Question
Hello,
I have a question regarding the meditation method where you are told to "watch your thoughts, to be aware of your thoughts and let them flow by". I have visited alot of websites to find out more about this method but I still can't find the answer im looking for, which is, How.
I understand what you need to do, but not how I should do it.
I mean, how do I become aware of my thoughts, and how do I know that I am aware of them? I am very frustrated, and simply cannot figure out how I should do it. I can very easily take my awareness to my left foot for example because I know where it is located, but with my thoughts, I don't know where they are or where to look for them. So how can I then become aware of them?
So basically my Question is, HOW can I be aware of my thoughts (where to look for them, and how to be aware of them), and HOW do I know that I am aware of them?
I really want to understand this meditation technique but simply don't understand how to be aware of my thoughts when I don't know what/ where they are.
Answer
Excellent work. Not finding the location or existence of the thoughts is the beginning of higher meditation. Rest in that not finding. When conscious material surfaces again search as you have done for the location of the thoughts. Then not finding anything, rest in that not finding. This is a tradition way to learn how to meditate on emptiness, the lack of substantial ego and object.
It is tradition to begin by forming the aspiration to free all beings from suffering. Wishing to free them all I will Meditate. Then, after not finding the thought try to find who is seeking the thought. Not finding the seeker, rest in not finding. When the seeker and the sought is at ease in not finding, there abides pure awareness, clear, bright, knowing, unfindable, dimensionless. Resting there is the true insight meditation.
Fools who think they are aware of their thought haven't insight. They only have a naive belief that hearing the thought in their mind they are aware of it.
Palbar
