Knowing Before Thought
Conocer antes del pensamiento
A gentle invitation to notice how thought filters our experience and to discover the open, complete awareness already here beneath it.
Knowing Before Thought
Setting up
In meditation we want to know our experience,
just what's happening,
but not from the normal habitual place, which is thought.
We approach our experience always through thought.
First thought, then experience,
like a filter.
So it might be necessary to recognize what is thought,
so we can sit and look at the mind.
We can do that now.
Thought is more than we think
A good tip is that thought is a lot more than we think it is.
It's not just some inner dialogue and words.
We hear a sound and we instantly have an image and concept of what caused it,
where it is, where it came from, where it's going.
Same with sensations.
We're aware of the concept of breathing when we pay attention to our breath.
The sensations of the breath are left in the background, behind the filter of thought.
It helps to notice just how much we're involved in thought first.
We move away, progressively, slowly,
sometimes suddenly.
It's a bit of a conundrum.
We like our thought world,
as much as it can be troubling.
The longing that calls us
So it's very important, as we listen to whatever is calling us.
Something is calling us.
We're here because of a longing, a calling.
We sense there is something more.
We taste it.
We know it.
We knew it as children,
but it's not a memory.
It's a direct knowing.
We know it now, but it's maybe far away,
at a distance,
or so it seems.
Gentleness and tenderness
So as we let this calling guide us,
it's always here for us to be gentle.
There's something very tender and vulnerable.
So we can welcome that sensitivity and tenderness in our experience, in the heart.
That vulnerability we see in children never really goes away.
That openness.
Surrendering to life.
What is already here
This is not a process of effort,
striving,
achieving,
working.
We can instead recognize what is already here.
Something is already complete,
total,
welcoming.
Everything is always fully welcome in our awareness.
Even resistance and struggling,
efforting.
It's fully welcome,
untouched.
The river
We can try to swim upstream,
see how that feels,
or let the river take us.
It's taking us anyways.
It's all one river flowing.
Infinitely trusted.
Mind goes around in circles
while life flows.
The mind seems safe,
but the river is safe.
In the mystery of this, slowly letting go, questions are answered.
Hold on to the rock,
to the branch,
hang out in the whirlpool of the mind,
and we long for the river to take us.
It's all river anyways.
Touching gently
Touch this gently.
It will respond gently.
There is emotional pain or harshness in the mind.
Touch it gently.
It doesn't seem so,
but everything is available now.
Nothing is missing.
We feel unsafe; safety is only available now.
We feel troubled; peace is available now.