Taking A Thought To Its Root

Sepideh: Dear Sat, on a recent chat (4/14) You replied to Nilu regarding her question about thoughts popping out of nothingness. At the end, You say, “Once you realize over and over that any thought, if you have the strength to take it to the end and not be moved by it, it turns to nothingness, that is a huge way of starting not to identify with the emotions, the feelings and thoughts.” You have talked about taking thoughts to their root before, and I am wondering if You could elaborate on it and if You could give a practical example on how we take a thought to its roots?
Sat: There are two ways that are really the same. One is that you just don’t want to go with any thoughts, whether they are good or bad. If it is not an urgent, painful situation, and you are just in day to day [situation] - it is a passive gaze. When you are very conscious and you look and you see that there is a thought that says, “Sepideh, you need to do … ” or whatever it is … I don’t want to come up with a thought when I don’t have any (laughs). You acknowledge it, not by saying, “Oh I see you here.” But you see it, whether you want it or not, you see that and then you just look and then you see that poof, it becomes nothingness!
Now if there is another one (thought) that is urgent, in other words, it is repeated nagging, ahh… painful thought. In that case, you do look at it and if this does not work, then you have to question it, then you see it goes to silence.
If you zoom on a thought, you begin to go through the thought- that is following a thought to nothingness! So in either case when you zoom [in] on a thought, it goes through it and if it was something solid, you couldn’t go through it. Like I said, if it is a repeated and painful thought, then you question it. And then you come to the same place - nothingness! It is the conscious seeing [that is] the key!
Aida: My dear Sat, You just said “it goes through it,” do You mean the zooming in goes through the thought?
Sat: Yes, it goes through and beyond! I give you an example. You see fog behind the window, it makes you not see what is going on outside. And you feel, “Oh my gosh … look what happened outside … I can’t see anything at all.” Just think that it is the first time that you see it and you take it to be solid, right? But when you go outside and really zoom into it, you realize that you can put your hand through it and it is nothingness. It is nothing solid.
Sepideh: I guess that would be the part of the quote where You say “to look at it and not be moved by it.”
Sat says enthusiastically: Yes.
Sepideh: So in the way that you zoom, you shouldn’t be getting involved with it?
Sat: No, no, absolutely, absolutely. Otherwise, you are not doing anything except the ordinary thing of pain and ignorance.
Sepideh: My dear Sat, when You say question it, can You please elaborate on that?
Sat: Say there is a thought that comes that “you are not good enough … you are not good enough…’” and when you pay attention to it with interest, it gives you a hundred reasons why you are not good enough! You can’t stop it by just a conscious gaze without moving, which you should be able to if you had done enough practice. But say you cannot, then say, “Who is not good enough?” You turn to the thought and then, say, Sepideh says, “I guess I am not good enough.” Because you are doubting it now that you questioned the mind, even the thinker begins to doubt it. “I am not…” and then either after that say, “Who am I? Really who am I?,” which takes you to silence! Or when you say “I am,” then have a pierced look without moving. So, you can either have that type of passive, conscious gaze with the mind or you can have it with the thinker, if you question that mind! That is as clear as I can do it.

US Chat
Taking A Thought To Its Root
May 17, 2022