The value of thoughts versus feelings

I’m listening to a good audiobook of Björn Natthiko Lindeblad in Swedish “Jag kan ha fel” which means “I may be wrong”*. He reminds me of some learnings I’ve had along my own path, and a basic one is to start giving heart more value in contrast to Western society giving mind more value. He gives great examples of how it was to start learning to meditate. No, it’s not always easy for the monks either. Björn Natthiko was having a career after having studied at a prominent Business School in Stockholm, but it wasn’t fulfilling him. He went to become a forest monk in Thailand in 1992 and stayed for many years. I had the pleasure of hearing him on one of his talks in Stockholm that I had won a ticket to. He was very present, smiling and wise. He sadly left us this year in January.

There are many ways to share these lessons of the heart. One way to think of it is that logic was supposed to help us along the path, but heart be in the center. Heart can be about compassion, feeling belonging with others, giving each other time to be just who we are. In the mentioned audiobook, it said that we have got it backwards concerning what is the servant of what.

I thought it fascinating that he tells of how the monk life is, they don’t deal with money, but are dependent on people giving donations for food. They aren’t allowed to eat after a certain time in the middle of the day. They eat once per day, although some of this is loosening up a bit in some parts of the World and getting more Westernized. This had a tendency of steering some thoughts during meditation to the one of foods. Important in those learnings is to not get too comfortable in things, but learning to trust in processes of change.

Namaste

*(“ I May Be Wrong- And Other Wisdoms from Life as a Forest Monk“), book in English