Watching our thoughts gives us vivid clues to reality

I started my meditation practice using Vipassana as it is taught in Burma and Thailand. The concept is simple: watch your thoughts arise, watch them as they assume a life of their own, and then watch them fade away just as quickly and assuredly as they arrived--revealing to us that all things are impermanent. Studying the nature of our thoughts gives amazing clues as to how distracted, distraught and downright deranged our minds can be. And the key, as the great masters will tell you, is to neither become attached to, nor find ourselves in identification with, our thoughts. But that's really hard to do because we think that we ARE our thoughts.

My bird needs food, darn I forgot to buy food. The taxes are due, my spouse is an idiot, the car needs gas, the to-do list is endless and then the stories start. It's not my fault the project didn't go well at work, it's his or or her fault. They don't like me and they've already made that clear. Now the boss knows and he doesn't like me. The spiral is endless.

I remember sitting a work sweating that I was about to lose my job over a sale that went bad. I was literally sick over it. My boss didn't talk to me for a week and gave me bad looks in the hall. Then one day my boss came and sat down next to me and said 'There is something we need to talk about." I was about to throw up when he explained how it was his fault the deal got blown because he was getting a divorce and didn't give it the time or attention it deserved. He wanted to make sure I knew it wasn't my fault.

The entire time I thought it was my fault. I acted like an idiot, operating totally on false information. I lost sleep, yelled at my wife, barked at my kids, drank too much, etc., when in fact it was all an illusion. I was delusional and didn't know it. Then I began to wonder how many other aspects of my life I was sure were true, turned out to be totally false, just as this one had.

Sitting for even a brief period of time will reveal how truly discursive our minds are. If you want to seriously improve your life, spend a few minutes every morning watching your thoughts and see what happens with the rest of your day. The change will be remarkable.