The Bubbling Tea Cup of Consciousness

A few years ago, I watched a phenomenal video featuring the author Ami Chen Mills-Naim teaching teenagers about the nature of thought and consciousness. She used the analogy of putting a tea bag into a cup of hot water. The water, which is like our consciousness, will take on the appearance and flavor of whatever tea bag (i.e. thought) we put into it. So if we're stewing on thoughts of resentment, frustration or insecurity, those are the feelings we'll be experiencing in our life. When, on the other hand, we dwell on thoughts of love, connection, hope and possibility, then those thoughts become our felt experience as well. There were a few things which really struck me about that analogy. The first was the neutrality of consciousness. I could no more imagine my consciousness having an opinion about what thoughts I put into it than I can imagine a cup of hot water hoping against hope that nobody drops any Lapsang Souchong tea bags into it. Second was the fact that consciousness was the constant and individual thoughts were the variable. In any given moment I am going to be conscious of something; what that something is will (or at least can) change from moment to moment. Finally, it struck me that if I wanted to know the quality of my thinking in any moment, I need look no further than my own current experience of life. If I am experiencing the world as a scary place and am caught up in feelings of insecurity, frustration, and hopelessness, that is a direct refle...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news