(More) Thinking about thinking

One of the most life-changing realizations you can have is “I don’t have to believe my thoughts…they are just thoughts!” Any story you have about yourself is not the same as the unfolding reality of what you are: the ongoing life of your senses, the tenderness of your heart, the consciousness that right now is seeing or hearing these words. Yet because our beliefs are continuously filtering and interpreting reality, we mistake our stories about ourselves and the world for reality itself. – Tara Brach, “A True Taste of Peace,” in Tricycle, Spring, 2020, reposted online 11.2.2021.

Any story you tell about yourself is just that, a story. It may be felt as “real” but such feeling does not qualify as being “true.”