Discover the Emptiness of Your Mind
Stillness can never be the whole story of meditation. The essential thing that meditation can bring to the meditator is the realization of the emptiness of all phenomena, including the mind itself. By practicing the instructions given below, one will be able to develop the ability to examine one’s own mind.
There are different ways to observe your mind. You can start with thinking nothing. When a thought arises, just let it go—don’t get caught up in it—and just return to the open, sky-like mind. This is a way to suspend your active mind and keep it still.
Another way is to watch your mind. For instance, when you’re suffering, just observe what the nature of the suffering is. In this way you will begin to watch your own mind. Suppose you are not happy today; just observe your mind. What’s its color? Is it white or red? Does it have a shape? Is it square or circular? Is it in the upper part or in the lower part of the body? Is it inside the head or somewhere else? When you look into your mind, you will notice the so-called mind is like space that exists nowhere. If you can’t find the mind, then there’s no basis for your suffering. This is a superior method.
When we have suffering in our life, we feel it strongly. However if we examine it closely, there is no inherently-real, solidly-existing entity. Since the mind doesn’t exist as a solid entity, the suffering arising from the mind doesn’t exist either. In fact, no scientist has ever been able to find an entity called the mind. According to Buddhist teaching, everything is emptiness. Emptiness is not just a concept. The nature of all phenomena does not truly exist.
