What Does the Tao Say about Ideas and Thoughts? | Reading Tao Te Ching with Eckhart Tolle

Somebody sent me a sticker to put on the car. I haven't put it on my car yet. A very wise sticker. I don't know where it originated. It says, you don't need to believe every thought you think. Now, Stephen Mitchell, fortunately does not exclusively use the masculine pronoun as it's done in most other translations. He, he, the master. He varies between she and he. So sometimes the master is seen as feminine, and sometimes the master is seen as masculine, which is a wonderful thing since the Tao has many qualities that are closely related to the feminine, the openness and so on. There are many images in the Tao Te Ching that are feminine images to point to the essential nature of the Tao. Not that the Tao itself is feminine, but to get a feeling for what Tao is. The Tao Te Ching uses feminine imagery. So here we have a little few lines about the master. The master keeps her mind always at one with the dao. That is what gives her her radiance. The dao is ungraspable. How can her mind be at one with it? Because she doesn't cling to ideas. The dao is dark and unfathomable. How can it make her radiant? Because she lets it. Since before time and space were the Tao is, it is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see. Let's look at it again and see. The master keeps her mind always at one with the dao. That is what gives her her radiance, keeps her mind at one with the dao. In the next line, it says, if it's ungraspable, how can her mind be at one with it? And it says, because she doesn't cling to ideas. Interesting. She doesn't cling to ideas. That reminds me of a famous Zen saying. I don't remember who said it, but Zen master said it, don't seek for the truth, just cease or stop cherishing opinions. That is, I believe, points to the same in a state of disidentification from thinking. She doesn't cling to ideas. Cling to it doesn't mean she doesn't have ideas. The master, but the master does not cling to ideas. And the Zen master, when he said, don't look for the truth, just stop cherishing opinions. He didn't say, stop having opinions. Just as Lao Tse does not say don't have ideas, says, don't cling to ideas. And the other master says, stop cherishing opinions. So this clinging, which is the same as cherishing, is self identification. With thoughts that arise. In other words, you then believe completely in every thought that comes into your head. Amazing. You believe in it. That means you are it. That is self identification with thinking. So how then to be at one, always at one with the Tao? So simple. On the one hand, you could call it stop cherishing opinions. Now, any thought that arises ultimately is an opinion. You could say, stop cherishing, stop your self identification with that. Or don't cling to ideas in the words of Lao Tse or this present translation here. So that there's always a space between you and your thoughts. Or rather, you are not the thought, you are the space for the thought. This is how I put it. Sometimes you're familiar with that, and perhaps in yourself, you know it. You don't have to be in your thoughts, but you can be the space for your thoughts. Then no matter how weird your thoughts are, it doesn't matter that much. You don't say, oh my God, I shouldn't be having these weird thoughts. No, because that's another thought. I'm supposed to be spiritually advanced and why am I still having these thoughts? There must be something wrong with me. Does that sound familiar? That's also thoughts. That's more thoughts that say, I shouldn't be having these thoughts, there's something wrong with me. And then you believe in those thoughts, thoughts that judge other thoughts that may sound familiar to some of you. And there's nothing personal in it. It's the human mind. So you don't need to eliminate thoughts or to say, I should only have pure thoughts because I'm a spiritual person, because by now I should have transcended all impure thoughts. Well, then you're in a dilemma. Because in this world of polarities, if you only want to have pure thoughts, you're creating the other polarity in the unseen. And sooner or later the other polarity will come up from behind, creep up. This has been done sometimes by Christians who try to practice the teachings of Christ without entering the state of consciousness out of which that comes. So they try to be pure and spiritual and good Christians and denied the other polarity, repressed it, and then suddenly they get overpowered by something deeply destructive and negative. So you have this occasion, you have a nice, wonderful person who always talks in spiritual, just soul and spiritual, and before you know it, he's screaming at his wife or even hitting his wife. Where did that come from? And he can't even admit to himself that this is what's happening. So if you push away certain thoughts because they do not fit into the mental image of who you are as this or that. Then they assume a life of their own, and before you know it, they invade your mind again, if only in your dreams. And suddenly you have dreadful nightmares. During a day you are such a spiritual person, and at night you suddenly have dreadful nightmares. Monsters come or you become a monster. Oh my God, this shouldn't be happening. And that's because you're pushing something away. The true spiritual does not lie in one thought or another thought. It lies in being there as the space for your thoughts. Then it doesn't matter anymore, really. Whatever thought arises is no more than that. It's a form that arises at this moment. You don't resist it. You don't need to resist it, but you are the space for it. You don't become it. Somebody sent me a sticker to put on the car. I haven't put it on my car yet. A very wise sticker. I don't know where it originated. It says you don't need to believe every thought you think. So this is the practice then, of course, being the space or the witness for your thoughts rather than being the thought. And you can practice with your opinions. Many thoughts. Actual, most thoughts can. All thoughts could be called opinions. But there are certain things that are definitely clearly recognizable as opinions. When you are talking to people every day, when you're having a discussion or talk with friends or colleagues or neighbors. So they will express their opinion, whatever it may be about. And you may express your opinion. And you can then observe whether or not there is self identification with your opinion. And your opinion, of course, is a mental position, the position of the mind. Are you identified with a mental position? If you are, then you are cherishing opinions in the words of the Zen master, or you are clinging to ideas in the words of Lao Tse. And how do you know that? You know that when, as you discuss things, you become either defensive or aggressive in the expression of your opinion. Emotion flows into. And you get worked up in why is that happening? Why are you becoming defensive or aggressive? And of course, you have to look inside yourself to see whether this is the case or not. Are you becoming defensive or aggressive? You feel the influx of emotion. And why is this happening? Because unconsciously you feel threatened by somebody who attacks or questions or contradicts your mental position. Why do you feel threatened by somebody who questions your mental position? That is a sign that you had identified with a mental position. And identified means your sense of self was in it. So the person is not attacking your opinion, in your unconscious viewpoint, the person you're being attacked in, your very life is under attack because you identified this. This is not true, but this is how it is perceived. As if they were attacking your very existence because you identified with a mental position. There was a self in it. So anybody who questions it, questions your very existence. It's unconscious process. So that's an amazing thing to realize in yourself. And it's a deep seated unconscious pattern in most human beings. And of course, as you become conscious of that, you can usually see it much more clearly in others, more easily in your friend or whoever you're having, than in yourself, usually saying, oh, yes, that's what he always does. Of course, now I understand what my husband or my wife does. I understand completely. That's step one. It.