“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.”

Einstein said that.

The key phrase in that quote is ‘I stop thinking’.  How does anyone stop thinking?  Ever try to stop your thoughts?  Try to think of nothing?

‘Not thinking’ is a near impossibility.  Even in meditation. 

Meditation itself is not about thinking of ‘nothing’. Meditation is about being able to observe your thoughts as they come and go, but not to be engaged by those thoughts.   If your mind flits about from subject to subject, to work, to what’s for dinner, Buddhists monks have an expression for that — it’s called ‘Monkey Mind.’

I blogged last week about quiet web sites.  A quiet web site might be a lovely thing, but Oh!  To have a quiet mind!  To swim in silence and allow the truth to come.  I think that is probably a rare moment for most of us, and rarer still to be able to induce the quiet in your mind when you need it most. 

…Quietly once again, I offer you Dear Readers, this week’s installment of Contentment is for Cows… in which we begin Chapter Eight, “The Roads to Echo Lake”.

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Enjoy!