The Problem Isn't What You Think

I mean this literally. Your problem, whatever it seems to be, is not the result of your thinking….no matter what the latest guru tells you or sells you. In fact, your thinking has but one purpose and that is to keep you away from the real problem. The problem isn’t what we think. The problem is that we think we can think.

Like perceiving, thinking is a way for us to categorize, classify and analyze a world that our brains are made to experience. Thinking, just like perceiving, simply reinforces where we “think” the problem is and keeps us focused where the solution isn’t.

At some point, our faith in our thinking wanes. Sure, positive thinking helped us land that new job, but what about the 401k or the war? At some point, the law of attraction fails us. (Did we ever really believe that the universe was a great catalog?) The universe is a defense, plain and simple. The world is a defense, plain and simple. Both seemingly engage our senses and our “thought” with relentless authority. Both scream, “The problem is here! The problem is here!” The problem is that we “think” we only have ears to hear this insanity. Perhaps, even closer to the problem, we only want ears to hear this insanity.

We do always get what we want. The law of attraction does work. The problem is that we have no idea what we’ve really wished for. We have no idea what we have really attracted. We have no idea that our magical thinking has only reinforced the lack in our experience. We have no idea that that our magical thinking has merely reinforced the judgment and the guilt that are the heart of our only problem.

The problem isn’t what you think, but thinking has surely obfuscated the problem.