Noisy Mind

The solution to all stress and tension is a mind that is made aware of itself as being the producer of that stress and tension. Stress and tension are products of an unaware, unawake mind wrestling with its own contents to free itself from struggle. Relief from that tension is not to struggle with more things or to become stronger than what stresses you, but to recognize the relationship between how you are involved in your own mind because of that...

In this question and answer session, Guy explains that not wanting to see something about ourselves actually attaches us to the very thing that we say we don't want. So the task is not to change what we see. Instead, the task is to observe ourselves so that we can be changed by the very awareness that is observing.

Real reactions are wordless, soundless, and even without familiar content. They are just the expression of something timeless touching something in time. The mind talks to itself in order to define these reactions for its own purposes, using its own past content in a vain attempt to reconcile the moment. The true reconciliation of any reaction is built into the very moment of the appearance of it...

From this day forward, be a careful observer of the moving pictures in your own mind. Learn to watch all the various scenes without casting yourself as any of the players on the screen. Remember, nothing you see in that darkened theater is who you really are.

Topics covered:  Along with resistance to an unwanted moment comes the explanation about what the moment is all about; The first reaction to an unwanted moment does not have a name. It is a natural instant of something active acting upon something that is passive. The second reaction comes when the mind gives a name to the moment; There cannot be a perceived threat without something from the past naming and explaining what the moment means.

Topic: How to Cultivate a Quiet Mind (Classroom Talk 3/15/23)

Topics covered: The mind names the moment, resists the very moment that it has named, and then tries to save itself from what it is resisting; The mind endlessly talks to itself about what it must do to restore the peace that it believes it possessed before it was disturbed by life; According to the comparative mind, being complete demands that others see us that way.

Classroom Talk: 3/15/2023 - Here's one of the reasons the mind won't stop its incessant chattering: we've become so identified with being in the company of all the (familiar) voices in our head, we actually fear their silence means that, somehow, we've been left alone, or forsaken.