Have you ever thought about thoughts? Sometimes they can be very difficult to deal with.
Once there was a certain man who struggled with his thoughts. His thoughts were constantly out of control. Mind racing. Thinking about things he didn’t want to think about. Obsessing.
So he asked a Wise Chassidic Master, The Maggid of Mezritch, how he can stop thinking unwanted thoughts. The Maggid recommended the man go to the town of Zhitomir and look for Rav Ze’ev. Since this was over 200 years ago, there were no cars or phones. So the man went traveling to Zhitomir. Once he arrived, he had to ask around to find the house – there were no numbers on the doors of Zhitomir. Once he found the tiny house, he knocked on the door. No one answered so he knocked again, this time harder. He checked with the neighbors to be sure this was the correct house. It was. Moreover, the neighbors said, we happen to know that Rav Zev is there. So the man kept knocking harder and harder, but to no avail. Eventually, he gave up. But he had nowhere to sleep so he had to make do for the night.
The next day, he found Rav Zev who, he discovered, was warm and friendly. Why hadn’t he opened the door for him though? So he asked him, why. To which Rav Zev responded with his own question, “why were you knocking on my door?” The man explained that the Wise Meggid had sent him here to learn about how to control his thoughts. The Wise Rav Zev smiled, “That’s what I taught you by not opening the door. Just because there’s a knock at the door doesn’t mean you have to open it.”
And that’s the secret to not thinking bad thoughts. Just because they come knocking—and they WILL come knocking—doesn’t mean you let them in.