We use the mind to analyze the mind, but can we find it? No way. Buddhist teachings say not even the buddhas could find the mind, so how are we going to find it? It’s impossible, but we try to pinpoint it anyway because we always want to know more. Our intellectual mind likes to know everything. While it is important to practice analytical meditation, we need to go beyond the intellect and rest the analyzing mind. When the analyzing mind is completely at rest, there is nothing to analyze, and no one to analyze it. We discussed relative shamatha (calm abiding) and the value of using our concentration to remain in the present moment. This is important, but this is only stage one in Dzogchen practice. The next stage of Dzogchen shamatha is to recognize each thought as it arises. 

We gain wisdom by letting the mind remain calm. If we think that something is a problem, we will get stressed by it, and then wisdom will not arise. We need to give our thoughts space. Sometimes [the] mind is happy, sometimes it’s sad. It can be happy in the morning and grumpy in the afternoon. This is not to judge right and wrong here, we just need to recognize the way it is. That is the nature of human beings, so you don’t need to worry about it. You are allowed to be grumpy, just as you are allowed to be kind, too. Sometimes you feel kind and you want to be kind. Sometimes you feel grumpy. That’s our nature, and it’s good to recognize the fact that you have both aspects. 

We are learning to watch our minds and notice whatever thought comes up without reacting to it. Notice it, but don’t make a big deal of it, or you will start thinking, “I must do something—I must challenge this.” How many years have you been doing that? It’s never going to end unless you turn your mind inward and watch it every day. Stop looking at everyone else and look at yourself. Watch your own mind and see how many thoughts come up. The mind has so many thoughts, it’s like a bustling international airport with thousands of people coming and going all the time.

We need to identify the types of emotions that arise because many different emotions come and go every day. Look at how we deal with emotions such as anger and jealousy. Anger is never good for you; it’s a powerful negative emotion and a powerful energy. Anger is not bad in itself, but it gives rise to aggression, jealousy, and pride, which is why it is called one of the five poisons. Anger is considered a poison because of what results come from it; we turn it into poison. It can destroy us and it can destroy our friendships and relationships. 

Anger is easy to recognize, but jealousy is a different problem and quite dangerous. We call it the “silent” emotion because it’s hidden behind a facade, a bit like a snake. You never know when a snake is coming for you; you need to keep vigilant around a snake or it might suddenly rear up and bite you. Jealousy can rise up like that and destroy your relationships, your friendships, and your sense of peace. When we examine it, we can see that jealousy is all about ourselves. We are always thinking, “I want to be happy. They are happy, why not me?”

What do you do when an emotion arises? To begin with, just recognize the emotion. Don’t judge it, just recognize it for what it is. Just as you identify different types of drinks, like soda, juice, or water, in order to choose the most suitable one, we recognize our thoughts and emotions in order to be able to discriminate between them. Recognition allows you to make the right choice. We need to recognize our thoughts and emotions so that we know when anger, pride, attachment, desire, or jealousy are present.

Don’t Block, Don’t Follow

All those negative emotions and thoughts are just the drama of the mind. It never ends. We need to get rid of these thoughts and feelings, but we can’t force them to go, we can’t push them away, that’s not possible. Most schools of Buddhism will say that when negative emotions come, we should block them, and when positive emotions come, we should follow them. It’s easy to say, “Block your negative thoughts,” but they only get worse when you do. Dzogchen never advises us to block our thoughts and emotions or to deny their existence. 

The special method of Dzogchen is to let our thoughts and emotions come without following them, because following them only creates a storyline that gets bigger and feels more solid. The Dzogchen teachings say that whatever arises—good thoughts or bad thoughts, good emotions or bad emotions—let it come, but don’t follow it. In Dzogchen, good thoughts are still just thoughts, so we don’t judge them as being better than negative thoughts. The Dzogchen approach is to say, “No matter what thought or emotion arises, don’t do anything. Just let it come and let it go.” If you can do that, you will not be stressed by thoughts. We call that the practice of “let come, let go.” We don’t want any thoughts. No thought in the mind, no cloud in the sky. It’s a lot of fun.

Every hour we have so many thoughts. That’s important to acknowledge. Don’t be panicked by all these thoughts, just let come, let go. All the negative emotions will come, and that’s okay. Don’t block them and don’t follow them. You may notice you have a lot of fear. But we can’t block fear from the mind—it will just come back bigger and stronger. Just let come, let go. Don’t block fear and don’t follow fear. Don’t invite good thoughts and don’t reject bad thoughts. Stop worrying about all the things that come up in your mind. Recognize your thoughts, let them come, and let them go.

