Hello,
And welcome to this meditation on investigating thoughts.
Let's begin by finding an anchor that we can return to if we get too distracted,
So you might want to tune into the breath,
Or some other body sensation.
Just focusing your attention there,
Noticing if you get distracted,
And returning to your anchor.
And now you can either let go of your anchor,
Or keep it in the background of your awareness,
As we turn our attention to thoughts.
Just starting to notice the thoughts in the mind,
Not thinking about them or analysing them,
Just becoming aware of them.
There might be a lot of thoughts,
Too many to notice,
There might seem to be very few,
But if you're thinking that this is very easy or very difficult,
Or there are too few or too many thoughts,
Those are thoughts,
So noticing the thoughts in the mind,
Including any thoughts about the practice,
And you'll find that very quickly you get pulled into your thoughts,
You forget about observing them and start just thinking them.
That's okay,
That's always going to happen.
When you realise it's happened,
Just come back to observing thoughts,
And if it's happening too much and you're getting really lost,
You can just focus again on your anchor,
Stay there for a few breaths or a few moments,
Before opening up your attention again to take in thoughts.
Now we can begin to investigate thoughts,
To notice their qualities and characteristics.
First you might notice whether your thoughts are mostly in words or in images,
There's probably a mix of both,
But noticing those two kinds of thoughts.
For verbal thoughts,
You might notice where you hear them,
Do you seem to hear them at the ears,
Or do they seem to be somewhere else in the head?
Whose voice are they in,
Is it recognisably yours,
Is it not possible to tell?
For visual thoughts,
Where do you experience them?
Do you seem to see them with your eyes,
Or not?
Where do thoughts seem to be coming from?
Do they originate towards the back of the head,
The front of the head,
Somewhere else?
How do they begin?
Do they appear suddenly?
Do they fade in,
Are you aware of them from the beginning,
Or do you only become aware when you're halfway through the thought?
Do they fade out before the next thought starts,
Or are they overlapping?
Does one thought blend into another?
What are they made of?
Do they seem to have any substance,
Texture,
If they're immaterial,
What's it like for something to have no substance?
Often we needn't know the answers to these questions,
But we're just getting curious about our thoughts.
Not their content,
Not the topics we're thinking about,
But we're curious about the process of thinking,
About what thoughts are,
How they work,
And of course if you get too lost at any point,
Come back to your anchor,
Steady yourself,
And then return your attention to your thoughts.
And now I'll leave you in silence for the last few moments of the meditation,
So you can continue to practice this on your own.
And now let's bring this meditation to an end.
