Hi Ether:
I believe we all have "errant thought or perception patterns" and one of the primary effects of yoga is the dissolving of these. Inner silence via deep meditation will do much of the job on its own, but we can certainly add to our progress by choosing when we can, which is also a function of inner silence, our ability to witness how we relate to our thoughts and feelings, and the world around us.
The primary feedback we can use in this is how we feel. If we feel bad (i.e., "suffering"), then it is a signal of an errant pattern of thought or perception. If we are making others feel bad, it is the same thing, except we might not notice as easily -- an errant perception for sure. To get around this we can develop the ability to see the world through the eyes of others as well as through our own eyes. This too is a function of inner silence -- the witness. It always comes back to that.
In any case, once we can see our suffering, and the suffering of others (which is also ours), we are in a position to question the thoughts and perceptions that have created that suffering. Life is not inherently suffering. It just is. It is we who do the coloring of it.
Self-inquiry asks us to notice our thoughts and feelings, and question their validity when they create suffering. We can ask ourselves if we need a specific thought that is creating suffering, is it true, and what would we be like without that thought? Then we can turn the thought around and look at it 180 degress the opposite, like a mirror on ourselves instead of focused on the other. This is the Katie approach (in her book -- "Loving What Is"), which works like a razor. It is event-specific and therefore practical in the now. Is this the kind of mechanism you use, Ether?
Once we have isolated a thought or perception that brings suffering and sincerely questioned its validity, we can then rest our attention on it, and it will tend to dissolve much the way knots dissolve in meditation when we allow our attention to rest on them when they dominate our session to the extent we are not able to pick up the mantra easily. Like that, errant thoughts and perceptions can dominate the clarity of our life experience at times. And, like that, they can be dissolved once they have been recognized for what they are -- isolated and errant, outside the sphere of who we really are.
Of course, this is a simplification of a very complex dynamic. The errant thought and perception patterns are seemingly endless streams rooted in deep traumas of the past. We don't have to ferret out what all these roots are, thank goodness. But we should recognize that self-inquiry is a long term cultivation of habit in the way we look at ourselves and the world around us, so as to gradually dissipate the energies that are "errant." The more inner silence we have, the easier this will be, and the more often we will be having those "Ah Ha!" type releases. We do not have to travel down the same errant roads over and over again as we have in the past. We do have the option to choose something more -- a road of happiness for ourselves and those around us.
As soon as our inner silence affords us the growing discrimination that comes with the rise of the witness, we can take advantage of it. That too is a choice we can make -- to use the witness. It is the big one that changes everything. A sea change in our perception of ourselves and everything around us. Once that happens, self-inquiry becomes pretty much a cake walk, like washing the dishes and taking out the trash. We realize we don't have to be hanging on to the trash anymore -- our ego-driven errant thought and perception patterns. We just let them go in each moment, and find that right underneath them we are an endless sea of ecstatic bliss. In time, we are easily dissolving the errant stuff like patches of brown foam floating on our infinite crystal clear sea.
This is self-inquiry, karma yoga, and bhakti all rolled into one. And thank goodness for inner silence!
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The guru is in you.