A Practice: The Three Stages of Recognizing Thoughts

Normally, if we are unable to block our negative thoughts, we follow them. We know it’s no good to follow them, that it’s no good to follow anger, jealousy, pride, or ego—ego is the worst thing to follow, it’s a poison—but we do it anyway, out of habit. We think, “I can’t change, this is how I always do things.” Our habits have nothing to do with who we are, they are just what we are used to doing. How are you going to adapt your view? How are you going to break your old “pick and choose” habit and change it to a “let come, let go” habit? 

When something is difficult or not working out for you, just accept it and it will get easier. Let come, let go. Don’t follow your thoughts, your stories, your narratives. Whether thoughts are happy or sad, good or bad, they all have the same compelling repetition. Just watch them.

We often think that we’re not good enough or not strong enough, but we need to break that habit. You are good enough. You are strong enough. You have everything you need. This is not just positive thinking. It’s the truth. We need to break the habit of believing in the relative, intellectual mind. Our tendency to like this and not that is what keeps us trapped in our habits. If we develop right view by learning to let come, let go, that view will break the power habits have over us. We are normally led by habits and it seems very difficult to change them. Now is the time to change them, the time to end them. We practice Dzogchen shamatha so we can learn to let go. We’ve had enough of stress and distractions. 

Whether thoughts are happy or sad, good or bad, they all have the same compelling repetition. Just watch them.

There are three stages to our meditation practice. Firstly, we need to recognize each thought as it arises in the mind and learn to recognize its familiarity. Then, we start to see that those thoughts simply resolve by themselves if we leave them alone. Finally, we come to understand that our thoughts are harmless because there is no one to be affected by them.

Stage 1: Thoughts are like old friends

We need to immediately recognize our habitual thought patterns, the ones that return again and again, as old friends. We want to come to a place where we can say, “I know this anger,” “I know this trickiness,” “I know this jealousy,” “I know this joy.” When these thoughts arise it is like meeting an old friend, someone you know very well. We all have anger, jealousy, desire, and pride. When you identify jealousy arising, say to yourself, “My mind is quite tricky, but I recognize this jealousy as my old friend. I will stay away from this situation until it’s gone.” Jealousy is quite complicated, but you must let it go, seeing it as useless. Instead, just be yourself—enjoy life and have fun. What is jealousy anyway? Things don’t just belong to you, they belong to all of us. We are a unity, we are one. It’s no good being so separate and individualistic to the point where you feel jealousy over what someone else has. If you can be more open, you will enjoy yourself more and more.

We become more open by noticing our habitual thoughts and recognizing them as our old friends. If you can recognize a thought as an old friend, you will see that you already know it and you will be able to handle it. Now, it’s okay to explain that thought or emotion to yourself, but try not to express it outwardly. For example, when anger arises, just think, “There you are my old friend.” Anger is a very tricky friend. You can’t trust it. It’s like a guest that will trash your house.

Stage 2: Thoughts will fix themselves

At the moment you recognize a thought, it is finished, it is liberated. We always think we need to do something about our problems, worries, plans, and anxieties, but if you just leave the thoughts alone—if you let come, let go—your problems will resolve by themselves. If you tie a snake into a knot, you don’t need to go back and untie it; the snake will unknot by itself. If you recognize a thought and leave it alone, it will also unravel by itself. You don’t need to fix it. You don’t need to do anything.

Stage 3: Thoughts are like thieves in an empty house

When you recognize your thoughts as old friends and let them unravel by themselves, you no longer have anything to lose. Nor do you have anything to gain, so every thought that arises is incapable of harming you. If a thief breaks into your house when it’s empty, you have nothing to worry about because there will be nothing to steal. You can relax. Whether a thief comes or not, it’s no big deal, it doesn’t bother you. Thoughts come and thoughts go. When you no longer block or follow your thoughts, they will no longer bother you, you will have nothing to lose and nothing to fear. You will be completely beyond that. 

If you can be more open, you will enjoy yourself more and more.

You worry now because you have so many possessions in your house. You not only need to make sure your house is locked but that your garden is watered, and your gas, electricity, and insurance bills have been paid. It’s such a headache and the more you have, the more your head aches. When you are young parents, you need a big house for your kids, and then when the kids grow up and leave, you still need to maintain the house. You have become a slave to the house. We become stuck in a pattern and just repeat the same things over and over. 

An empty mind is like that empty house you don’t need to lock. If you have an empty mind, you don’t need to guard it. You have nothing to lose—no illusion of identity, no illusion of goals, illusion of wealth, illusion of property, illusion of possessions. So when anger arises, you need to notice it and let come, let go. That is like recognizing a thief in your house. If you see the thief, they won’t steal anything and if you recognize the anger, it won’t be able to steal your better judgment. Everything will be a blessing—your happiness, your suffering, your obstacles—because the house is empty.

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From Meditation for Modern Madness © 2024 by His Eminence The Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications.