Failing to Control Mental Objects: 07-28-2026

1. We claim to know by identifying with (eating) knowledge as ideas, images, or things. This process makes them and us into mental objects.
2. When we don’t want a particular mental object because it is disturbing, painful, or ugly, we often try to make it not exist by demanding it go away (no-ting), only to feed it.
3. When we don’t want a particular mental object because it is disturbing, painful, or ugly, we often try to control it. However, it is uncontrollable because it is us, so we feed it.
4. When we don’t want a particular mental object because it is disturbing, painful, or ugly, we often try to change it. However, it is unchangeable because it is us, so we feed it.
5. When we don’t want a particular mental object because it is disturbing, painful, or ugly, we often complain that we are fixated, frozen, stuck, or trapped by it. However, it is our identifying with it that is the trap, not the idea or image itself.