Find Freedom From Ruminative Thoughts

Do you ever find it difficult to quiet your mind? If you do, you are not alone. Working with our thoughts can be one of the greatest challenges in our lives. Rinpoche a spiritual leader published a hopeful article teaching us how to find freedom from our thoughts instead of imprisonment.

He believes that ruminating thoughts and afflictive emotions can obscure the naturally expansive and luminous nature of our minds. Not recognizing the pristine nature or our mind, we suffer because there is a great deal of attachment to the “I.” An endless stream of thoughts, with one thought linked to the next, traps us in a perpetual cycle of confusion and pain.

The goal is for each thought to remain in its own place. If you are able to experience each thought in its completeness, being mindful of its presence, the energy of the thought arises and dissolves in its own place. Therefore, you do not need to tamper with your thoughts. Further elaboration causes confusion and exhaustion. If you are not able to see the nature of each thought as complete and independent, it is because you are attached to the “I” and what the “I” creates. For example: If you think, “I want this” or “I am not good enough,” you create continuity for the “I” and ruminating thoughts will follow.

If we wish to free ourselves from the imprisonment of ruminating thoughts, the most effective approach is to ask ourselves, “Who is bound by habit, and how do these habits originate? Rinpoche ends his article with a great quoted metaphor: If you throw a stone at a dog, the dog will chase after the stone. If you throw a stone at a lion, the lion will chase after you! The dog will continue to chase stones, but the lion will be finished with it once and for all. Friends I ask you to consider to be the lion by looking directly at the source of each of your thoughts rather than following its trail.

I wish you all peace and harmony,

Coralis (Cory) Solomon, MSCP