This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Mindfulness of Thinking (4 of 5) Beyond Thinking

This is now the fourth talk on mindfulness of thinking. Today, the topic is being mindful of non-thought, being mindful of something different than just thinking. It is not just being mindful of the body, emotions, or other things, which are very helpful to include in mindfulness. As we think, as we are aware of thinking, there can be a tendency to get narrowly focused on thoughts. One of those reasons is that what we think about can be either very concerning or very important. It can be very entertaining and engaging. Somehow, we can get pulled into the world of "aboutness"—about what we're thinking about, the stories, and the possibilities there.

But there is also non-thought. There is that which is beyond the edges of the thought. The whole universe is not filled with our thought, though from within the thought, we don't think this way. From within the thought, it's almost as if we act as if there is nothing beyond it. Many times, we might assume that we are connected to the people in the world around us. But in fact, what we're mostly connected to is our projection, our ideas, our thoughts about the person or the things, our bias, the stories that we have about it, and the perspectives we bring. That veil of ideas, thoughts, projections, and bias is sometimes quite thick, and sometimes it completely misses the person.

I sat a three-month retreat once, and there was a woman there who I was attracted to. I didn't focus on it too much for three months, but three months was certainly long enough for my attraction to have fantasies. The fantasies were long enough to go through a whole story slowly. There was the story of meeting her, talking with her, having a relationship with her, getting married to her, and getting divorced from her. It was a whole life over three months.

Then, at the end of the retreat, I talked to this woman. We were in silent retreat, and at the end of the retreat, we had a kind of circle where people had a chance to speak and say a few words about the retreat. She spoke, and she had a very thick, obvious foreign accent. She was clearly not from the United States. At that moment, my fantasy about her just popped like a balloon. The whole fantasy assumed that she was from the United States, that she was American, and she wasn't. So I realized I didn't have a clue who she was. The whole fantasy was a projection of my mind. It was ideas and thoughts about who she was that seemingly had nothing to do with her.

We live this way if we are in the world of aboutness and thoughts, and we often see that in mindfulness practice. Certainly, we learn to observe thinking, to be mindful of it, to recognize it, to note it, and to learn to let go of it. But it is also an art or skill to expand mindfulness, not to get rid of thoughts, not to have a problem with them, and not to focus on the content of what the thoughts are about, but to begin looking around the edges of the thoughts.

I think there is a sense, almost like a location for the thoughts. That is why some people find it very helpful to locate where the speaker system is. If they are thinking in words or an inner voice, where is it? Is it somewhere in the brain, in the mind, in the head, or somewhere else where that voice is talking? To locate that in some particular place makes it easier to kind of feel what is beyond that place, what is more or greater than that place.

Also, if you think in images and it's projected on some stage or some screen, maybe in front of you, then it is also possible to expand outwards. Beyond the edges of the thoughts, underneath them, behind them, or in the gaps between thoughts, you might be able to feel, sense, or imagine that there is space or spaciousness. There is stillness. There is even a silence where there are no thoughts, an absence of thought that has a kind of peacefulness to it, or has a certain kind of stillness that gives a different context to the thoughts. There is more than the agitation of thinking.

There is also that which holds it, in a sense, this wider sense of spaciousness. To be able to feel the mind expand outwards, the awareness to expand outwards beyond the thoughts—without letting go of thoughts, fixing thoughts, or having any kind of judgments about thoughts, but letting it get to wider and wider awareness—then it's possible to not be trapped by thoughts. It's possible to be at peace with thoughts or not have a problem with them, not to impute too much value or importance to them. Certainly, thoughts can be very important, but are we over-fixated on them? Are we clinging to them? Is there wanting fueling and feeding it?

This is somewhat akin to an exercise with the eyes. If you can see, you can look forward in front of your head, but what do you see behind your eyes, behind your head? The eyes can't really see the head unless you are looking at a mirror. So there is kind of an absence there, actually, even though you know there's a head. There is an absence in awareness, and that absence is a fascinating absence in that the non-seeing of our own head, the non-seeing of what's behind us (we can imagine what's behind us, but that absence is a little bit like that), is also something to be aware of. It creates a little bit more space, openness, and stillness for seeing.

It's like you expand outwards. Maybe if you lean back and rest in a very soft mattress and look at the sky, it's very spacious and relaxed. So too, in that absence where we are not preoccupied, not caught, not clinging to anything, there we are as well. We're present, but we have freed ourselves from the ways in which the mind fixates, clings, and holds to things. It is like there is space for things, there is breathing room for all things to be there. In a sense, it's very respectful because it allows all things just to be there without our interference, without our clinging, holding, and pushing away.

It also frees up thinking. Thinking becomes sometimes much more creative, interesting, and wiser if we're not glommed onto it and fixated on it. There are times—and maybe it's more likely in times when we're pretty relaxed and centered already—that it is possible to become aware of that which is beyond the edges of thinking, or that which is the stillness and silence in the gaps between thoughts.

Or sometimes, the thoughts get really, really quiet and still. They get thinner and thinner and thinner, just like very thin gauze or a very thin cloud that is going by. It doesn't seem to have any more weight, push, insistence, or contraction. It's just a phenomenon floating by, a dust mote floating by. Then it is really clear that that thought is like a bird, a cloud, or dust floating in space, floating through the sky—the sky of the mind, the sky of awareness—and it's just a thought.

This idea of "just a thought," that we don't have to get involved in or do anything with, can be so peaceful. We just watch it go by. It has nothing to do with me. You don't have to identify with a thought, make it yours, define yourself by the thought, or feel bad about having a thought. It is just this little thing that floats by in the vastness of the sky, the sky of the mind. And it is the sky which is peaceful, still, or has no wind.

If what I am talking about makes sense, there might be times where you can discover this kind of freedom and peace that is available. We don't have to be struggling with thoughts, but rather we can open up wider to include more. It can begin by recognizing your thinking, maybe doing a mental note, "thinking, thinking." As we start recognizing and seeing more clearly what this thinking really is, we begin not being so identified or caught in the field of thinking. "Oh, this is thinking, yes, this is thinking." In the awareness, we become stronger and more aware that the awareness is not the thinking.

Awareness watches it or knows it, and then we begin to have this place where we can start noticing how awareness also is wider and bigger than the thought we have. Awareness is almost the same as the space around everything.

If what I am saying makes sense, wonderful, and you can maybe use that sometimes in your practice. If it doesn't make sense, one possibility for you is to just imagine a little bit how it might be true. Don't question whether it is true or not, but just imagine how it might be true and in what circumstances this might be helpful. Understand the best you can of what I am saying, and then just store it in the back of your mind. Someday, if you continue meditating, you might notice, "Oh, that's what's possible." When the time is ripe, maybe you will be prepared to see it more clearly and not overlook it, or think it's incidental that you are now aware of something larger, the space in which thinking is happening.

Thank you very much. We have one more day on this topic tomorrow, mindfulness of thinking, and I look forward to our time tomorrow. Thank you.