Is mental narrative good? Is the lack of mental narrative good?

Really neat post! First, in my opinion, I think it's tricky to give labels like "good" or "not good" to things that just are. But, I think that's what your post touches on as well - that there is a bit of both in anything.

To me, the reality is that thoughts exist. In fact, I personally teach the point to meditation is not to eliminate thoughts - but more to notice that they are there and to realize they mean nothing at all, create some space from thought AND to realize that there is MUCH more to a present moment than what exists in our head (and most of us don't tap into the different, additional senses, feelings, and other aspects to a moment outside of thought). Essentially, to me, mindfulness helps us learn not to BE our thoughts, and develops the "us" that exists separate from thought.

I also believe thoughts aren't good or bad, as you touch on, they just exist the same way that your arm just exists. We don't ask whether our arm is good or not good, it just is. When we drop something we don't blame our arm, or try to rid ourselves of our arm. We recognize that our arm serves a specific purpose and we tend to use it for that reason. The funny thing with thought, however, is that we treat our thoughts like that mean something more than just... thoughts. We ARE our thoughts and we feel/believe that our entire experience of a moment comes from our thoughts, and that is where the space from thoughts from meditation helps us see the other aspects of ourselves and the perception of the world.

So I hear you, completely ridding ourselves of though (which isn't possible... in my opinion) is an odd goal and it is a little like trying to get rid of our arm if it does something we don't like. Instead, I agree, it is more about changing our relationship with thought and putting thought in it's place, using it as a tool to aid us in SO many ways (a much more complex tool than an arm) but not feeling like we ARE our thoughts, not feeling controlled BY those thoughts.

/r/Mindfulness Thread