Do you ever actually know a person, place, or thing, or can you only know what you think about them?
How often do you look at someone or something without clothing them in a word or concept?
It’s often said that many of us rarely ever see people or things as they essentially are, all we see are the thoughts we associate with them.
Let’s explore the practical implications of this way of relating to the world. We’ll use relationships with people as an example.
When you first meet a person, why do you view them as someone you don’t know? What is commonly absent in relation to that person at first sight? You don’t have many thoughts about them yet, right? What happens as you start talking to them? The interaction begins to produce thoughts that are assigned to that person. It’s like having an empty file for them in your mind. The more you fill that file with information (thoughts) the more you believe you know them. It often starts with a name, then other ideas like age, hometown, profession, interests, etc. As you accumulate thoughts representing them, you believe you are getting to know them.
Can you see how you are ultimately relating to the thoughts you have about the person and not the person themself? When we THINK we know someone, really, we only know thoughts.
With this understanding, do you notice that when you think you have a problem with a person, essentially, it’s not the person, it’s your thoughts about them that you have a problem with? On the contrary, often, when you enjoy a person, it’s not the person you enjoy, you enjoy your thoughts about them. This is why if you ask ten people to describe you as a person, you will most likely get ten different responses. Which response is the absolute truth about you? Even your thoughts about yourself are not the absolute truth. Your thoughts, like theirs, represent one point of view…one perspective. No two people have the exact same point of view. We are all looking at the same things but from different viewpoints. Everyone is correct regarding the angle from which they view; however, we are all incorrect when we believe our single point of view accurately represents all points of view, the totality.
How do we experience the world beyond thoughts? What do you think? I would present this perspective, the mind is on the surface of apparent things, direct experience deals with the essence. What if we used thoughts consciously to curate an experience in relationships?
While simultaneously maintaining the awareness that whatever we THINK about another is not absolute truth about them. It’s only ONE perspective. In addition, using time as often as possible to be present, particularly with people, and develop the awareness of experiencing them directly without the barrier of thoughts.
I invite you to consider this…nothing is ever essentially what we THINK it is. There is no person that is ever what we THINK about them.
It’s our relationship with our thoughts that is reflected in our relationships with everyone, including ourselves. Truly, there is only one relationship. That is the Self relationship. There is only one Self. Reality is wholeness.
What you do to another, you do to yourself. What you think about another, you think about yourself. Beyond the surface of the many apparent separate people, resides a single essence. There is no separation between thoughts and things, mind and matter. They are two dimensions of experiencing the same ONE.
Peace & Selflove. Gratitude!