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rthomas6  ·  2443 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Source of Emotional Pain-- and How to Stop it

I agree with you, mostly. I believe that your mind is part of you. I even drew a Venn diagram in that blog post similar to your example, and have a section entitled "You Are not Your Arms". I do quote Tolle, though.

I think I reduced some of the wording in the interest of brevity to the point that it conveyed meaning I didn't intend. That sentence originally said "Perception of events often has nothing to do with reality." I tend to insert a lot of clarifying words, adverbs, etc. in my first drafts (like, a lot), and remove them to make it more direct and easier to read. So yeah, that was my bad.

I do not believe we have no control over our thoughts, but rather that it's harmful to equate our identity with our thoughts (our ego). This is the state in which we have no control over thoughts. I was trying to give ways to change thoughts to allow for self-growth and increased agency, not less. I believe the ability to be separate from and examine our own thoughts, and our ability to override our reactions and modify them over time, is one of the main things that makes us human. And I believe that the vast majority of emotional harm is self-harm, and that this is a pattern that can be overridden and un-learned. jadedog is pretty spot-on with what I believe.

Again, thanks for the feedback.