Speaker 1: You know, if you sit quietly for a moment and
Speaker 1: just observe what's happening inside your head, you'll notice something
Speaker 1: rather extraordinary. There's this constant chatter going on, an endless
Speaker 1: stream of commentary, of narration, of conversation with yourself about yourself.
Speaker 1: It never stops. Even right now, as you're listening to me,
Speaker 1: there's probably another voice in your head commenting on what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, agreeing or disagreeing, planning what to think next,
Speaker 1: wondering if you've understood correctly, perhaps even talking about the
Speaker 1: fact that it's talking. This internal dialog is so constant,
Speaker 1: so pervasive, that most people don't even notice it any more.
Speaker 1: It's like the hum of a refrigerator that you only
Speaker 1: hear when someone points it out. But once you do
Speaker 1: notice it, once you become aware of this endless internal conversation,
Speaker 1: a very natural question arises. Why won't it stop? Why
Speaker 1: does the mind insist on this constant talking to itself?
Speaker 1: And more importantly, who is talking to whom? If it's
Speaker 1: your mind talking to itself, then who is the talker
Speaker 1: and who is the listener? Are there two of you
Speaker 1: in there? And if there are two, which one is
Speaker 1: the real you the one doing the talking or the
Speaker 1: one listening to the talking. Let me tell you this
Speaker 1: is not a trivial question. This is perhaps one of
Speaker 1: the most important questions you can ask about the nature
Speaker 1: of your own consciousness, because this internal dialogue, this constant
Speaker 1: mental chatter, is at the root of almost all human suffering.
Speaker 1: It's the mechanism by which we create anxiety, worry, regret,
Speaker 1: and most of our psychological pain, and yet we're so
Speaker 1: identified with it that we think it's who we are.
Speaker 1: Let's start by examining what this internal voice is actually doing.
Speaker 1: If you pay close attention, you'll notice that it's doing
Speaker 1: several things. First, it's narrating. It's telling you the story
Speaker 1: of what's happening. I'm sitting here listening to this. I
Speaker 1: wonder what he'll say next. This is interesting. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I agree with that. It's like a sports commentator
Speaker 1: giving you a play by play of your own life,
Speaker 1: except that you're living the life and providing the commentary simultaneously. Second,
Speaker 1: it's evaluating. It's constantly judging everything that happens as good
Speaker 1: or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable. I like this,
Speaker 1: I don't like that this is going well, this is
Speaker 1: going poorly. I should have done that differently. I hope
Speaker 1: this continues. I hope that doesn't happen again, on and on,
Speaker 1: an endless stream of evaluation and judgment. Third, it's planning
Speaker 1: and rehearsing. It's constantly projecting into the future, imagining scenarios,
Speaker 1: preparing speeches you'll never give, having arguments with people who
Speaker 1: aren't there, worrying about things that might happen, fantasizing about
Speaker 1: things you hope will happen. I'll tell them this. If
Speaker 1: they say that, I'll respond with this, what if this happens,
Speaker 1: I need to remember to do that tomorrow. I'll do
Speaker 1: this differently. Fourth, and perhaps most insidiously, it's maintaining your
Speaker 1: sense of identity. It's constantly reminding you of who you are,
Speaker 1: what your story is, what happened to you in the past,
Speaker 1: what you believe, what you like and don't like, what
Speaker 1: you're afraid of, what you hope for. I'm the kind
Speaker 1: of person who I've always been. I could never I
Speaker 1: remember when this is just like me too. It's like
Speaker 1: a propaganda machine working tirelessly to convince you that you
Speaker 1: are this particular character in this particular story. Now, why
Speaker 1: does the mind do all this? What's the purpose of
Speaker 1: this endless chatter. Well, fundamentally, it's trying to maintain control.
Speaker 1: The mind believes that if it can just think about
Speaker 1: things enough, analyze them enough, plan for them enough, it
Speaker 1: can control what happens. It's trying to make life safe, predictable.
Speaker 1: It's trying to avoid pain and secure pleasure. It's trying
Speaker 1: to defend and promote this entity it believes itself to be,
Speaker 1: this separate self that needs protecting and advancing. But here's
Speaker 1: the problem. It doesn't work. All this thinking, all this planning,
Speaker 1: all this worrying and analyzing and rehearsing, it doesn't actually
Speaker 1: give you control over life. Life continues to unfold in
Speaker 1: ways you don't expect and can't predict. Things happen that
Speaker 1: you didn't plan for, People behave in ways you didn't anticipate.
