"Nothing changes unless something changes"~SD

I grew up in a row home in the city. We didn't have a sump pump or a yard. Our house was surrounded by cement except for a little tiny patch of grass in front of our house.  That's my excuse for having no idea that the water from the sump pump in my current basement was creating a river of sorts along the side yard.

The interesting thing about water is that even a tiny little trickle over a long period of time will create deep grooves in the earth. It's hard to imagine that a tiny little trickle could be so powerful. It isn't until we notice how deep the grooves are that we see just how powerful it is.

This is how samskaras work. We have these tiny little trickles of belief patterns that may be so small that we never realize how powerful they are until we notice how deep the grooves in our consciousness really are.
Our thought patterns, over time, become so engrained and run so deep that it's hard to imagine that they may have been formed by a tiny little trickle of negative thinking. We repeatedly fall into the same pattern of thinking. The grooves are so deep and have been there for so long that it's hard not to.

Once we noticed the river our sump pump was creating in the side yard we couldn't ignore it. We had to first change the flow of the water. Once we changed the flow of the water we needed to fill in the groove so that the water didn't flow back into it.

Now that I have discovered the grooves in my consciousness caused by the tiny trickles of negative beliefs over a long period of time I can't ignore them. First order of business.....change the flow of the negative beliefs.

When the negative thoughts comes up I treat it like any other thought during meditation. I'll acknowledge it and let it go. Giving my attention to my mantra. Just like the water from the sump pump, the thoughts will come. It's up to me to change the direction in which it will flow. With the help of the mantra I can change the direction. Directing my thoughts always back to my mantra.

Next, is filling in the grooves left behind by the negative belief pattern. If we don't fill it in, the danger of falling back into it will always be there.  But how do we do that? Well, what we did with the yard was fill it in with fresh soil and plant new grass seeds. What will we use to fill in the grooves in our consciousness? It has been suggested that we fill it with love. Perhaps changing the negative thoughts with the opposite, more positive thoughts. Then we can plant the seeds of compassion. Compassion for ourselves as well as others.

Kicking myself for not realizing that the water from the sump pump was causing the deep grooves in the yard wouldn't have changed the flow of the water. The only thing that changed the flow of the water was changing the flow of the water.

The only thing that will change the thought patterns in the mind is changing the thought patterns in the mind....... Om Namah Shivaya!!