Whatever we are speaking of, whether it be belief, fear, hope--whatever, the movement of thought is what has put it together.
Are we aware of thought as it comes into being? We are always concerning ourselves with the Product of Thought instead of the movement of thought itself and in that lies our confusion and the deception of ourselves and the root of sorrow. We think and then we realize that we have thought, but the key question may be to ask if we can be aware of thought as it arises...before the word, before the label, before the identification happens...can we watch the transpiring, the motion, the developing, the movement; not to stop it or interfere with it, but just to be aware of it?
It has been said that Awareness is like a Fire and that awareness reveals the beginning of everything. Our world is made of all things that thought has put together. That is how we function through planning events and happenings in our lives, but it is also how we are in bondage as well. We are in bondage to thought: the things, beliefs, hopes, dreams, desperations and fears that it has put together.
Our reality has been put together by thought. The concept of who we are, the 'me' has also been put together by thought. When we are concerning ourself with something we don't go back to the beginning of that thing or belief or whatever; we don't follow it back. Why not? We start with the product of thought instead of the process of how it came into being. We focus on the end result without realizing how it all comes together. We are more focused on doing something about the result--changing it, manipulating it, pushing on it, justifying it, denying it, approving of it, trying to ignore it, etc. than observing it as it is without taking any 'action'. We are not free to look.
Freedom to look means that we are not trying to change what we see inside of ourselves, but rather observing it as it is. To mainstream thought, that sounds like the antithesis of action, but it is because what we call 'action' psychologically is actually a reaction to stimuli, however small or minute instead of a movement born of clarity.