Speaker 1: And yet the mind keeps on talking, keeps on trying,
Speaker 1: keeps on believing that if it just thinks a little harder,
Speaker 1: plans a little better, worries a little more thoroughly, it
Speaker 1: will finally achieve the control it seeks. It's like someone
Speaker 1: standing in a boat trying to push the boat forward
Speaker 1: by pushing on the mast. They're putting in tremendous effort,
Speaker 1: getting exhausted, and yet the boat isn't moving. But they
Speaker 1: keep pushing because they don't understand that they are part
Speaker 1: of the system they're trying to move. They think they're
Speaker 1: separate from the boat, that they can push it from outside,
Speaker 1: but they're in the boat. Their pushing doesn't move the boat.
Speaker 1: It just wastes energy and creates frustration. In the same way,
Speaker 1: the thinking mind believes its separate from life, that it
Speaker 1: can think about life, plan for life, control life from
Speaker 1: some position outside of life. But this is an illusion.
Speaker 1: The mind is not separate from life. It's part of life.
Speaker 1: All this thinking is life, thinking about itself, life, narrating itself,
Speaker 1: life judging itself, and it's fundamentally unnecessary. Now you might object,
Speaker 1: but surely some thinking is necessary. We need to plan,
Speaker 1: to solve problems, to make decisions. And yes, of course,
Speaker 1: practical thinking has its place. If you need to get
Speaker 1: from point A to point B, you need to think
Speaker 1: about the route. If you have a problem to solve,
Speaker 1: you need to think about solutions. But notice something, this
Speaker 1: useful practical thinking is very different from the compulsive internal
Speaker 1: chatter I'm talking about. Practical thinking is focused, It has
Speaker 1: a specific purpose. It arises when needed and subsides when
Speaker 1: the task is complete. It's like using a tool. You
Speaker 1: pick it up when you need it, you use it,
Speaker 1: and then you put it down. But the compulsive mental
Speaker 1: chatter isn't like that at all. It's not focused. It
Speaker 1: jumps from topic to topic randomly. It has no specific purpose.
Speaker 1: It's just happening automatically, and it never subsides. It continues
Speaker 1: whether you need it or not, whether you want it
Speaker 1: or not. This compulsive thinking is more like a stuck
Speaker 1: record playing the same grooves over and over, or like
Speaker 1: a machine that's been left running and no one knows
Speaker 1: how to turn it off. It's become habitual, automatic, apparently unstoppable.
Speaker 1: And the reason it won't stop is that you've become
Speaker 1: so completely identified with it that you think it's you.
Speaker 1: You think you are your thoughts. You think the voice
Speaker 1: in your head is who you are. But I want
Speaker 1: to suggest something radical. You are not your thoughts. The
Speaker 1: voice in your head is not you. It's something that's
Speaker 1: happening to you, like the weather is happening, like sounds
Speaker 1: are happening, like sensations in your body are happening. Thoughts
Speaker 1: are just another phenomenon arising in consciousness. They're not the
Speaker 1: consciousness itself. They're not You think about it this way.
Speaker 1: If you are your thoughts, then who is aware of
Speaker 1: your thoughts? Who is noticing the internal dialogue? There must
Speaker 1: be something prior to thought, something that can observe thought,
Speaker 1: that is aware of thought, and that awareness, that pure
Speaker 1: consciousness that witnesses the thinking, that's closer to what you
Speaker 1: really are than the thoughts themselves. But we've become so
Speaker 1: hypnotized by thinking, so identified with this internal voice, that
Speaker 1: we've forgotten the awareness in which the thinking is happening.
Speaker 1: It's like being so absorbed in watching a movie that
Speaker 1: you forget you're sitting in a theater. The movie is compelling,
Speaker 1: it seems real, it seems important, But you're not the movie.
Speaker 1: You're the space in which the movie is appearing. You're
Speaker 1: the screen, not the images on the screen. Now, let
Speaker 1: me tell you what happens when you begin to disidentify
Speaker 1: from thinking, when you begin to recognize that you are
Speaker 1: not the voice in your head, something quite remarkable occurs.
Speaker 1: The thinking begins to slow down, it loses its compulsive quality.
