Who Is the You that Does Your Thinking? Part 1

“Hey! What’s going on?” You respond: “I’m just thinking.” Who is the ‘I’ in that statement? Who is the ‘you’ that does your thinking? How do you get to know the you that is thinking?

I remember overhearing a funny conversation when my wife and I were at our local flea market one Saturday. A guy walking behind us began veering away toward a group of couples (clearly friends) under a tree. He hollered to the group, “I’ve just had a very, very interesting conversation.” One of the gals hollered back, “Were you actually talking to another person?”

I laughed out loud and, noticing me, they all smiled and waved as they continued to laugh.

I think we all talk to ourselves. Sometimes out loud. Sometimes just in our heads. Which ‘you’ is doing the talking? The resentful you? The misunderstood you? The grateful you? The self-pitying you? The remorseful you?  The defensive you? Who are you talking to? Why?

I can’t speak for you, but these are all important questions for me to ask myself.  I have learned these questions are critical to my spiritual growth.

I opened my book with the Cherokee story of the two wolves – in reality the story of my two “minds.” [How the Bible Became the Bible, Infinity Publishing, 2007, p.1]

An elderly Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life.

He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves.

“One wolf is evil—he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, anxiety, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.

“The other wolf is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, faith, and laughter.

“This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.”

The children thought about it for a minute and then one grandchild asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee replied, “The one you feed.”

The Cherokee grandfather explains our minds as containing two wolves. The Apostle Paul describes this in his letter to the Romans. [Romans 7:14-20]  I know, for me, it surely seems that I often have two opposing minds living within my consciousness. But, of course, my ego lives in its perceived, but false, world of duality – the primary clue that I am perceiving my world from my ego.


I will continue this dialogue in the PART  2 post......

Don

#3 April, 2012