When someone asks you “How are you?” where do you look to find the answer? Most of us refer to the moving stream of thoughts inside us to ascertain how we are. However, this ever-changing current of thought isn’t WHO we are and doesn’t have to define HOW we are either.

How Do You Know How You Are?

“Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe.” Buddha

These lives we live are like swiftly moving rivers, with thoughts, moods, feelings, perceptions, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, judgments, memories, expectations, and realizations swept along in the current of the river of life. When someone asks us “How are you?” we tend to scan the moving river inside and then describe the particles that are moving through at the moment, which often includes some residue of the past we are chewing on.

If we laser our attention on any of these transient “particles” of experience, then that particle begins to emerge from formlessness and solidify. In other words, it starts to feel more real.

If we decline to do that, if we don’t single out, label and describe any of the floating particles of thoughts or feelings, then the river just keeps flowing through us and out, with all of its ever-changing contents.

Labeling Brings The Formless Into Form

If I answer the “How are you?” question with the socially acceptable report on the current obsessions of my mind and say, “Well, I’m feeling (fill in the blank) today,” I’ve noticed I’m more likely to believe in that feeling state and then be stuck with it for awhile, which seriously affects my daily peace and wellbeing.

For example, if I say, “I feel lonely,” then for the rest of the day (or until I wake up from the trance I’ve just put myself into) I may FEEL lonely, watch too much TV, not open to my inner guidance, avoid calling a friend, eat too much, etc.

Ever notice how much more solid a negative feeling becomes when you state it to someone? Just becoming more aware of this will make you much less inclined to talk about any “state” that you think you’re in. If we decline to believe that anything that is passing through us has any kind of substantial reality, then it doesn’t.

In practicing this, I’m finding longer periods of daily peace and wellbeing!

The other day I found myself in the middle of a worry zone after latching on to a passing thought that would have otherwise just kept moving through me. After an hour or so of fretting, I asked inside for inner guidance. This is what I heard:

“This is all going on in your mind. This is only about the thoughts you are thinking. That is the only place your suffering exists – in the passing thoughts you choose to grab on to. You don't have to do this.”

I came back to the present moment. I focused on being in my body and just breathing. I watched my breath come in and go out. I felt the Life Force that animates my body – the Life Force that I am and that we are.

As I rested in the energy of (what I call) God, I began to notice places inside that felt tight and pulled away from love or God. My mind quickly jumped in to label the sensation as “fear.” The mind can be so relentless in this habit of labeling and categorizing!

Letting Go

And then I felt compassion for this part of my mind. I saw that it is just an aspect of myself that is trying to take care of me in the only way it knows how. I thanked it for its intentions. Then once again I just let go of all the “particles” of thoughts and feelings moving through me – all part of the passing show in the river of life. We don’t have to grab onto (and be stuck with) any of them. We don’t have to define ourselves by what is merely passing through us.

Suffering is optional!

May every atom of your being know that you are loved, exactly as you are in this moment and all moments.

May You Receive the Radiant Light of Your Own Heart, Love and Being.

Kai Hu
WellBeingAlignment.com

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