Speaker 1: It's like you've discovered the off switch, or at least
Speaker 1: the volume control. This doesn't mean thinking stops entirely. Practical
Speaker 1: thinking still arises when needed, but the endless, useless, repetitive
Speaker 1: internal chatter begins to subside, and in its absence you
Speaker 1: discover something extraordinary. There's a silence underneath all the mental noise,
Speaker 1: a vast, spacious awareness in which thoughts come and go
Speaker 1: like clouds passing through the sky. And in this silence,
Speaker 1: this spaciousness, you're more present to life as it actually is,
Speaker 1: rather than being lost in thoughts about life. You're here now,
Speaker 1: rather than being lost in memories of the past or
Speaker 1: fantasies about the future. You're experiencing directly, rather than through
Speaker 1: the filter of constant mental commentary. Let me give you
Speaker 1: an example. Imagine you're looking at a beautiful sunset. If
Speaker 1: the mind is chattering, it's saying things like, oh, what
Speaker 1: a beautiful sunset. I should take a photograph. This reminds
Speaker 1: me of that sunset I saw five years ago. I
Speaker 1: wonder if tomorrow's sunset will be as nice. I wish
Speaker 1: Sarah were here to see this. I should tell her
Speaker 1: about it? What time is it? How long should I
Speaker 1: watch this? And on and on and in all this thinking,
Speaker 1: you're not actually seeing the sunset. You're thinking about the sunset,
Speaker 1: but you're not present to the direct experience of it.
Speaker 1: But if the mind is quiet, you're simply seeing colors, light, movement,
Speaker 1: the vast sky, the extraordinary display of nature. No words
Speaker 1: about it, no evaluation of it, no comparison to other sunsets,
Speaker 1: just this pure seeing, pure being here with what is.
Speaker 1: And this direct experience is so much richer, so much
Speaker 1: more alive, than any thought about experience could ever be.
Speaker 1: This is what the mystics mean when they talk about
Speaker 1: living in the present moment. They don't mean thinking about
Speaker 1: the present moment. That's just more thinking. They mean being
Speaker 1: so present that the thinking subsides and you're in direct
Speaker 1: contact with reality as it unfolds, moment by moment, without
Speaker 1: the mediating filter of thought. Now you might be wondering,
Speaker 1: how do you achieve this, How do you quiet the mind?
Speaker 1: How do you stop the internal dialogue? And here's where
Speaker 1: we come to a very subtle point. You can't stop
Speaker 1: it by trying to stop it, because who would be
Speaker 1: trying the mind would be trying to stop up the mind.
Speaker 1: The thinker would be trying to stop thinking, and this
Speaker 1: just creates more thought, more effort, more internal dialogue. It's
Speaker 1: like the old instruction, don't think of a pink elephant.
Speaker 1: The moment you try not to think of something, you're
Speaker 1: thinking about it. In the same way, if you try
Speaker 1: to stop thinking, you're engaging in a kind of thinking.
Speaker 1: You're creating thoughts about stopping thoughts, and this doesn't work.
Speaker 1: It just creates more mental noise, not less. So what's
Speaker 1: the alternative. The alternative is not to try to stop thinking,
Speaker 1: but to observe thinking, to become aware of thinking, to
Speaker 1: notice the internal dialogue without getting caught up in it,
Speaker 1: without believing it, without identifying with it. To watch thoughts
Speaker 1: the way you might watch clouds passing through the sky,
Speaker 1: noticing them but not becoming them, not following them, not
Speaker 1: getting lost in them. This is what meditation practices are
Speaker 1: fundamentally about. Not stopping thought that's common misunderstanding, but becoming
Speaker 1: aware of thought, creating some space between awareness and thinking,
Speaker 1: recognizing that you are not your thoughts, you are the
Speaker 1: awareness in which thoughts appear. And when you practice this,
Speaker 1: when you consistently observe thinking without identifying with it, something
Speaker 1: very interesting happens. The thinking gradually loses its compulsive quality.
Speaker 1: It's like you've stopped feeding it with your attention and belief.
Speaker 1: And when thoughts aren't believed, when they are not taken
Speaker 1: as absolute truth, when they're not identified with, they naturally
Speaker 1: begin to subside. Think of thoughts as being like waves
Speaker 1: on the ocean. If you believe you are the waves,
Speaker 1: if you identify with every surge and crash, life is turbulent, unstable, frightening.
Speaker 1: But if you recognize that you are the ocean itself,
Speaker 1: that the waves are just temporary movements on the surface,
Speaker 1: while the depths remain calm, then the waves can come
Speaker 1: and go without disturbing, being your fundamental peace. Now I
Speaker 1: want to address something important. The mind won't like this.
Speaker 1: The thinking mind will resist this shift in identification because
Speaker 1: it threatens its very existence. It will come up with
Speaker 1: all sorts of arguments for why constant thinking is necessary,
Speaker 1: Why you need to worry, why you need to analyze,
Speaker 1: why you need to plan, why you can't just be
Speaker 1: present without all this mental activity. It will tell you
Speaker 1: that if you stop thinking so much, you will become irresponsible,
Speaker 1: you will fail to achieve your goals, You will be
Speaker 1: taken advantage of, you will miss important opportunities. It will
Speaker 1: create fear about what will happen if you don't keep
Speaker 1: up the constant mental vigilance. And all of this is
Speaker 1: just the mind trying to maintain its control, trying to
Speaker 1: keep you identified with it, trying to prevent you from
Speaker 1: discovering that you are not it. But if you can
Speaker 1: see through these stories, if you can recognize them as
Speaker 1: just more thinking, just more of the same compulsive men chatter,
Speaker 1: then you can let them pass without being controlled by them.
