Sitting comfortably wherever you are,
And just begin by opening,
Just opening to whatever's happening in your body,
In your mind,
In your heart.
In your environment,
And when we do this,
It creates a certain relaxation,
Quite naturally,
So long as the body's comfortable as it can be.
We don't need to set out with any demands that we're going to do something,
Or get something,
Or attain anything in meditation.
We're simply going to relax,
And be open,
And willing just to be with whatever arises,
Allowing whatever comes to come,
And whatever goes to go,
And we gently turn our attention to listening,
At all levels,
Whether it be hearing sounds,
Or listening to the movements within the heart,
Within the mind,
And attuning to that,
Listening to the mood we might be in,
Whether that mood be happy,
Or sad,
Depressed,
Restless,
Or anxious,
Simply being receptive to whatever's arising.
Just be willing to listen,
Without trying to change it,
Or fix it,
Suppress it,
Or even analyze it.
Simply listen,
In a non-judgmental way,
To this whole experience of being alive,
And present,
In this very moment.
For this meditation,
We will gently inquire into the nature of thinking,
In order to deepen our understanding of thoughts themselves.
And this is not to start a philosophical,
Or intellectual inquiry into thinking,
But really just a few pointers,
To help us come into a direct understanding,
And insight,
As to how these thoughts operate,
How they impact us,
And how we can gradually become free of their constricting influences.
So begin by just turning your attention,
To the thoughts themselves,
Just be aware of each thought,
As it arises,
And as it ceases.
And the encouragement is not to pick up a thought,
And to start running with it,
Or analyzing it,
But simply to bear witness,
To the next thought,
And the next thought,
And the next thought.
It's highly likely that there won't be much space,
That you won't have to wait too long for the next thought to arise,
And that's perfectly okay.
It's the nature of the mind,
The conditioned mind,
To think.
But we're bringing our conscious awareness,
To this very thinking process,
Rather than being unconscious,
Or driven by our thoughts,
And fully identified with them.
So simply turn your attention,
To watching your thoughts,
Becoming more familiar with this process,
But being the quiet witness.
And often when we do turn our attention to noticing thinking,
What often happens is that the thoughts become somewhat shy,
And naturally start to slow down,
Because mindfulness has come to the fore.
And as you gently watch your thinking process,
In a non-judgmental,
Non-interfering way,
See if you can start to notice the gaps,
Or the spaces,
Between each thought.
And become more familiar with this.
What do those spaces between thoughts feel like?
How do you experience them?
The more we turn our attention to the space between thoughts,
The more expansive it grows,
The more prolonged the spaces become.
And what we start to notice is that the thinking,
The thoughts,
Are all arising and ceasing within this vast expanse of space,
Within our very awareness.
And if you can remember,
And remind yourself,
Not to interfere,
Or intervene,
Or pick up any of the thoughts,
You'll notice that they just recede more and more into the background.
Then you can really start to understand this metaphor of them being like clouds in the sky,
In the vast sky of the mind's awareness.
And when we were little children,
We'd often lie on the grass and just gaze at the clouds.
And you always notice that if you stared long enough at a small,
Wispy cloud,
It somehow miraculously dissolved in the sky.
And if you were astute,
Sometimes you could see small clouds forming.
And just like clouds,
You can start to notice that these thoughts come from nowhere.
They just form spontaneously in the vast sky of the mind.
They might build up for a little bit,
But if you continue to watch,
You notice how they simply dissolve.
Back into nothing,
Into emptiness,
Forming and dissolving continuously.
But that background of clear space,
Of clear awareness,
Remains constant.
And have you ever really looked closely,
Just at a single thought,
To understand its composition?
As the mind becomes calm and clear and more spacious,
We start to get a clearer sense of the complete emptiness of just a single thought.
In its essence,
It doesn't truly exist as a thing,
As a phenomenon.
We perceive it,
But in its composition,
Its true composition,
It is completely empty,
Made of nothing,
Of no substance.
You can call it some sort of energy,
If you like,
But that's just another concept.
And when we drop all concepts and simply look with a quiet mind,
We see that in fact,
This very thinking,
There's really nothing to it.
And the only way it becomes real is when the identification is there.
And when there's the identification,
Which comes with a thought as me or mine,
Then it builds up like a cloud in the sky and can even turn into a storm cloud.
And then the reactions start,
The disliking,
And so on.
But even a large storm cloud,
In its essence,
Is empty as well.
So if we can practice remaining as the vast,
Empty sky and learn to recognize that more and more,
And to abide in that,
Then thoughts present no problem.
They're simply what they are.
They're not mine.
They're not yours.
They have no substance.
They come from nowhere.
They abide in emptiness.
And they dissolve into emptiness.
And this very recognition and understanding brings peace and freedom.
And ultimately,
Selflessness.
Because the only way we create a self is by thinking about it,
Constructing it with our thoughts.
But without your thoughts,
What are you?
What does it feel like to be thoughtless?
But it's important not to get on a trip of trying to repress thoughts or push them away.
Or to deny them in some unskillful way.
We let them come.
We know them for what they are.
But we don't hold on to them.
And so in this way,
We can just flow.
And thoughts just float by,
Like clouds in the sky.
So we have to find the right balance,
The middle way with this.
Not suppressing,
But neither indulging or getting lost in them.
Just clear,
Mindful,
Present and aware.
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