Exercise for Entering Now

Follow this pathway of logic by either writing or saying aloud the following concepts:

Pathway #1:

  1. The contents of my thoughts are all about past events. This means all my thoughts are memories of things that have happened but which are not happening now, except in the experience of mental memory.
  2. My thinking mind only thinks about the past. My mind is a constant review of memories of tremendous variety with no order.
  3. When I feel anxious about the future it is because I remember something painful that happened in the past which I am afraid may happen again.
  4. Fear is based in thinking which is always based in the past.
  5. There is no thinking that does not involve memories.
  6. I am a state of attention. I am that which places attention.
  7. I do not have to place my attention on the contents of my thoughts. I have the ability to not think.
  8. When someone or something hurts me it is because I am thinking about that person or thing in a way that did not include the whole truth of reality between us. This is because it is very difficult to have mental awareness of the whole truth about reality when I am placing my attention on memories rather than what is currently in front of me.
  9. I am good. ( This is not the same as the idea that I am a “good person.” I am good in the same way that fire, water, dirt, grass, flowers, sky, rain, and every natural occurrence under the sun are- Good. I am goodness. I am part of all that is and all that is, is good. I come from a state of good which has no opposite and which, in fact, enables and allows all other variations away from the state of good as a source of experience and revelation.)
  10. I am in a state of learning. The place where I exist is a place of experience which is a process of learning.
  11. When I experience pain or cause someone else to experience pain- I am still good. I am still part of all that is- which is always and forever- good.

Pathway #2

  1. I compulsively make some people and things special to me while other people and things are not given special significance in my life. My spouse (best friend, child, etc) is more important to me than my neighbor (co-worker, acquaintance, etc.) My wedding ring is more important to me than a ring in a store window. Both are just rings.
  2. The special connection I have to people and things only occurs because of thoughts I have assigned to that person or place or thing which I have not assigned to other people, places, or things.
  3. I imbibe all people, places, and things with meaning or meaninglessness with the way I think about them, the thoughts I tell myself.
  4. When I make someone or something special, I connect and attribute multiple layers of ideas about them which have a mixture of true observation as well as personal desires not based in actual reality.
  5. My ideas (descriptions) of people, places, and things are thoughts. Thoughts are always only past information, memories stored in my mind. Memories do not exist, do not have a realness in the moment I am currently in. Memories are not real. They are an illusion. Placing attention on memories is staring at something which is not real.
  6. When someone or something hurts me I am the only one empowering that person or thing to cause me pain because I am putting certain demands on them which they will not be able to sustain indefinitely. No conditions are sustained.
  7. Being pleased when someone or something gives me an experience that I like is connected to the inevitable experience of eventually becoming displeased when that experience does not happen.
  8. I can experience life from a state of peaceful curiosity outside of the fluctuations of pleasure and displeasure. I can find what happens in my day fascinating and useful information even as I observe pleasure and displeasure. I can be involved in the process of pleasure and displeasure without becoming consumed by them.

Pathway #3

  1. Thinking is dependent upon past events for all its content.
  2. Thinking is not a source for accurate information.
  3. I should not always believe what I think.
  4. Thinking is an ever changing ocean of mental ‘objects’ which come and go. It is not possible to organize the ocean. Nor is it necessary. My thoughts, like the ocean, can be arranged as it is. I will be fine.
  5. It is not possible to stop thinking at will in the same way it is not possible for my heart to stop pumping blood at will.
  6. I do not have to place my attention on the contents of my thoughts in the same way I do not have to place my attention on the constant pumping of blood through my body. I can allow thoughts and heartbeats to be automated without giving concern or scrutiny to those processes.