Course Note #103: Why would I want to let go of thinking?

I have been into emotional and spiritual healing work since my mid twenties and throughout all those years, I have received so much teaching on thoughts. It blows my mind that even after now, thirty years, I continue to learn so much about the mind, thoughts and thinking.  It seems that there are always deeper depths to travail.

This week I picked up a book containing interviews with Father Thomas Keating who is known for teaching the practice of  “centering prayer”.  I opened it to a page where he said that the chief psychological defense mechanism is thinking too much! I had to laugh because I’ve been receiving that message all over the place lately!

Since 2007 I have been in what A Course in Miracles calls “a period of relinquishment”.  While I have learned much in the past four years during this period, I finally see that what it is we are to relinquish is the process of “thinking”.  It is thinking that keeps the belief in separation alive and well. 

The Course tells us that this period will “engender enormous conflict” if we think that we are giving up something valuable.  I can attest that this is true! I have experienced so much resistance through most of this period, until the past year where I have come into a greater degree of willingness.  What I am discovering is that in my willingness to give up the valueless (my thoughts), I am experiencing more peace and freedom.

“This is why I have asked you to lay down your own thoughts.  But I understand that before you choose to do so, you must come to see that which you think has value as being truly valueless.  And this is the case with your thoughts, for as long as you hold onto them and cherish them, you cannot see the truth that is before you now.  They are like a veil that hides the Light of Heaven from your sight.”  (NTI  Luke 10v25-37. 9-16)

          Actually, the process of doing the workbook of the Course trains us to become aware of the context of our thoughts and teaches us to let go of our thinking mind, but it is a process and a practice to learn the ins-and-outs of the thinking mind. 

           Through my work with the Course, I became aware when I was not at peace, and I knew what to practice to return my mind to peace.  But what started happening in 2007 is that I began to receive much inner guidance on those innocuous thoughts that we think all day long that we are mostly unaware of, nevertheless, they too, create our lives.

After years of vigilant spiritual practice I used to wonder why certain areas of my life continued to be a source of frustration and struggle.  I now realize that in those areas of frustration (and we all have at least one), we think thoughts that we listen to and believe and act on, but we don’t hear them or question them, and so we continue to stay stuck because we are caught in a loop of habitual thoughts.

“Let go of old habits and old ways of thinking.  They have not served you.  To hold onto the old is to create a future like the past.  That is not useful to you now.  Listen to My Word.  Hear what I say.  Practice it.  Then you will know what to do.”  (NTI Matthew 9vs14-17)

So, why should I let go of my thinking?  Well, to create a future different from the past I must allow for guidance in this moment, and I do this through the willingness to stop thinking for myself and instead, practice listening to the Voice of Truth.

I’ve found that these areas of frustration are usually those where we are most mesmerized by the world.  Maybe you’re mesmerized in regard to financial issues, or body stuff or relationships...  Within this hypnotism, we are totally unconscious of what we are thinking. 

I am reminded of that fabulous teaching from the Urtext of the Course that says that it is the unwatched mind that makes up the whole of the unconscious.  What we think of as “unconscious” is really just thoughts that we have not brought awareness to and so therefore, we are not available to choose again.

I find this to be the most exciting thing!  A simple practice of watching our thoughts can return us to the realization of our freedom!  It’s not a small Wow!

Another great reason to practice giving up thinking comes from “Single Quiet Thought" ~65~  (SQTs can be found at http://www.reginadawnakers.com)

What you think, you see.

What you see, you experience.

What you experience, you think. 

This is why reversal is needed.

Be willing to think apart from

what you experience,

and you think apart from fear.

You think apart from guilt.

You think apart from division.

In this way,

you think in alignment with truth,

and that which is not truth,

can be undone.

Let’s say that I think that I am being victimized, and so I see victimization, and then I experience victimizing circumstances, and then I think about being victimized, and then I see…

I think that I don’t have enough money, and then I see lack in the world or in my life or in someone else’s life, and then I experience lack and limitation, and then I think about lack, and then I see…

Do you see?

So, how do I let go of my thinking mind?

The second part of the SQT asks us to be willing to think apart from our experience.

          “To think apart from your experience and to think apart from the world is a request that is to be taken literally in all circumstances without exception.  This will seem to take practice, but as you practice, the increase in willingness will make the practice easier.”  (NTI 2 Corinthians 6v3-10.1-15)

           In this section of NTI we are then given a way to practice, which essentially says that when we are having an experience of suffering, let’s say, we can choose not to suffer.  Let the body do what the body does, but recognize that you can choose not to suffer and can rejoice that the experience of suffering is not the truth about you.

           Through practice, we begin to see that experiences are truly not real, because our experience changes as we change our mind.  We begin to see that, “Wow! I am not ever being victimized by a person, place or thing, I am only victimized by my thoughts!”

When we really get that we are victimized by our thoughts and perceptions, then we begin to heal.  I cannot be victimized by anything outside of me.  This is the truth, and it is a testament to the liberation and freedom that can be experienced now!

Lately, when my mind is engaged with thinking, Holy Spirit has been  prompting me to practice this:

Rest your mind.

Trust the healing process.

Be grateful for all that is.

            One day this week, early in the morning as I drove to the gym, I was caught up in thinking! I was thinking thoughts of grievance and resentment that I cannot even remember now, but in that moment, as much as I told myself to let them go, I just couldn’t seem to shake them. 

And then I stopped in my mind.  Before I share more with you, you may want to join me.  Perhaps today or right now, your mind is caught up in thinking and spinning on fantasy, let us take a moment to stop and rest. 

Spirit Within,

I see these thoughts of grievance and resentment

(insert your own).

And I am grateful that You have taught me how

to see them.

In this moment,

I am willing to rest my mind.

I am willing to trust the healing process.

I am willing to trust that I am being healed

even now.

I am willing, Holy Spirit,

to be truly grateful for all that is.

Thank You.

Thank You.

Thank You.

My mind returned to peace.  All those thoughts of grievance and resentment were gone.  But, when I tried to stop thinking those thoughts, I could not.

        What was I doing when I “tried” to stop thinking those thoughts?  I was thinking of how to stop thinking with my thinking mind, and it will not work.  In the moment that I was willing to stop and look at the thoughts, and then to rest, and trust and be grateful, then… the thoughts dissolved on their own.  This is such a simple and powerful practice.

            We have been trying to heal ourselves with the mind that thinks instead of letting go of our thinking so that we can hear the Voice for Healing.

A Course in Miracles does not discuss “thinking” in quite the same way, however, it does speak to us throughout about learning to listen to one of two voices. It speaks to us of “right-minded thinking”, which is listening to Holy Spirit the Voice for Love and union; and “wrong-minded thinking”, which is listening to the voice for separation, fear and lack and limitation.

I gave a talk on Sunday, 5/29/11 where I delved deeper into these ideas sharing teachings from NTI, SQTs and ACIM.  You can enjoy it here: