Honoring Thoughts

Thoughts are the product of 13.7 billion years of evolution.

Thoughts are another way for God (Existence, Buddha Mind) to experience and express itself.

Thoughts are a phase of the evolution of the Universe, expressed now through (at least) human beings.

Thoughts are invaluable tools for existence to explore itself, especially when they are see as just that, tools for exploration. Each thought is a tool of limited and temporary value.

Thoughts is a way of creating suffering when they are believed in, although this is a temporary phase of evolution (most likely very short lived in the big scale), and this too is a way for God to explore and express itself.

Thoughts are no less (or more) sacred than any other expression of God.

In more integral approaches, thoughts are recognized as a part of God and our being, adding to the overall richness and wonder of Existence. And they are still very new in the evolution of humans. For humanity as a whole, and for most individuals, they still represent the leading edge of evolution and development. And this is wonderful. Through thoughts, and everything that has come from thoughts (culture, technology, hierarchy, war, etc.) Existence is able to explore and experience itself in an immensely richer way.

The next phase for humanity as a whole and for many individuals, is to also recognize ourselves as pure awareness, inherently nondual and accepting of anything arising. When we come to this "ground" of our being, thoughts are revealed as tools.

When we (exclusively) identify with and believe in thoughts, when we take them as gospel truth, they are a way for us to create drama and suffering in our lives. And this seems to be a natural "shadow" side of the evolution of thoughts. It is a new tool, and we need time to figure out how to use it. We need to mature into it.

I notice how I often want to speak up on behalf of Existence, and in defense of what is often dismissed or seen as undesirable. And this includes thoughts, as they are sometimes are (apparently) stepmotherly treated in some traditions and by some teachers.

But they too are part of being, they too are part of Existence. They are still within the leading edge of evolution, of the current way Existence explores itself, through the Earth.

We can discern between how thoughts become a temporary "trap" (when we exclusively identify with and believe them), and how they become an invaluable tool (when we awaken as awareness).

Of course, then are invaluable tools in any case, it is just that in one case they bring suffering, and in the other they don't. That's all.