Thoughts and the Mind <Url source https://www.facebook.

com/> Thoughts and the Mind Like waves, all the activities of this life have rolled endlessly on, one after the other, yet they have left us feeling empty-handed. Myriads of thoughts have run through our mind, each one giving birth to many more, but what they have do ne is to increase our confusion and dissatisfaction. When we closely examine the ordinary habits that underlie whatever we do and tr y to discover where they come from, we find that their very source is our failur e to investigate them properly. We operate under the deluded assumption that eve rything has some sort of true, substantial reality. But when we look more carefu lly, we find that the phenomenal world is like a rainbow vivid and colourful, but wi thout any tangible existence. ... When a rainbow appears in the sky we see many beautiful colours yet a rainbow is no t something we can clothe ourselves with, or wear as an ornament. There is nothi ng we can take hold of; it is simply something that appears to us through the co njunction of various conditions. Thoughts arise in the mind in just the same way . They have no tangible reality or intrinsic existence at all. There is therefor e no logical reason why thoughts should have so much power over us, nor any reas on why we should be enslaved by them. Mind is what creates both samsara and nirvana. Yet there is nothing much to it it i s just thoughts. Once we recognize that thoughts are empty, the mind will no lon ger have the power to deceive us. But as long as we take our deluded thoughts as real, they will continue to torment us mercilessly, as they have been doing thr oughout countless past lives. To gain control over the mind, we need to be aware of what to do and what to avoid, and we also need to be alert and vigilant, con stantly examining all our thoughts, words and actions. To cut through the mind s clinging, it is important to understand that all appearan ces are void, like the appearance of water in a mirage. Beautiful forms are of n o benefit to the mind, nor can ugly forms harm it in any way. Sever the ties of hope and fear, attraction and repulsion, and remain in equanimity in the underst anding that all phenomena are nothing more than projections of your own mind. Once you have realized absolute truth, then you will see the whole, infinite di splay of relative phenomena that appears within it as no more than an illusion o r a dream. To realize that appearance and voidness are one is what is called sim plicity, or freedom from conceptual limitations. -Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche