Mind the Gap – You are Before Thinking

The water splashed over the edge of the bucket and pooled out on the bathroom floor, running under the door.

I looked down at the puddle and a moment later heard the thought “water spilled on the floor.”

The obvious time delay in that thought arising was almost shocking, and I chuckled at the redundant comment from the “peanut gallery.”  Years ago I never even noticed the delay. Today, in this moment, it was never so obvious that thought comes after experience—and quite some time after!

Having been there and known the water spilled before mind commented is undeniable proof that that voice, that thought, is not me. I was there before; I saw the water spill first. For several years now I’ve know I’m not thought, but now that is no longer just a thought either; it is my direct experience. It is Truth. Of course, it always was Truth; I just didn’t know it.

Notice: the thought came and went but the water remained (and I remained to mop it up). How can I be a thought? So the “thinker” that I used to believe I was, inside this body, also is not true, never was true, never will be true. The idea of the thinker (a thought itself), is also separate from me, the Knower of both water and thought.

The water spill did not come before me, and the words did not come before me. In order for either to be known, I had to be prior; I am already the case.

There is nothing to gain in order to know Truth. What must happen is that we lose the false. Believing yourself to be “the thinker” you miss the gap—the gap between actual experience and the secondary thought about experience. Begin to notice the gap of the mind, and it will help you stop believing that you are the thinker—and that will help you mind the gap.

The brain is just a reflex organ. I’ve heard it estimated that the mind is capable of generating a thousand thoughts per hour. Can you imagine doing that? Of course not, but it is happening. You are not doing any one of the thousands of automatic things the body does, every moment. The body pumps blood, but you don’t say or believe that you are the pumper.

Believing you are the thinker, and therefore believing the few thoughts that you happen to notice, mistaking them for truth, causes all kinds of grief, for yourself, and others. Question every thing, every thought, and especially question the thought that you are “the thinker,” because while you do not generate thought, are not the thinker, and cannot stop or control thoughts, you are the power that brings a thought that you believe to life, in your experience—or not.

It is never the event that causes suffering. Spilled water merely flows naturally, effortlessly, and nothing more. It is always an after thought (and they are all after thoughts) that we can suffer over. Be very clear, it is never something or someone “outside” of you that emotionally hurts you; suffering is optional.

As for me, I just flowed naturally, effortlessly, and moped up the water.

Another moment later another thought, “I guess this spot needed more cleaning,” arose, and I smiled, with seeing as clear as pure water that although “the thinker” thinks he or she knows something, the truth is that the event happens first, and the comments come after.  It is so obvious that now I wonder how we could have ever have believed otherwise.