Awareness Behind Thought
You are not your thoughts but the awareness behind them. The little space which oversees them, guiding them in certain directions.
“Here lies a transcendence of thought, a newfound ability of rising above thought, the realising of a dimension within yourself infinitely more vast than thought. You then no longer derive your identity, your sense of who you are, from the incessant stream of thinking that is the old consciousness you take to be yourself. What a liberation to realise that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that. The awareness that is prior to thought, the space in which the thought- or the emotion or sense perception- happens.” A New Earth, Eckhart Toll
It is a strange sensation to realise we are not the thoughts we always perceived ourselves to be. It is kind of a lessening of the self yet an expansion into unconscious territory which is hidden within deeper dimensions of yourself. Perceptions are altered when we grasp this ruling of one’s mind, if you are the awareness which oversees, you are the awareness in control. This gap behind thought, a space between stimulus and response, holds the power to determine all responses. Before you were the thoughts, emotions and reactions; now you are the awareness, the conscious presence that witnesses those states. You respond, not react, because an awareness allows a stillness behind each thought, where the thought can be manipulated to meet the best criteria. To not jump to the first impulsive conclusion but invoke a brief moment to truly analyse thought. The vision of thought as separate, the knowing that thought makes mistakes, the understanding that we determine our response in every situation.
To grasp this gap, separate your thoughts from being who you identify yourself to be. Instead notice the viewing of each thought, the thought laid out in front with you overbearing it from behind. This represents awareness, the true being behind thought. From this state you can analyse and direct thought. It is the realisation that you determine whether you want to think one way or another, thought is an object of your being not the foundation, it can be altered to be an asset or liability depending on your control over it. When we identify with thought we become engulfed by it, something that sets illusions as much as we speak words. When we see thought through the sight of a deeper awareness, a deeper dimension within oneself, we become the ruler of it and it lay like a gadget equipped by our side. You are not your thoughts, you the awareness which lay behind them.