Speaker 1: You can acknowledge the thought, ah, there's a worried thought
Speaker 1: about stopping thinking and let it go, coming back to
Speaker 1: simple awareness, simple presence, and gradually, gradually the identification weakens.
Speaker 1: You begin to experience yourself more and more as the
Speaker 1: awareness in which thoughts appear, rather than as the thoughts themselves.
Speaker 1: And this shift, though it might seem small, is actually revolutionary.
Speaker 1: It's the difference between being trapped in a dream and
Speaker 1: knowing your dreaming. The dream might still be happening, but
Speaker 1: you're no longer fooled by it, you're no longer identified
Speaker 1: with it. Let me tell you what life becomes like
Speaker 1: when this shift occurs, even partially, there's a sense of spaciousness,
Speaker 1: of freedom. Things that used to trigger compulsive thinking, worries, anxieties,
Speaker 1: regrets still arise, but they don't hook you this way.
Speaker 1: They're like clouds passing through a vast sky. They come
Speaker 1: and they go, but the sky remains unchanged. There's a
Speaker 1: natural piece that's always present underneath the mental noise, not
Speaker 1: a piece you have to achieve or maintain, but a
Speaker 1: piece that's your fundamental nature that's always been there but
Speaker 1: was obscured by all the thinking. It's like discovering that
Speaker 1: beneath the choppy surface of the ocean, there's always been
Speaker 1: a calm depth. There's also a freshness to experience because
Speaker 1: you're not constantly filtering everything through thought, through memory, through
Speaker 1: comparison and judgment. You meet each moment as if for
Speaker 1: the first time. A flower is just a flower, not
Speaker 1: a flower like that other flower, or a flower that
Speaker 1: reminds me of or a flower I should photograph. Just
Speaker 1: this flower here now, pure and immediate, and paradoxically, when
Speaker 1: you're less identified with thinking, you actually think more clearly.
Speaker 1: When thinking is needed because the thinking isn't compulsive and
Speaker 1: confused and contradictory. It's focused, purposeful, efficient. You use thought
Speaker 1: as a tool rather than being used by thought as
Speaker 1: if you were its tool. So why won't your mind
Speaker 1: stop talking to itself? Because you keep believing it's you,
Speaker 1: You keep identifying with it, you keep feeding it with
Speaker 1: your attention and belief. The moment you begin to observe
Speaker 1: it rather than be it, the moment you recognize yourself
Speaker 1: as the awareness in which thinking happens, rather than as
Speaker 1: the thoughts themselves. In that moment, the compulsive quality of
Speaker 1: thinking begins to dissolve. The internal dialog might not disappear completely.
Speaker 1: Thoughts will still arise, that's the nature of mind. But
Speaker 1: they'll arise in space, in silence, in awareness, and they'll
Speaker 1: subside again, returning to the source from which they came.
Speaker 1: And you'll discover that you are not the coming and going.
Speaker 1: You are the space in which the coming and going happens.
Speaker 1: You are not the waves, you are the ocean. You
Speaker 1: are not the voice. You are the silence in which
Speaker 1: the voice appears. And in that recognition, there's a piece
Speaker 1: that the thinking mind has been seeking all along, but
Speaker 1: could never find through thinking, because the piece isn't in thought.
Speaker 1: It's in the absence of identification with thought. It's in
Speaker 1: the recognition of what you really are beneath all the
Speaker 1: mental noise. It's in the silence that's always been here,
Speaker 1: waiting patiently to be noticed. So don't try to stop
Speaker 1: the voice in your head. Just notice it, observe it,
Speaker 1: Recognize that it's happening, but that you are not it.
Speaker 1: You are the awareness that knows the voices speaking, and
Speaker 1: in that knowing, in that awareness, the voice naturally begins
Speaker 1: to quiet, not because you've suppressed it, but because you've
Speaker 1: stopped believing in it, stopped identifying with it, stopped feeding
Speaker 1: it with your sense of self. And that ultimately is
Speaker 1: why your mind won't stop talking to itself, because you
Speaker 1: keep thinking you are the voice. The moment you realize
Speaker 1: you're not, the whole thing shifts. The king might continue
Speaker 1: for a while out of habit, but it's no longer
Speaker 1: your talking. It's just talking happening in the space of
Speaker 1: awareness that you are, and that makes all the difference.
Speaker 1: Thank you.