Butterflies have wings and fly; we have a mind and our thoughts soar. So far so good. The trouble crops up from trusting that our thoughts get us somewhere real. Any resulting belief easily leads to difficulty. When you believe the dream is real, nightmares are more likely.
Granted the mind can drive us crazy, but it isn’t really the mind’s fault; it is the trust we place in the mind’s thought. We believe that the cover we see is the whole book of reality. You can avoid much of this by simply viewing everything that you see as a symptom of the deeper shape that has no shape, as chapter 14 hints.
People’s thoughts reflect their innate nature and center around these common areas: sports, politics, work, relationships, food, sex, physical beauty, health, and so on. Again, so far so good. Our suffering occurs as soon as we put all our emotional marbles in our favorite thought basket. Chapter 71 points out this common error…
Even acknowledging this, what can we do? Do we have any choice over how much trust we place in thought? Trust is a curious thing; you trust something, e.g., people, actions, knowledge, beliefs, etc., until you deeply, intuitively realize your trust was misplaced. This comes down to having a visceral emotional experience, and not just understanding the principle idea, although that is a good place to begin. Plant the seeds today; reap the bountiful crop of emotional peace tomorrow.