Keep Watch Over Our Thoughts
Thoughts are everything.
That sounds a little far-fetched, perhaps even presumptuous, right? How can thoughts be everything? There's health, relationships, financial & societal strife, environmental concerns. Things to do. Places to be. Actions to take. Thoughts might be a part of that, but certainly not everything.
Thoughts are everything.
Consider this: what does everyone want? To be happy, to love and be loved, to create, to touch, to be at peace and to live in peace.
Now let's consider this: if you are filled with happy thoughts, how do you feel? Happy. If you are imbued with loving thoughts, what do you feel? Love. If you are swimming in peaceful thoughts, what do you experience? Peace.
Finally the counter: if our thoughts are charged with anger or stress or sadness or anxiety or fear or shame or lack, then what's the experience? We all know, all too well, how those thoughts play out.
Thoughts are everything.
Which is why A Course in Miracles makes it very clear, "It is with your thoughts that we must work if your [experience in] the world is to be changed." Later in the workbook, "It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain."
Thoughts are everything.
And thus it behooves us, greatly, to keep watch over our thoughts. The moment we notice any thoughts that are not peaceful, not loving, not all-embracing, we've succeeded. Why? Because in that instant we've stepped out of the one suffering the thought. And into the awareness in which every thought arises.
That presence of conscious awareness is the source, the birthplace, of peace and love and joy.
And that is why keeping watch over our thoughts is a most helpful practice.