What do we know about our thinking mind?
It never wants to stop.
Need proof? Sit with your eyes closed and try not to think! You can keep your mind quiet for a few seconds. Thoughts will arise before long.
Why does our thinking mind never want to stop?
Well, who would you be if your mind was still, devoid of thoughts?
Your mind doesn't want you to find out.
What would I find out if there were no thoughts in my mind?
Who you really are.
Let me quote Huang-Po, the great 9th century Zen Master:
“The approach to enlightenment is called the Gateway of the Stillness beyond all Activity. If you wish to understand [reality], know that a sudden comprehension comes when the mind has been purged of all the clutter of conceptual and discriminatory thought-activity. Those who seek the truth by means of intellect and learning only get further and further away from it. Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.”
A mind as motionless as wood or stone is a mind with no thoughts.
How does I completely quiet my thinking mind?
How do you settle the snow in a snow globe? Stop shaking it and set it down.
So too with your mind: Sit down and let it settle.
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