The mind has, in general, two aspects, stillness and movement.

Sometimes the min

d is quiet and free from thoughts, like a calm pool; this is stillness. Eventual
ly, thoughts are bound to arise in it; this is movement. In truth, however, alth
ough in a sense there is a movement of thoughts within the stillness, there is a
ctually no difference between these two states just as the nature of stillness i
s voidness, the nature of movement is also voidness. Stillness and movement are
merely two names for the one mind.
Most of the time we are unaware of our state of mind and pay no attention to whe
ther the mind is still or moving. While you are meditating, a thought might aris
e in your mind the idea of going shopping, for instance. If you are aware of the
thought and just let it dissolve by itself, then that is the end of it. But if
you remain unaware of what is happening and let that thought grow and develop, i
t will lead on to a second thought, the thought of having a break from your prac
tice, and in no time at all you will ?nd yourself actually getting up and going
out to the market. Soon many more thoughts and ideas will arise how you are goin
g to buy this, sell that, and so forth. By this point you will be a very long wa
y away from your meditation.
It is completely natural that thoughts keep on arising. The point is not to try
to stop them, which would be impossible anyway, but to liberate them. This is do
ne by remaining in a state of simplicity, which lets thoughts arise and vanish a
gain without stringing onto them any further thoughts. When you no longer perpet
uate the movement of thoughts, they dissolve by themselves without leaving any t
race. When you no longer spoil the state of stillness with mental fabrications,
you can maintain the natural serenity of mind without any effort. Sometimes, let
your thoughts ?ow, and watch the unchanging nature behind them. Sometimes, abru
ptly cutting the ?ow of thoughts, look at naked awareness.
Innumerable thoughts and memories, stirred up by the tendencies to which we have
become habituated, arise in the mind. One after the other, each thought seems t
o vanish into the past, only to be replaced as the next, in its turn, becomes ?e
etingly present to the mind before itself giving way to future thoughts. Each th
ought tends to pick up the momentum of the one before it, so that the in?uence o
f a string of thoughts grows as time passes; this is called the chain of delusion
. Just as what we call a rosary is in fact a string of single beads, so also what
we usually call the mind is really a succession of momentary thoughts; a trickl
e of thoughts makes the stream of consciousness, the mind-stream, and the mindstr
eam leads on to the ocean of existence.
Our belief that the mind is a real entity is a conclusion based on insuf?cient i
nvestigation. We believe a river we see today to be the same river we saw yester
day, but in reality a river never stays the same even for a second the water tha
t made up yesterday's river will surely be part of the ocean by now. The same is
true for the countless thoughts that run through our mind from morning to evening
. Our mindstream is just a succession of instantaneous thoughts; there is no sepa
rate entity that you can point out as being a mind.
Now, if we analyze the thought process carefully, it becomes evident that past t
houghts are already dead, like a corpse. Future thoughts have not yet been born.
As for present thoughts, they cannot be said to have any properties such as loc
ation, color, or shape. They leave no traces, and indeed they are nowhere to be
found In fact, there could be no possible point of contact between past, present
, and future thoughts. If there were any real continuity between, for instance,
a past thought and a present thought, that would necessarily mean either that th
e past thought is present or that the present thought is past. If the past reall
y could extend to the present in this way, it would also follow that the future
must already be present. But nevertheless, ignorant of the true nature of though
ts, we maintain the habit of seeing them as being continuously linked, one after
another. This is the root of delusion, and this is what allows us to be more an
d more dominated by our thoughts and emotions, until total confusion reigns.
It is of vital importance to be aware of the arising of thoughts and to still th
e waves of thoughts that assail you. Anger, for instance, is an extremely destru
ctive tendency which spoils all the good qualities you may otherwise have. No on
e enjoys the company of an angry person. There is nothing inherently very fright
ening about the appearance of snakes, but because they are generally very aggres
sive, the mere sight of them inspires fear and loathing. Whether in a human or a
snake, such a preponderance of anger is nothing more than the outcome of an unc
hecked accumulation of negative thoughts.
If at the very moment an angry thought arises, you recognize it for what it is a
nd understand how negative it is, your anger will calm down of its own accord, a
nd you will always be able to stay on good terms with everyone. On the other han
d, if you let that ?rst angry thought give rise to a second angry thought, in no
time at all, your anger will be completely out of control, and you will be read
y even to risk your life to destroy your adversary.
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - On The Path to Enlightenment by Matthieu Ricard