Transcription
If you can't stop thinking, what do you do when you have thoughts that you don't want to think?
The human soul has many talents, faculties, powers, whatever you want to call them. There are intelligent functions, there are emotional functions, but all of those are internal processes. In addition to those, the soul also has three outlets or three garments by which it exposes or expresses these various talents or functions. Three, three forms of expression. And that basically makes up what we call behavior.
Behavior consists of actions, of course, but also speech. The way you talk, what you say, it's part of your behavior. And surprisingly, your thoughts. Thoughts are not inner functions, they are part of the expressions, one of the three ways of expressing who you are, what you are, what you're thinking, what you know, and what you're feeling. So thinking belongs to the category of behavior. Only, it's unheard by others. So you might, you might say that thinking is like talking to yourself. And your thoughts eventually become your words, your speech. Things you say and articulate eventually becomes your behavior. That's the hierarchy: thinking, speaking, doing.
Another difference between thinking and the other two garments of the soul is that there is a time to speak and there's a time to refrain from speaking. There's a time to do, to act, and there's a time to refrain from acting, to be passive, to not do. But there's never a time not to think. The garment of thought is so closely related to your inner workings that as long as you have feelings and as long as you have knowledge, you will be thinking. So thinking is a constant activity. You can't not think.
In some meditative disciplines, you focus all your thoughts on one tiny subject or even a sound, but you're thinking. Maybe not enough, but you cannot stop. You cannot turn off thought. So why is it not considered one of the functions of the soul? Because although you can't stop thinking, you can change the subject at any time.
So here's the difference between thinking and knowing. When you know that two and two is four, you can't turn that off. You can't suddenly decide that it's not that two and two is five. You can't do that. It would take a lot of brainwashing and brilliant college courses to convince you that two and two is five. But you can be thinking how two and two is four, and then instantaneously say, "Um, that's boring. I want to think about something else," and completely change the subject. So you don't change your knowledge. You still know that two and two is four. But you don't have to be thinking it.
The fact that you can just stop thinking what you have been thinking for an hour, two hours, six hours, and then just at will, you decide, "Okay, enough. Not interested." That makes thought one of the garments of the soul and not one of the properties of the soul. And so thought belongs to the category of behavior.
So now we have a bit of a problem. If you can't stop thinking, what do you do when you have thoughts that you don't want to think? Either because they're depressing, pessimistic, destruction, destructive, it'll only make you anxious and miserable, so you really shouldn't be thinking that. Or it's sinful, it's vulgar, it's degrading, you're wallowing in unholy subjects, which is very detrimental to your brain and to your soul. Whatever the thing is, you want to stop thinking. But of course, you can't.
It also feels like you can't stop thinking these thoughts. So although it's true you can't turn thought off, but it is also true that at any moment, simply by will, you can choose what you're going to think. However, the attempt at not thinking is usually frustrating and a failure. "I will not think this. I will not think this." Doesn't work, does it? Because as you're saying, "I will not think this," what won't you think? And you think it again.
The only way to stop a given thought is to replace it with another. So you can't not think this, but you can think something else. And that takes no willpower. It takes no talent. It takes no strength of character. You just have to have something else to think about. So when a person says, "I think I'm stuck. I'm hooked on on certain subject and certain thoughts and I cannot stop." The challenge is, what other thought do you have that can compete with this thought? For some reason, you find this thought compelling, or this subject compelling, and you can't cough up some other topic and some other subject that will occupy your thought as well as this topic occupies your thought.
One of the good practical solutions is to memorize a song, a story, a quote, so that at any time when you want to stop thinking what you are thinking, you can switch to that which you have memorized, which you remember by heart. And you can repeat it to yourself in your mind. Particularly if what you've memorized is noble, holy. So instead of the power of habit and the power of unholiness, it has the appeal and the power of nobility. Even to memorize a classic piece of music, you can play it in your mind, in your head. That will take you from the thoughts you don't want to have to a much better, to a much better subject with which to fill your mind.
So memorizing a song, memorizing, um, a holy teaching, a Mishna, or a lot of Mishna, so that you can occupy your mind for at least a half hour. Once you get onto another subject for a half hour, the old subject is gone unless you wish it back. But if you don't want it, you have freed yourself of it. This is true even in little petty things, annoying things, like you get stuck in your brain repeating tiny little piece of a song over and over and over and you want to stop. The only way to stop is to find an alternative. Give me something else to think about that can really occupy the mind.
So that which you remember by heart occupies your mind. It engages your mind. Whereas if you try to read something, there's no guarantee that your mind will connect to what you're reading because the old thoughts are interfering. So whatever the explanation is, once you've memorized something, it's a different function. You don't have to be paying attention cognitively because you know the subject. You're just reviewing it by memory.
So a person who says, "I'm having a problem with unholy thoughts, uninvited thoughts, unhealthy thoughts." The solution is, have something healthy, noble, and worthy memorized by heart so that you can always go there when you want to get away from the undesirable. Just like we now have safe spaces in colleges, a room where you can go. In your brain, you need a safe space. And the things you memorize that are good and noble and worthy, that's your safe space in the world of thought.
If you enjoyed this conversation or this topic and you're looking for more information or you want to hear it again from another angle, there's a way to do that and that is in this book. It's all there. Order it from Amazon. You can read it, re-read it, and share it.
I want to invite you to join us as VIPs, partners in our work, and join us also for a personal chat with other members of the VIP club. We talk about many things. There's an opportunity to ask, to respond, to make a comment, to meet the other supporters, and together we can really make a difference in Jewish life and in life in general. So join us. It's good to know dot org. Log in, call, make contact, and join us with the VIPs.