Echoed from Sage’s Second Cup blog:
I don’t feel like coming up with a clever title for this, so here’s the date. Happy Wednesday. Cheers.
Today started with my usual cup of coffee, and while scrolling I went on a tangent about Taoist vs Buddhist meditation styles.
A long time ago in a psychology class far away (back in the late twentieth century) we all took a mini version of the Myers-Briggs type indicator , not unlike the quizzes you can find online now. Turns out I’m an INTP.
The MBTI may not have any real use in clinical psychology. As someone said, it has become the new “what is your (astrology) sign.” I like my type. I think they kind of nailed it. In true INTP style, this morning I was thinking about thinking and it’s role in meditation. The part of me that is feeling a little tired this morning and is reaching for a second cup of coffee wound up thinking that just being a head in a jar Futurama style wouldn’t be a bad gig if you could get it.
But then I saw the shadow of the back yard trees in the morning sun on the curtains and remembered something Neil DeGrasse Tyson said about NOT wanting to be a head in a jar because he wanted to feel and experience, not just think.
He’s right. Without connecting to physical life … or at least connecting other heads in other jars as we do online … we’d run out of stuff to think about. Or at least the good stuff to think about.
Which kind of circles right back around to meditation. mindfulness, the present moment, and letting thoughts go.
Letting thoughts go means letting go of the thoughts about not thinking.
Right now I’m remembering a post on social media (I can’t for the life of me remember when or where I scrolled her feed) A lovely older lady was talking about a stressful time in life as a single mother. I kind of think she’s a modern day Buddha for coming up with “sit and stare time” as a way to cope.
She described the epiphany of just letting herself have a few minutes each morning to just sit, stare, and do nothing. Coffee was involved. Here’s to you oh kindred spirit whoever you are, wherever you are.
The problem isn’t necessarily the thinking part. Go ahead. Sit and stare. Think away if you want to.
Grinding away and getting emotionally caught up in OVER thinking any one thing that hasn’t happened yet or something that is over and done and not of this moment – that kind of thinking is a problem. THAT is some shit to let go.
Outside of that, though, so what if we sit and think a little or just sit and feel a little or just sit and do absofucking nothing? So what if we don’t think about letting go of our thoughts? What if we just sit and sip and abide with whatever bubbles up out of our brain and let it be what it naturally is? Thinking and feeling is not a bad thing for a brain and body to do.
Of the uncountable molecules in an infinite universe, each brainwave, each emotion, each experience, each moment is the cosmic privilege of a lifetime.
No wonder we hold on to thoughts so tight.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 