Conditioning

All thought is conditioned thought. It is the nature of thought to be conditioned in the same way it is the nature of water to flow downhill. The process of conditioning cannot be stopped. It can only be improved. Awakening to the present moment is the way to improve the conditioning process. Conditioned thought is just thought patterns formed by past experiences and interpretations. You are conditioning your thought patterns right now. To attend to this process is vital to improving it. When you attend to what you are experiencing right now you bring the full power of your attention to the pattern of thought you are feeding into the conditioning process. By doing this you create your present experience and sow the seeds for you next present experience. You cannot stop thoughts arising from your previous conditioning from coming- they come, that is the nature of thought. What you can do is attend fully to your reaction to that thought and its impact on your life right now. This process of attending to what is happening right now will, over time, support conditioned thought which is useful (comprehension, modeling, insight), and allow conditioned thought that is not useful (prejudice, reactivity) to gradually atrophy. If you hurt your hand you know only that you want the pain to stop. If your realize that you hurt your hand by slamming it in the door jamb, you will be less likely to slam it again next time. Similarly, awakening cannot keep you from getting hurt, but it can teach you how to stop hurting yourself.