Thoughts are not real, Part II
“As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.” — Lao Tzu
So I’m sitting in a little café called El Gato Feo. For those who know Spanish, please know it’s only a joke. There’s no such thing as an ugly cat.
Just like there’s no such thing as an ugly reality. There’s only a made-up reality (the Course calls it an illusion) that we created out of old encrusted beliefs. We live in a world that reveres limitations, that preaches scarcity, a world that has completely lost touch with its natural aliveness.
I find that when I simply observe my thoughts, as opposed to my old M.O. of building monuments to their glory (NOT), this love/peace/joy reality is as clear as the glass of water sitting next to my cappuccino and lemon cake here at the cafe.
It is only our thoughts and misguided beliefs that “produce” what we might call an “ugly reality.” In the timelessness of now, there’s only love.
Our minds rarely step down from their bandstand, telling us we need to plan, insisting we need to figure things out.
But as I’m happily discovering, I don’t need to think nearly as much as I thought I did. Things work out quite magically when I don’t get lost in repetitive thought loops.
I think I wrote about this in one of my books. But miracles stories like this bear repeating.
The key to a motorcycle I was driving in Hydra, Greece floated out of my jean shorts pocket into–not a hot tub, not a swimming pool– but into a big giant ocean. Needless to say, my mind tried to throw a hissy fit —You idiot! You just lost the key to your only mode of transportation in an impossibly large body of water.
I won’t say I celebrated this faux pas, but I also didn’t freak out. I mean, I was sitting on a spectacularly stunning beach in Greece. The sky was clear, the water bluer than Paul Newman’s eyes. I might have missed all that if I let my thoughts have the podium. I thanked them for sharing and let them drift away just like that motorcycle key.
When it was time to leave, I simply walked back into the ocean, looked down and, yes, there on the ocean floor was my motorcycle key, waiting for me to retrieve.
This, my friends, is reality when we let life work for us. When we, as Lao Tzu says, make a thought and then laugh at it.
Sure, my mind occasionally comes in handy, but I much prefer to use it sparingly, on a need-to-know basis.
#222 Forever!
Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).
