shift

All suffering in the world has its beginning as a thought that was clung to and pursued in external reality.

"I'm unsafe," "I hate them," "I'll kill them."

If understanding and detached observation were possible for the thinker of these thoughts, they could be recognized, traced back to their origin and then released, allowing the thinker to feel their projected pain and return to a state of equanimity.

The thought wouldn't be held onto and charged with emotion as is typically the case now, initiating untold destruction depending upon the abilities and influence of the thinker in question. Like Hitler and his thoughts about Jewish people, or a depressed person and their thoughts about suicide.

Changing external conditions won't change our relationships to our thoughts. They'll continue to arise, be clung to, identified with and acted upon, creating more of the same kinds of problems after the initial ones appear to have been dealt with on the surface.

We need to be changed at the very core. Our entire way of thinking and relating to thoughts and the world needs to be radically shifted. All surface changes will only be superficial if this isn't done.