Thursday October 23, 2008 | 12 comments
Take time to think: it is the source of strength.
Our first matter of the heart was “Take Time for Repose”; the second was “Take Time to Read.” After a deep healing breath, a cup of tea, and a good book . . . thinking is the best way to travel! A well cultivated, nourished heart/mind is thoughtful. When we think of the word “thoughtful,” the connotations go beyond simply being “full of thought.”
“That was very thoughtful of you!” often means courteous, or empathetic, or both. Thinking can also mean taking time to reflect, or to look back. Meditative and mindful come to mind. When we observe that someone has given a “thoughtful” answer, we acknowledge that the thinker has taken time to process, to weigh, to analyze, and to decide without allowing emotions to govern the response. It is so important that each of us give ourselves the gift of private, uncluttered thought. The confidence and strength we gain from this simple practice will serve every decision we make.
Getting up early each day, early enough that you can observe the world as it awakens and witness the magic of morning light, is one perfect time to Think. Let me suggest a darjeeling or a pue’rh blend if you are a morning thinker. If you are one who thinks best at sunset, as the light retreats and day creatures seek rest, brew up a pot of Kishanganj Snowbud.
Thinking IS the best way to travel!
MAIN, Image 1
One of the things I enjoy most about my tea practice is that it allows me to be in the moment with the tea WITHOUT thinking. Much of the time my mind is in high gear and it is hard to shut down. The advice to sit with a cup of tea to help center myself and slow my thoughts for careful and calm consideration is excellent advice. I will, however, still make sure I make time for a cup of tea and NO thought.
Regena
I’ve been really enjoying this series. Very thought provoking. This morning was an especially beautiful sun rise in the Columbia River Gorge. My thoughts of appreciation were many.
I’m curious, Sandy: How does one have a cup of tea with NO THOUGHT? What are you thinking when you are having no thoughts? How do you know you are having no thoughts? Ha ha.
Regena – The answer is Present AWARENESS! Awareness is a presence of being that allows you to experience the internal and external worlds without putting artificial labels to them. It involves the act of noticing without naming. Unfortunately, I am still only able to grasp moments of it at a time, but my meditation practice and my tea practice allow me to continue to expand that ability. No easy task even after many years.
Sounds like Greek to me, Sandy. “Artificial labels” and “noticing without naming” are harsh dismissals of thinking, don’t you think? And, if that is not what they are, perhaps a post on Present Awareness would be helpful in aiding the understanding of the uninitiated.
Until then, it is good advice to take time to think, and tea will help you to take that time.
Regena, first of all, I certainly didn’t mean to be “dismissing” of thought. I’m sure you read my original comment that “to sit with a cup of tea to help center myself and slow my thoughts for careful and calm consideration is excellent advice.” Obviously, if I was being dismissive of thought I wouldn’t think it good advice as a way to better deal with my thoughts. Secondly, I don’t think it is “harsh” at all to want a break from the ceaseless train of thought that serves mainly to create an artificial, ego involved reality.
Unfortunately, thinking doesn’t respond well to harsh dismissals anyway. It has to be a gentle and accepting shift away from thought that alas, for most of us, lasts but a moment. For all of the “uninitiated”, I have a few reading recommendations that will require thought first in order to help you get briefly to that place without thought. Good luck.
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
The New Earth – Eckhart Tolle
Full Catastrophe Living – Jon Kabat-Zin
Wherever You Go, There You Are – Jon Kabat-Zin
Books by Thich Nhat Hanh
Books by the Dalai Lama
Interesting discussion. Because we are Boomers working 80 hours a week, the only vacation right now is thought or ‘drifting’ for a few minutes. I find that ideas often come the moment of waking up in the morning as the internal computer may have been working or God chooses to give that moment as the time for the most creative thoughts or ideas.
Someone once told me something like ‘you think too much’. Can you think too much? I don’t know; maybe ‘drifting away’ is actually the most creative time, when our thinking process is on hold.
Regena, I like thinking…alot. An old mentor of mine always said ‘people think but they don’t reason.’ Do you think that’s true? Do you think reasoning is always necessary? I like to let my thoughts flow free as much as possible when working on a problem or idea. On the other hand, thoughts tend to be laser focused when specifics and deadlines are involved.
Sandy, I love the ‘day dreaming’ (can we call it that?) moments as well. In school, that was another accusation teachers said…’snap out of it’…’you’re daydreaming again’…
Teachers, in my opinion, and parents, might help us all growing up if they simply let us ‘be’ when they see daydreaming symptoms or even ‘thinking symptoms’.
Team. In my experience, day dreaming usually also involves thought, or at least getting sucked into your internal experience, whatever it may be. What I am talking about is an alert awareness of ones surroundings and internal experiences without putting thought or labeling conventions to them and especially without getting caught up in them. If you have ever done Mindfulness meditation, it is like those moments when you can be still, alert and aware of all that floats in and out of your awareness (which usually does include thought) but without attaching names or labels to them and without getting caught up in them. I find being “mindful” of my thoughts, without getting sucked into them, the most difficult challenge of all. As I had commented before, the ability to be “mindful” without thought is very fleeting for most of us. There are probably only a handful of people in the entire world who can do that for any length of time. Something to aspire to given that thought, as wonderful and creative as it can be, is also the primary source for all of our stress and problems in life. As Mark Twain so aptly stated; “I’ve had many problems in my life, most of which have never happened.”
Team – I agree with you. The early morning time can be so important. I take my morning exercise walk when I first wake up – truth is if I didn’t go first thing, my life and responsibilies would intrude and I’d never leave the house/office. I believe I am at my most creative during that time. I begin the hike focusing on my gorgeous natural surrounding. Then, without really meaning to, my creativity takes over and starts to run away with interesting ideas and solutions. I think Sandy is right that I loose the awareness of my external surroundings but I can’t quite get to my “internal experience” – it’s as if I go into a creative solution driven process. Ultimately I complete the hike feeling energized and eager to put into action some of my creative thoughts. Perhaps when my life is more settled I’ll have the luxury to spend that time being “mindful” and truly internally focused.
While I was writing the above comment, I got a ping telling me there was an email awaiting my review. It seems appropriate to show you what it said. I think the lesson is of value to all of us.
I hope someone reading it will value its lessons as much as I do.
USER’S GUIDE FOR HUMAN BEINGS
1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experimentation. The so called failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that seemingly work.
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in varied forms until you have learned that lesson. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons never ends. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you are alive that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. There is no better a place than here. When your there becomes your here, you will simply obtain another there that will again look better than here.
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is no one but yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions all lie within you. Literally. All you need to do is look, listen and trust. We mostly always look outside of ourselves for that which can only be found within.
10. You will forget all this! Repeatedly — so if you keep this little guide close; if you choose to read and reread, to share it with those you love and hate, to contemplate and discuss — eventually you will remember.
Michelle
Thank you for what
I consider a
valuable “User’s
Guide”for me too!
I will save it for now,with the hope
for “eventually”
remembering it.
Michelle – Being mindfull is not about being internally focused. You are already doing that by being caught up in your creative thought processes. Being mindful is about being aware that you are an energy field, separate from your physical being, that is the one doing the experiencing, and being aware of everything that you experience, both internally and externally. That includes simultaneous awareness of your beautiful natural surroundings, your creative thoughts, your negative thoughts (which I’m sure are there as well – as they are for everyone), without losing the awareness that YOU are not your your thoughts but you are aware that you are having those thoughts and not getting caught up in them while you also remain aware of both external and internal states without naming or judging any of those experiences. As I said previously, no easy task.