Posted by Larry Hoover on June 9, 2003, at 12:34:37
In reply to Re: Accepting intrusive thinking » Larry Hoover, posted by habbyshabit on June 9, 2003, at 12:10:22
> Lar, regarding your concept of a third party observer to the thinking mind; I have heard it called and call it myself 'the witness'. In other words, I am witnessing my thoughts, I am not my thoughts. Just another way of putting the concept into words.
Yes, I agree, witness conveys much the same concept.....however, my personal preference lies more towards "chairperson", because certain voices are easily drowned out. When I think of the voice of my spiritual self, it never speaks loudly. It's not an aspect of its existence to be loud. One of the attributes of a chairperson is to give each voice undivided attention.
Meditation is one way to give the spirit undivided attention, but it is not the only way to do so.
>It's good to see that there are others working with these concepts outside of a buddhist framework. I think that some of it goes beyond CBT theory, though I've never actually had a cognitive therapist before...
>
> HabbySome of my insight arises from 12-step work. In that method of recovery, we speak of a spiritual disorder as the root of the "disease". Even the word disease is quite useful, in a variety of contexts. It arises from an Old French word, "diseasu", meaning "not at peace". And, how can you be at peace when you are in denial about any aspect of your being?
Absolutely, quite apart from CBT, there are applications of this mindfulness. Self-respect, IMHO, arises from respecting all aspects of our being, not from selecting certain components (implicit approval), and denying others (rejection).
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:230572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030529/msgs/232627.html