Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament

Buddhists talk about empty mind. In the purest sense, that is what we are referring to when we use the term “mind.” It is a field of energy with nothing in it. There are no thoughts. There’s just an absolutely still, formless field of energy we call “mind.”

If you’re asked who is saying all this inside your head, you’ll probably say it’s you. But it is not you. Those are thoughts, and you are the one who is noticing the thoughts. Thoughts are just another thing you notice in there. You notice the world coming in from outside, and you notice the thoughts that are generated inside.

If you stay with this process every day, you will get there. Put time aside to remind yourself who you are and to recall your commitment to cleaning up inside. Morning and evening practices will help you do this. It doesn’t have to be much time; just enough to relax and release, come back to center, and remember to use every moment of your life to

To help notice sooner, instead of just watching your breath, count your breaths.

These impressions that stay stuck in the mind are called samskaras in yogic science.

Why not go directly to the root and say, “What I want is to feel love and joy. What I want is every moment of every day to feel complete well-being as high as I’ve ever felt before, and to be inspired by everything I do.”

Acceptance is best understood as nonresistance to reality. Try as you may, no one can make an event that has already happened not have happened.

Once the energy starts spontaneously flowing, you won’t touch it. You just respect it, honor it, and appreciate it. You inwardly say, “Thank you,” and keep letting go. That becomes your only prayer—thank you, thank you so much.

As we discussed, you are not looking out into the world. The outside is being reproduced in your mind, and you are looking at that mental image. It’s really not that different from when you are dreaming. In the dream state, images are being created in the mind, and you are looking at them. The waking state is the same, except that the mental images