Honoring Thoughts II
The Universe has spent 13.7 billions years developing thoughts, and through thoughts have been able to express, manifest and explore itself in amazing new ways.
They, as everything else, are complete and perfect manifestations of God.
Thoughts are also a relatively new phenomenon in the evolution of the Universe and Earth. In the cosmic timescale, they just appeared. So it is to be expected that we are still figuring out how to use and relate to them in a way that supports life, and that we are often learning this the hard way.
When we believe in thoughts, we see that we create confusion and suffering for ourselves. And when we recognize them as tools, we can use them in much more effective ways - without (apparently) being enslaved by them. We are free to shift between different views, and see that each of them forms an overlay of abstractions over what is.
Again, in the cosmic timescale - and even in the context of human evolution - this temporary phase of believing and being caught up in thoughts, will most likely be very short. The conditions we have created for ourselves through collectively believing in thoughts is just one way we are nudging ourselves to shift into recognizing thoughts as mere tools.
Realizing all this brings up a deep appreciation for thoughts, and maybe some appropriate caution recognizing the danger (for our human selves) in believing in them.
It is interesting how putting thoughts down, as some teachers apparently do, either is a skillful means, or - if taken more seriously and as an absolute - itself is a belief in a thought.