The Independent Mind (Learning to Live a Life of Freedom)

Day in day out, everyone’s mind is full of thoughts. But where do they come from? Are they independent thoughts or are they concepts and doctrines borrowed from other people? Have they been assimilated from parents or teachers? From religious or political leaders?

Your thoughts are not yours- you have gathered them together. Sometimes in a dark room, a beam of light comes from the roof and you can see millions of dust particles floating in that beam. When I look into you I see the same phenomenon: millions of dust particles. You call them thoughts. They are moving in you and out of you. From one head they enter anther and on they go. They have their own life.

A thought is a thing; it has its own existence. When a person dies, all his mad thoughts are released immediately and they start finding shelter somewhere or other. They immediately enter those who are nearby. They are like germs, they have their own life. Even when you are alive you go on dispersing your thoughts all around you. When you talk, of course you throw yours; that is the first thing.

A man of positive reasoning will discard all thoughts that are not his own. They are not authentic; he hasn’t found them through his own experience. He has accumulated them from other, they are borrowed. They are dirty, and have been in many hands and in many heads. A man of thinking does not borrow; he likes to have fresh thoughts of his own. If you are positive, and look at beauty, truth, goodness, flowers; if you become capable of seeing even in the darkest night that the morning is approaching you will become capable of thinking.

You can then create your own thoughts. A thought that is created by you is really full of potential; it has a power of its own.