Should we observe our thoughts rather than judge them?
This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:
So, should we be observing thoughts rather than choosing our thoughts? Should we be, do we need to judge our thoughts? See, when we talk about choosing, it’s more based on what thoughts are helping us move ahead and what thoughts are stopping us from moving ahead. So, the idea is that the program that we have, even the unhealthy program that are there inside us, they serve a purpose at a particular time. So, for example, say somebody in their childhood was bitten by a dog.
And then from that time, that program was there inside, dogs can bite. They can be dangerous. Keep a safe distance from them.
Now, that is a protective program. However, not all dogs bite. Not all dogs are dangerous.
Now, right now, somebody might see a cute, cuddly little poodle and they might get alarmed by that. So, we don’t have to resent the program that is inside us. We understand that that served a particular purpose at a particular time.
But it is not serving us right now. It is not aiding us in our purpose right now. And that’s why I give the example of software.
On our phone, notifications may come up. Maybe we are very close to a particular person and we are following them on social media and whatever they did, whatever they did, some notifications come up, they went, they travelled here, put up this photo. Now, maybe then we are not that close to that person, we are not so much interested in following everything that they do.
So, when the notification comes up, okay, this person has put a new photo, this person has put a new post. Now, when that notification comes up, it pops up, we may decide that I don’t want to click on it and maximize it. I may decide that okay, I will read it later, I might not read it also.
So, when the notification comes up, what do we do? That’s up to us. So, in that sense, can we call it judging? Well, it is not judging in the sense that we are considering something morally bad. It is talking from a functional perspective, what is helpful and what is not helpful.
And from that perspective, we have many thoughts that keep coming inside us and which thoughts we need to pay attention to and which thoughts we don’t need to pay attention to. That’s something which we need to be considering. Otherwise, some thought pops up inside us and it completely takes over our consciousness and then we miss out on things that are important for us.
So, in that sense, choosing thoughts is not so much about judging them from the morality, but about analyzing them based on their functionality.