What The Spiritual Marketplace Gets Wrong About Thoughts 💭

I don’t really check out the spiritual marketplace too much these days but I remember that back when I did, there was a massive campaign against thoughts. They often described emptiness as a state where there are no thoughts. This is somewhat right but needs to be touched up with a splash of nuance.

As you drop the egoistic identity, it’s true that thoughts start to dry up; however, it’s not like you become a thoughtless automaton. What happens is that the identity with the thoughts diminishes so greatly that thoughts eventually slow down or stop arriving at all. However, you as pure awareness can still make use of the thinker. As you drop the ego, you begin to merge with the totality of your Self or what I refer to as the Tao. This Tao embodies the flow of things and once the ego melts, the Tao begins to run everything. As a matter of fact, you almost become a channel for the Tao to use. It’s like when Christ said:

John 12:49:

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given me what to say and to speak”.

This means that he has completely become so empty of ego that the Tao (he calls it “Father”) is speaking through him. Running the show.

With all that being said; if you’re still in the physical realm, the Tao will still keep the thinker to do menial tasks like remembering events, editing a book, speaking a language, etc. The majority of the inspiration is the Tao but it passes the small time gig to an assistant, the thinker. The Tao is the CEO and the thinker becomes a low-level assistant. In the same way that if you want to write a letter to a friend, you grab a pencil. When the Tao wants to communicate or do certain things, it grabs a thinker and some thoughts, and then returns the thinker when it’s done.

Why am I writing this? When some folks hear that emptiness is a “state of no thoughts” as purported by some spiritual gurus; fears arise and they start thinking things like:

• I have a job. How can I live in emptiness?
• I have a wife and children that require my attention daily.
• I have goals, hobbies, and aspirations. How can I afford to live a truly spiritual life?

Please there is no need for these fears to arise. You can still do everything that is listed above. The only thing that changes is that instead of identifying as the fearful quivering little self known as the ego; you identify as the Beingness of “All That Is” that I refer to as the Tao. Within this Beingness, things will just handle themselves perfectly without the need for the ego identity. If the Tao needs a thinker, it’ll use the assistant and when it is done it can put it away. There’s no more need for incessant thoughts to carry your attention to and fro; you’re one with the present moment and relate with it totally without separation. Nisagardatta Maharaj ran a business, Ramana Maharshi ran a large ashram that housed plenty of people, and Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh were big-time social activists.

Spirituality isn’t opposed to daily living. Spirituality isn’t just a Himalayan Sadhu sitting on top of a mountain for 30 years. The point is that the real Himalayan Sadhu lives within your heart and you get in touch with it through silencing the ego. Once the ego is silent, then even thoughts can be made use of by the Tao. I hope this makes some sense. Cheers 🍻.