Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

FOOD FOR THE MIND

"Thoughts as food,"
Is food for thought.
It's all you can eat,
So eat all you can.

The above is not really a poem, but just an expression to remind me of what happens in meditation. In the beginning, thoughts seem to be an annoyance, but later, without thoughts, there would be no meditation. At some point, thoughts, like fuel, are the means to any realization – portals through which we gaze at the true nature of the mind.

It is not the 'content' of a thought that matters (what it is about), but rather what is important is to know its true nature. Buddhists say that thoughts to the mind are like waves to the ocean. The ocean is the mother to all waves – water to water.

The mind is the mother to all thoughts – mind to mind. They are contiguous -- one. Just as we can realize that waves are just the edge of the ocean, its face, so all thoughts (good, bad, indifferent) are just the appearance or face of the mind itself. Once understood, thoughts become not something to endlessly follow, but rather endless opportunities, windows to gaze through at the actual nature of the mind.

To repeat, instead of being seen as interruptions, thoughts become opportunities that remind us to look through them and realize their true nature, mind itself.

[Photo taken yesterday.]