We assign judgment, criticism, and evaluation to an event or a person and believe that our assessment of that event or person is “the way it is.” But what if we consider for a moment that most of the time, our perceptions about things are inaccurate? What if we spend time investigating our perception?
Have you ever thought about someone you met only to meet them at a later date and realize that you were wrong about who you thought they were? Or did someone you know gossip to you about someone and you later got to know them and they were nothing like what that other person told you?
How often do we pass judgment and never really question our own thinking? I’d say the answer to that is pretty often. More often than not, we believe what we think without a lot of investigation.
It’s actually pretty scary if you think about it.
If we walk around believing everything we think without question, particularly the not-so-pleasant self-doubting thoughts, it’s pretty hard to see any other viewpoint than our own. If we tell ourselves certain things about ourselves long enough, it may never even occur to us to question our own thinking.
This is where we cause our own suffering.
We become certain of our own thoughts.
It might be time to start investigating our perception. At Satsang House, we try to engage in practices that get us out of routines that cause us suffering.
So, here’s a little practice for today:
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Look at your perceptions and just smile to yourself
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Breath, look deeply into the nature of your perceptions and see if you can find the errors in them.
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For instance, that person you are thinking about has no desire to take money from you or harm you, but you are pretty convinced that they do.
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Notice if you are allowing yourself to be a victim of your false perceptions. If you are, you may find that allowing yourself to fall victim to these perceptions, causes your own internal suffering.
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Look deeply into the nature of your perceptions and see if you can detect what is false about them.
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Make a habit of stepping back from your own thinking (meditation would be my first recommendation!) and question your thoughts. Ask yourself, is it true? Did I just invent this?
JOIN US to begin your meditation journey….
