Look Beyond What Appears and Examine the True Mind
When you first begin meditation, the instruction to look at the mind can feel vague. When you actually sit, all kinds of thoughts come and go, the body feels uncomfortable, and wandering thoughts and delusions may seem even louder.
If you take only those visible thoughts and discomforts to be the whole of who you are, practice quickly becomes frustrating. Yet beyond what appears, there is a deeper place.
Even ordinary ground may hide treasure when you dig below it and examine it carefully. The mind is like that too. Rather than only trying to get rid of the stream of thoughts, we need to come to know the original place of mind beneath them.
People and situations are also not exhausted by what appears on the surface. Something that looked good may contain another intention, and something that looked bad may also hold a deeper truth.
Today, do not cling only to the thoughts and emotions in front of you. Look one step more deeply. Practice is the steady effort to discover the true mind beyond them.
When meditating, wandering thoughts and bodily discomfort may appear first, but they are not the whole of the mind. Beyond what appears is the original true mind. People and situations are not only their surface either, so we should look more deeply and discover the hidden truth.
