Seven Sins and Seven Thousand Diagnoses

If I were asked to give a young man or woman a bit of advice taking only a minute or two, it would run as follows: Try to regard your states of minds as visits to places. Now I am in the angry place or the melancholy place or the misunderstood-by-everybody place. The point is, if you do this you don’t identify yourself with these states of mind: they are not you. And it really works. I can’t claim any credit for this psychological device, because I found it in Living Time by Maurice Nicoll, who in turn got it from Gurdjieff, frequently referred to as a black magician or a charlatan by people who know nothing about him. — J.B. Priestley, Outcries and Asides This struck me because it resembles one of the most useful things I took from Buddhist writers: do not cling to passing moods and thoughts. Watch them arise. Watch them pass. Do not make more of them than necessary. A thought may be sincere and still be stupid. A feeling may be intense and still not deserve obedience. One can…