Getting rid of voices

“Can you look without the voice in your head commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out?”
—Eckhart Tolle

imple, right?

Nope.

In my experience, the way this quote is written is a bit misleading. It is implying that there is an option to have no voice in your head doing any of these unhelpful things. So people are attempting to figure out what to do. They’re flummoxed. There’s a voice in their heads, and it’s commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, and trying to figure something out – like, for example, how not to have this voice in their heads commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, and trying to figure something out. See the dilemma?

I run into a lot of people who struggle and suffer over trying to fight, change, get rid of, and/or pretend the voice in their heads isn’t there.

Either that or they idealize some lovely flow state where their head is empty, and presence is just love and light all the time. They believe that they are enlightened and that’s what enlightenment looks like. In my experience, that’s unconsciousness being labeled “presence,” which reminds me of the joke about the monk in meditation who hears a voice in his head say, “How lovely and present you are in meditation – without any voices…”

Just because you don’t hear a voice in your head saying anything to you doesn’t mean there isn’t one there. You just think it’s “you” thinking or you’re unconscious to what it’s saying.

Okay, so what then? This voice is causing suffering, and it’s there. What are we to do?

Have no fear. Magically, this quote can work if we added one simple word to it. And that word would be…(drumroll please)…BELIEVING.

“Can you look without BELIEVING the voice in your head that is commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out?”

C’mon. Isn’t this a matter of semantics?

I know, it may seem like a small thing, but in my world, a single word changes everything. I can now sympathize with my teacher who would correct people over how they misphrased what she had said, and there was only one word different. We’re already in a precarious territory with language so we need to be very deliberate.

Now, in the reworded quote, there’s no voice to get rid of. What has changed is our relationship to the voice. Now, that pesky voice can go off all it wants with its comments, conclusions, comparisons, and figuring things out. My job is to stop relating to it. I don’t have to assume it’s my voice or the voice of God anymore.

The voice just does what it does. And I just do what I do.

In lovingkindness,

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume One).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Two).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Three).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons by Alex Mill.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Meditation and Reinventing Yourself.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, The Zen Life: Spiritual Training for Modern Times.

 

  Alex Mill trained in a Zen Buddhist monastery for nearly 14 years. He now offers his extensive experience to transform people’s lives and businesses through timeless Zen principles.

He is the creator of three powerful 30-day programs, Heart-to-Heart: Compassionate Self-Mentoring, Help Yourself to Change, and Your Practice, as well as the online Zen meditation workshop, Taming Your Inner Noise (now offered as The Zen Workshop).

Alex has also written seven books on Zen awareness practice. The latest are entitled A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons (Get some FREE sample chapters here) and the 3-book series Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness.

He is a full-time Zen Life Coach who offers guidance and life-changing support to his private clients worldwide. Book a call.