Thoughts move faster than physical actions. How many thoughts can you have in a minute, and how many actions can you take in a minute? Of course, if you are Satoyuki Fujimura, it may be close, but for the rest of us, the number of actions fall far behind the number of thoughts we can have. Where I want to be in in how I act or behave lags behind where I want to be. This is the gap, and with practice, it gets smaller.

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Guiding Thought

I am responsible! I am able to respond with and through conscious awareness of my inner-centered, silent Knowingness. I practice Knowingness moment by moment. Anchored in my inner-harmony, I have the courage to face my own thoughts and actions.

Reflection

I believe that thought precedes action. I cannot say I know this to be true in all cases, but I believe it to be true in all cases (I do not have the capacity to analyze all cases, to come to a definitive conclusion).

Put another way: I think all action has thought behind it. For all action, some thought imbues it, initiates it, informs it, or otherwise motivates it.

This is why thought is so important, and why I pay so much attention to it, why I think these contemplative practices are important: the thoughts I have here are initiating, informing, and motivating action.

For me, it is not so much what I do, but the mind or thought behind it that is vital to my expression; it is imperative for my thoughts to be fully, 100 percent, aligned with my highest, most loving idea. When my thoughts are as high as they can be, I can be assured that my actions and activities will be the highest expression they can be. (This may or may not be true in reverse: actions with mal-intent probably do not generate loving, peaceful thoughts; however, any action that is kind and loving has value and benefit. This is a complex philosophical discussion that I will not be engaging at the moment.)

I am responsible. I am responsible for all my thoughts, all my intentions, all my motivations. I control what’s in my head. I am the only one responsible for what I think. Thus, I am responsible for all my actions, activities, interactions.

The Guiding Thought feels like an affirmation, completely intellectual, like there is a bit of a gap between the words and what I currently believe, or what I am currently able to envision as my beingness. While I want to Know, in the way this Guiding Thought suggests, I’m not there yet. And that’s ok.