If You Are Not Your Thoughts, Then Who Are You?
“Realising that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.” —Eckhart Tolle
I remember the day I really GOT the idea that I am not my thoughts. I was at a meditation workshop in Newport Beach, California, and there was something about the way that the teacher explained it that just landed with me - more than any of the books I had read up to that point.
My mind was blown.
Realising you are not your thoughts is a life-changing discovery, a pivotal moment in every person’s spiritual journey.
Here is an excerpt from Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now as quoted by Richard Paterson in his blog, the source of this post:
“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly — you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.”
The notion that you are not your thoughts is a radical one. It goes against everything we have been conditioned to believe all our lives.
Everything in your experience would suggest otherwise. Your thoughts appear in your head. They are known only to you. They speak in your voice. How could they not be who you are?
If You Are not Your Thoughts, Who Is The One Watching?
When you learn to meditate, the first thing you learn is to take a step back and watch the mind objectively—with an attitude of curiosity. You become aware that, “there is the mind doing it’s thing and here am I, watching.”
One of the first things you notice is that thoughts are self-arising. They appear by themselves, apparently out of nowhere, linger in your awareness for a moment or two and then disappear again— like clouds passing across the sky.
You have no idea what the next thought will be. You could say they are impersonal, in that you play no part in their appearance and disappearance. The mind has a mind of its own.
Just as clouds of all shapes and sizes float across the unchanging sky, all kinds of thoughts come and go against the backdrop of your unchanging awareness.
Happy thoughts appear, sad thoughts appear but awareness itself doesn’t change. Thoughts are many, awareness is one. It has no beginning or end. It has no preferences and remains unaffected by whatever thoughts pass through.
The ‘you’ you take yourself to be today is very different from the 10 year-old, 20 year-old or 40 year-old you. And yet, the awareness that is aware of thoughts (feelings and emotions too) hasn’t changed one bit. In spiritual parlance, it is immutable, immaculate, eternal.
Some traditions say that who you really are existed before the appearance of this body and will continue to exist long after it is gone—that the body is a garment you wear for this lifetime and thoughts are part of the package that comes with it.
“When you observe the mind, you begin to realise there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realise that all the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.” Eckhart Tolle
This can be a tricky one to get your head around, so as always, please reach out to me with any questions or thoughts on this article or mindfulness in general. With gratitude to Richard Paterson whose blog post I have used extensively in mine. Check it out for a great recorded meditation (7 minutes long) titled “Who are you without your thoughts”.
With metta and deep breaths
Nicci
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