The first thought

When the first thought is accepted as true, your mind will automatically see its children as true.

When a seed is planted, it grows and becomes a flower. Your thoughts are chains of accepted ideas that give birth to one another in an endless stream of cause and effect. The result is your state of mind, and it is felt in how you experience life.

The seed is the first thought. It arises in your mind, born from the mood that is already there. You grasp the thought because it resonates with how you already feel. You accept it as true, and now the seed is planted.

The first sprout appears, the first effect of the thought you have accepted as true. You know it is the child of the truth you have just accepted, and therefore you don't question this new thought—it is automatically true for you.

Another child appears, and both are seen as true. More thoughts are born from these two, and thus the first thought grows into a chain of effects. Its children fill your mind, and you see them as true.

Your experience of everything is now colored by this stream of thoughts, and your state of mind is occupied by the picture this chain creates for you. You now see the world through this veil, and you accept the picture as true.

But what if you had not accepted the first thought? What if you had seen that it too was merely a mirror of the state you had accepted in your mind? What if you had simply thought: no thank you, you are not loving toward me?

Can the plant grow without the seed? Can the plant exist at all without the seed?

Can you see it?

Do you then also understand that the state of mind you experience is always your own choice? For who other than you could accept the first thought as true? Can anyone other than yourself determine what you should perceive as true?

As soon as you have accepted the first thought, its children come automatically and lightning-fast. This is why we quickly forget that it was we ourselves who decided to start the chain. It now feels as though it is something happening to us, not something we control ourselves.

All your choices are conscious. There are no unconscious choices. The first thought can only flourish if you consciously accept it as true. Its children are born and seemingly created automatically, but they could not grow if you had not given life to the first thought.

So if you are not feeling well. If you experience being angry, frustrated, sad, etc., then you must honestly look at what the first thought was. For when you see it, and recognize that it is not loving toward you, then you also know it cannot be true. And when you see that the seed was an illusion, the flower loses all its value, and the thoughts dissolve in your mind.

This is forgiveness.