Eric Bishop's Webpage
Thoughts are mostly comprised of involuntary reproductions of harmful attitudes that have been conditioned in us by external influences throughout our lives. They have an evolutionary purpose in the sense that anxious thoughts may help us perceive real danger in the world, and motivate us to avoid it, but most of what we perceive as dangerous is in reality completely harmless.
Your present condition is being plagued by useless anxious thoughts, ambitious thoughts, possessive thoughts – thoughts that cause you constant suffering. What purpose do they really serve you? The more useless thoughts you notice and proceed to drop in a calm manner, the closer you inch towards freedom. Don’t let any thought get past your internal awareness from now on.
Any thought, unless it is purely practical, is useless; you should be constantly vigilant about noting, “that is a useless thought”, whenever one appears. If you notice a useless thought and label it as such immediately, follow up by just letting go of it. Having guilt because you had a thought that doesn’t fit the positive image you have of yourself is just as useless as the original judgmental or hateful thought was.
Our thoughts when we are feeling irritated or having a bad day often show us we aren’t as nice and relaxed as we want everyone to think we are, you can either look at these negative feelings analytically or head down the useless path of self guilt and perpetuating the negative attitude you’ve been taught to cultivate towards life.
How heavily have you considered the notion that you are not inherently your thoughts? That you need not identify with your present way of thinking? Nothing frees you more than knowing there’s a path to freedom. Briefly notice the space between your thoughts and your awareness.
Facts about useless thinking can change your life & my life, only if we let them:
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Any anxious thought is useless.
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Any self deprecating, guilt-ridden thought is useless.
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Any malicious, judgmental, angry thought towards another human being is useless.
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All anxious thoughts regarding other humans are useless and possessive.
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Any regretful thought about the past, or thought about how good things once were (nostalgia), is useless.
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Any thought about how something you expect to happen; any hope that something in the future will bring you happiness is a useless thought.
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Outside of practical things for your health and basic needs as a human, any aspiration for things in the physical world are useless. This is not to say you can not naturally strive for success or expect your lot in life, but that is a tangential topic. You won’t gain any true happiness from what you’re seeking, and you’re setting yourself up for the disappointment of realizing that no material thing can bring you lasting security.
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Anger is a pure waste of energy and people are fooled into stepping into situations where they will be induced to feel anger (example: looking at social media or politics). Being angry as an adult is utterly useless but unfortunately many of us learned as children that we could sometimes get what we want by displaying anger, thus it’s a completely childish emotion, and you should have the same degree of patience with angry people as you would a child. People feel their anger is righteous and that they’d cease to exist without it.