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Transferring the previous dynamic blog articles, because I don't want to spend money anymore, so I closed it.
To get straight to the point, there are a few points that have touched me the most:
1. Reinterpreting "conscious" and "unconscious".
Many times I thought I was conscious, but I was actually wandering with my thoughts. When I'm unhappy, I just let myself be unhappy and identify with my pain and unhappiness. I used to firmly believe that all pain is a part of me, and if I abandon this pain, I am abandoning a part of myself from the past. But because of this, I cannot free myself from the pain.
2. Reinterpreting "past" and "future".
Continuing from the previous point, however, this past does not exist. Only the present exists, the past is the present of the past, and the future is the present of the future.
3. Using my own consciousness to prevent unconscious thinking.
I have many thoughts in my mind all the time, whether it's reminiscing about the past or worrying about the future, all kinds of mental dramas, to the point where it becomes compulsive thinking—I can't even stop myself. "I can't stop thinking, I am naturally a thinker," "the more I use my brain, the sharper it becomes," and other statements have made me highly identify with "thinking".
But the book mentions another perspective: "Your brain is just a tool. It is used to handle specific tasks, and when the task is completed, you let it rest." Not all thinking is beneficial, as someone who often engages in compulsive and unconscious thinking, I am deeply affected by it, this kind of thinking is a drain, a loss of energy for me. Therefore, I have decided to prevent this kind of thinking as the book suggests.
This state of drain is similar to anxiety, where there are thousands of things I want to do or should do in my mind, but I can't focus my attention on the things I can complete in the present moment.
How should I do it? When I realize that I am lost in random thoughts, I need to immediately interrupt it. There is no need to physically interrupt, just observe what I am thinking. If I were to express it in words, I would say that there is a little person in my mind who always wants to assert her existence, so she often creates some dramatic scenes, constantly thinking, triggering emotions such as fear, anxiety, joy, etc. to get my attention. But I have things I need to do, and she always interrupts me. At this point, I focus on observing what she is doing, not thinking in her way, but observing her. Often, she will quiet down.
I will put some excerpts from the book here for constant review. I will definitely read this book repeatedly, along with "The Secret".
- One of the main tasks of thinking is to resist or eliminate emotional pain, which is why there is so much thinking activity. However, thinking can only temporarily cover up the pain. In fact, the more thinking tries to escape this pain, the deeper the pain becomes. Thinking will never find a solution, it will not help you find a solution, because it is part of the problem itself. (It's like being both the person involved and the judge)
- Put the focus of your life completely on the present moment, change the practice of lingering in and briefly visiting the present moment in time, and focus on the present moment, only briefly reviewing the past and looking forward to the future when necessary.
- When you identify with thinking, you fall into the trap of time: you will involuntarily live completely in memories of the past and expectations of the future. Your thoughts will be completely occupied by the past and the future, and you will be unwilling to accept the present moment and allow it to exist. The past can give you an identity, and the future represents the hope of liberation or any form of satisfaction, so you compulsively identify with them, but in fact, both are illusions.
- If what you are doing does not bring you joy, ease, and relaxation, it does not mean that you need to change what you are doing, what you need to change is the way you do things. (It's a bit like Stoic philosophy, great thoughts are indeed interconnected)
- Whenever you realize that you are not focusing your attention on the present moment, you have already entered the present moment.
- Do you have things that you should do but haven't done yet? If so, start doing them now. Or, fully accept your current negativity, laziness, or passivity, if that's your choice. Enjoy it fully, be as lazy as possible. If you fully enter this state and become conscious, you will soon break free from this state.
- This does not mean that you don't need to appreciate and enjoy happy or beautiful things or situations anymore, but it means not to seek something from them that they cannot give—identity, eternity, and a sense of satisfaction, which are the causes of frustration and pain. If people become enlightened and no longer seek their identity through things, the entire advertising industry and consumer society will collapse. The more you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you. External things will never satisfy your needs forever, they will only temporarily and superficially satisfy you.