Train Brain

As I was reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, recommended by a great friend, I had this aha! moment where something inside me clicked making sense. I am reading the book slowly, taking it all in, digesting. This is truly one of the best books I have read, so profound, thought provoking, and inspirational. The book inspires me to apply these concepts to my own life.

Tolle says that we are not our mind, thoughts, and emotions. We can be the observer of these aspects of ourselves, which creates a gap where we can see the essence of who we are, vast and whole. After I read this section, I sat for a long while observing my thoughts as they went around and around. Some people say as they observe their thoughts it is as if the thoughts are on clouds floating by or bubbles, but my thoughts race, as I'm sure that many other's do also. I saw my thoughts as a train racing by. When I identify with my thoughts I get in the engine of the train, then the thought is linked to another thought, so I go to the next car in the train, then the next. At the end is the caboose, but my thoughts don't stop there because there is an engine of another train right behind, so I hop on that one too. These thoughts keep going and going. I visually stepped off the train onto a platform beside the train. At that point I was the observer of these thoughts and not identifying with them, therefore emotions were not attached to the thoughts. The train just passed right on by with the thoughts and I did not get caught up in them at all.

I am now trying to be conscious of my train brain. When I catch myself on the train brain I get off the train, disengage, then watch with non attachment as the train, with thoughts, passes me by. When I step off the train brain I do not fade into nothingness instead I emerge into the sunlight, free.