I had this picture on the desk for a while. It was drawn to look like a cigarette, with the orange filter and a little smoke at the end, and a warning in letters that seemed to drip: THINKING IS INJURIOUS TO MENTAL HEALTH.

I kept returning to it, not because thought is the enemy. There is a kind of thinking that simply runs the day, and we would be lost without it. The rest of what the mind does is another matter. I wrote this years ago, and I still mean all of it:

Most thinking is useless. The only kind that’s necessary is the kind where we’re using thought to run the practicalities of life. More than 95% of thought is where we seek to change what already is or desire and scheme for what appears to be missing in our lives. Such thoughts aren’t necessary. Only action may be necessary, not actively thinking about what we might or might not do. Just be.

“Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.” – Eckhart Tolle

The warning on that pack is the smoke you cannot put down, the loop that argues with this moment, invents a future to repair it, and then argues with that too. Our minds can only be still when we are not seeking or resisting anything. That point of stillness is meditation, which is simple to understand and not so easy to practice. Zero resistance plus zero desire is the whole formula.

Think not, just be.

Be, Here, Now…