Re: The first excercise

["Photon" <shadowphoton@...>]

LVX

Not all thoughts are provoked by our will. Maybe a memory will 
arise unbidden, unasked for. Maybe a good one, maybe a bad one. Or 
you associate one thing with another, thoughts comeing forth, one 
after another. Most peoples entire days are filled with nothing but 
this, a circle of thoughts, one thought, shaping from one thing to 
another.

Watch your mind, any sound, any idea, any music stuck in your 
head, even the thought, the idea "im watching my mind". Your a part 
of it all, but how much of that stuff did you Will into your mind? 
You have to relax your will and the grip/control you think you have 
of your mind. Try to dispell those things, all of them, and exist 
purely as one with the things around you, in the moment, or even one 
of them. Try just for a few moments, and youll see that you dont have 
has much of a grip/active role in your mind and thoughts as one would 
think. The song comes back, the imagery keeps going, the thoughts 
keep changing thier shape.

One you can see how you have less control than you think, the 
first step to control is the first step itself, which is to watch 
these thoughts. Dont tell them to do anything, dont stop them if they 
become unpleasant or boring, because those things in itself will 
bring more thoughts. The mind responds to emotional stimuli, and vice-
versa. In other words, you dont have to will anything because it will 
just happen, because already your thoughts have a 'will' of thier own 
until you get further in the exercizes and can begin to shape them 
and move them with your will.

Hope this helps.
LVX
Frater ha-sufah

--- In BardonPraxis@yahoogroups.com, "sineadoconnorfan" 
<sineadoconnorfan@y...> wrote:
> 
> But if anyone can give me a specific clarification of my problem 
> with the first excercise I would appreciate it. My problem is that 
> I don't see how we can have a train of thought without being 
> actively involved in imagining it, so then I don't understand how 
we 
> can be detached from a train of thought when a train of thought 
> requires active participation in imagining it. Thanks for your 
help.
> 
> Ardeshir