Watching the thinker

A slightly different approach to observing ourselves is contained in Eckhart Tolle's instructions on freeing ourselves from our mind. 


Most of us can relate to a voice that seems to be in our head (or several, if you're unlucky like me: I had a shitty committee in my head). At its worst it's something that Freud labelled the superego - a constant critical monologue. At best it may just be idle daydreaming, creating idealistic scenarios that we might be dropped into some time in the future. This voice is at its worst when it's critical but still pretty crippling when it's judging, complaining or comparing. At these times it separates us from reality. Worse still it keeps us detached from the present because it is always reviving the past or imagining the future.


This voice, however we label it, is a construct of our conditioned mind. It ensures that our view of the present is contaminated; it ceases to be real. It can then sometimes seem that the only role our present experience has is to increase the ammunition that the voice can call on to hobble us and keep us from the present moment.


The way to be free of the voice is to listen to it. Pay attention to what the voice is saying, especially where themes reappear. Avoid judgement at all costs - that's just the voice in a different guise - just be what Tolle calls a witnessing presence. The voice will quieten after a while and have less impact. And eventually you will become aware of something different, something new - that you are listening to this voice ... that you are "watching the thinker" and with that you will have an experience that comes from beyond the mind. You will have a degree of separation that will allow you to break free.