Just when you think you’re not thinking, there comes the thought, ’“I’m not thinking,” and with just that one thought (“’I’m not thinking”), even more thinking arises. The progression of thought gets your thinking more active, more involved, and more elaborate for a while. Then thoughts get simpler, and you become less invested in them. At times, the thoughts seem to slow down so much that there seem to be none at all. Yet there must be something that keeps on thinking to maintain a perception of reality. From our perspective, the primary thought seems to be a thought of aliveness, and it is even deeper than the thought of an “I” or a “self.”

We suggest that the thought of being alive — “aliveness” in which you maintain a body, have an experience, perceive life — is constructed to maintain the world around you. Your life is an elaboration on whatever this thought of aliveness might be. Aliveness, life, existence, whatever this is, is a thought. It doesn’t really matter where this thought comes from or where it goes; it seems to be fairly constant. Without even knowing it, you’re thinking about your life, you’re thinking life is happening, you’re thinking that there is aliveness, and you’re determining in every moment what aliveness is for you.

Is it a force, movement, or change? Maybe aliveness is an opportunity. It is at the foundation of your sense of reality and substantiality. It is your sense of your humanity and even your divinity. Almost everything you might use to attempt to describe your experience will have to sit on this deep notion of aliveness, of life itself.