Dear Rupert,
Let me first thank you all for making this service available. This question may have already been addressed in a previous post and I just missed it, but it seems like most questions have been about the past. I think one of the things that makes most of us think that our thoughts are real and personal is that we can tell what happens in the future (most of the time).
For example, I have a thought about what I’m going to say or do, whether it be five minutes from now or days from now. It then comes to fruition and it appears that our plans have had an impact on the future. Planning for the future using the mind seems to be effective. Of course, there is never a guarantee that what is imagined will actually happen, but it appears to in a lot of cases, thereby reinforcing our false belief that we are our mind.
So if thoughts are merely the firing of neurons, happening based on past experience, does that mean we are all prophets to a point? Can we foretell the future (at least in cases where thoughts do come true)?
Peace,
Trey
Dear Trey,
Trey: I think one of the things that makes most of us think that our thoughts are real and personal is that we can tell what happens in the future (most of the time).
Rupert: It is not necessary for our thoughts to bear fruit in the future for us to know whether or not they are real and personal. In fact, it is only in the present, when the thought is occurring, that we can know its qualities. During the presence of the thought, its future has not yet appeared and therefore has no bearing on whether or not it is real or personal.
Go now to the current thought. Already it is gone. However, whatever that thought was made of is still present now, taking shape as thisthought, and now as this sensation, and now…and now…and now…as this and this and this.
So there is a reality to every thought, but this reality outlives the particular shape of the thought. The particular shape of every thought is limited (personal), but the substance out of which it is made is real. Every image on a screen is limited objectively (as image) but is real as the screen. The screen is the reality of all images just as presence is the reality of all appearances.
Thoughts are real, but their reality lies with presence.
For example, I have a thought about what I’m going to say or do, whether it be five minutes from now or days from now. It then comes to fruition and it appears that our plans have had an impact on the future. Planning for the future using the mind seems to be effective. Of course, there is never a guarantee that what is imagined will actually happen, but it appears to in a lot of cases, thereby reinforcing our false belief that we are our mind.
Really? Do you know what you will be thinking and feeling in five seconds, five minutes, five hours, five days from now? What if the phone were to ring in two seconds? Every moment of your subsequent life would be changed by that occurrence, just as every moment of your subsequent life is being changed by these words.
See that clearly and you will see that the argument you use to validate the apparent reality of a personal thinker or controller is precisely the argument that destroys it!
And just in case this isn’t clear, choose now to have only happy thoughts for the rest of your life. If it works, your point of view is true.
So if thoughts are merely the firing of neurons, happening based on past experience, does that mean we are all prophets to a point? Can we foretell the future (at least in cases where thoughts do come true)?
I would describe a prophet using Wordsworth’s words: ‘trailing clouds of glory do we [they] come from God which is our [their] home’. That is, any thought, sensation or perception which comes, unmediated by the belief or feeling of separation, straight from the heart of God, pregnant and potent with its origin, can truly be said to announce its source and substance.
With love,
Rupert
