What If You Are Not What Changes . . . But What Witnesses the Change? Consider something. The weather changes. The seasons come and go. Days turn into weeks, and years quietly slip into memory. And so it is with the human experience. The body changes. Thoughts come and go. Emotions rise and fall. Beliefs, desires, fears, and opinions shift like passing clouds across the sky. Yet we make a single extraordinary mistake. We identify with everything that changes . . . and call it “me.” We mistake the mind's passing weather for the very essence of who we are. Perhaps, if you can observe your thoughts changing, you can clearly see that you are not your thoughts. If you can notice your emotions as they rise and fall, are you really your emotions? Or are you the Consciousness that observes them? Perhaps the greatest journey of human life is not about becoming someone better . . . b ut about discovering what has never changed within us. The S ilent Presence beneath the...
Consider this, old friend. Attention is like an electrical current. In the physical world, electricity flows through a circuit and powers whatever it reaches. A lamp illuminates. A fan begins to spin. A machine comes alive. However, unplug the current, and the movement will gradually stop. Perhaps attention works much the same way within us. Whatever you continually give your attention to, you give energy to. Give attention to a thought . . . and the thought comes alive. Give attention to a fear . . . and the fear gathers momentum. Give attention to a memory, and suddenly the past comes back to life in your mind's theater. Attention is the current that keeps the machinery of thought running. So, for a quiet moment, simply unplug the current of attention from the thinking instrument, the mind. Do not fight your thoughts. Do not try to silence them. Simply stop supplying them with your attention. Let the fan continue spinning if it wishes. Let thoughts arise . . . and let the...