Yesterday, we undertook an exercise to investigate the content of our thought life.
The results usually speak for themselves. Obvious examples of ego thinking are thoughts about:
- Money, sex, power, prestige, comfort, thrills, appearance
- What you think of me (pride), what I think of me (self-esteem), how others treat me or behave in general (personal relations, sex relations), my income, expenses, assets, and liabilities (pocketbooks), my needs (security), my wants (ambitions)
- Fears, resentments, grievances, guilts, shames, plights, gripes, worries, fretting, excitement, plotting, planning, scheming, replaying, pre-playing
- The past, the future, others generally
- Any other unconstructive, stony, or fraught preoccupation
The objective is to move towards thoughts being focused on or absorbed in the task at hand, the situation at hand, the topic under discussion, etc., totally present, attentive, disinterested but not uninterested, neutrally receiving incoming input and then considering and deploying one's own constructive contribution, looking to the past only to audit and looking to the future only to plan, in both cases, sparingly.
If in doubt about the nature of an item, ask: 'Was I thinking about results, about how something was going to affect me, or about my constructive contribution to the situation, present, and appreciative.'
Go slowly, rest in God often, claim the power to work miracles in the lives of people, do everything in order, go slowly from task to task, rest and pray between duties. (Don P)