the dial that modulates the experience of belief, suffering becomes less and less of a problem. 9/
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Turning down that dial is a practice. Believing that beliefs are bad doesn't do you any good, because that's just one more belief in your collection. Practice means building skill by applying a technique regularly, so it becomes second nature, and is accessible at any time. 10/
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I will try to describe one way to practice turning down the dial of belief. Understand that having a thought and forming a belief are separate processes. They happen very quickly in succession, but they are not simultaneous. Usually they happen without us even noticing. 11/
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By default, we have a blind spot to the gap between them. The good news is that it's possible to gain access to and disrupt the mechanism by which thought becomes belief. 12/
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The bad news is that to do this, you'll probably need some prior mindfulness skills. I'm not saying that's 100% necessary, but it will help the process immensely. Even 10 minutes a day of following your breath would be better than nothing. 13/
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Why is mindfulness important? In order to disrupt the belief-forming mechanism, you need to actually notice when you're in the gap between the arising of a thought and the belief-formation. Most of the time, it's extremely subtle. Mindfulness helps you notice subtle things. 14/
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That said, the practice itself is to cross-examine every single thought you have. This might be hard to do at first when you're working on something that requires your full attention, or talking to someone. Though eventually that becomes easier too. 15/
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To start, then, you can simply do this practice on the cushion each day for a set period of time, and/or whenever you remember to throughout the day. (Here's a challenge: try doing it while on Twitter.) The practice itself is simple. 16/
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Every time you have a thought, recognize that you're having a thought (notice that this is where the mindfulness skills come in). Then, investigate the thought. Ask the following questions, with genuine curiosity and - this is crucial - brutal and complete self-honesty: 17
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"Where did this thought come from? Is it a reaction to something that just happened, or something someone just said?" "Is this thought an assertion of any kind? Is it making an empirical statement?" 18/
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"How does this assertion make me feel? What emotions, feelings, and body sensations arise when this thought is present?" "What's my stake in this assertion? If it's a factual statement about reality, how would that make me feel? If it's false, how would that make me feel?" 19/
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"Does this assertion assume anything that lies outside of itself? Does it depend on any previous axioms, cultural norms, or past personal experiences, or does it logically support itself?" 20/
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You don't have to try to answer these questions. That would just be more thinking. Instead, ask a question and then just pay attention to the experience in your body and your mind, as if you are waiting for the answer to reveal itself. 21/
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The answer isn't what's important. What's important is asking genuinely; not expecting a particular answer but being fully curious, and fully honest. What you'll find, after some time of doing this regularly, is that beliefs start to matter less and less. A tension loosens. 22/
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It's still fine to entertain ideas, to have discussions and debates and a desire to understand the world. But you'll start to suffer much less due to the narrative your mind constructs pretty much every minute of the day. 23/
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Just a side-note: Nothing that I've said in this thread is original or mystically profound. The Buddha knew all this, which is probably why he refused to answer metaphysical questions. He was trying to reduce suffering, and knew that attachment to views causes suffering. 24/
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This is just one way to loosen that attachment. I'm not claiming it as a way to get enlightened (let alone as the only way), or that it's all you need. But when combined with meditation practice, I've found it to be very powerful, so I'm sharing it. Thanks for reading. 25/end
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