Observing Thoughts As Fabrications

We often take our thoughts to be, in a sense, realities. So we have an irritable thought or a self-doubting thought, and tend to take them seriously, believing their contents. It's liberating, though, to recognize that thoughts are simply fabrications of the mind. Knowing this, we can simply observe them arising and passing away without engaging with them.

Transcript

So let's just sit together, Letting our eyes be soft, Letting our eyes be kind, Letting your attention be open and receptive, Allowing into awareness sensations from all over the body, Just letting the mind rest. Now the mind likes to create thoughts and we can call these fabrications. The mind fabricates thoughts. When we don't recognize that these thoughts are fabrications, We tend to buy into them. We believe that they represent some kind of reality, A reality we need to respond to, Usually with more thinking and with emoting. When we recognize that our thoughts are just fabrications, Creations of the mind, We don't have to take them so seriously. We know that they don't represent reality. Everything that is fabricated, That's created in the mind, Passes away, So we can even take pleasure as we recognize that the mind is fabricating. In observing, These fabrications pass away as quickly as they came into being. So we can just sit, Observing the body, Observing the space in the mind where thoughts arise, And as we notice these thoughts having come into being, We can know this is a fabrication, A creation of the mind. It's already passing away, And we can let those thoughts dissipate, Dissolve back into the matrix of the mind. Have you fixated upon any thoughts? If so, Just stepping back from them, Recognizing that they are fabrications of the mind and observing them passing away, And so you can continue observing your experience in this way for the next two or three minutes, Until you hear the bell.

Reviews

“Dissolve into the matrix of the
mind”. Brilliant phrase. The mind is doing what it’s designed to do: we don’t have to join in! Thank you 🙏

Love the space just to listen to the rhythm of my mind,

Thank you. This gave me help when I needed it with a troublesome “sticky” set of thoughts. 🙏

This is a very helpful meditation. I think I’ll use it a lot. There’s just enough talk and space. Helps me see beyond the smoke and mirrors the mind creates.

That’s useful, thank you.
I also think of my mind as a puppy, wanting to distract me and bouncing off to bring offerings of things I might find interesting and engaging…