Thoughts often visit us uninvited. They stride on unapologetically like little pesky soldiers, into our consciousness, and we are unwittingly taken prisoners!

Thoughts are like uninvited clouds of iron filings, that are freely floating by, not bothered about where they go. Our attention notices these clouds, but instead of letting them passively float away, it chooses to get magnetized and pulls them all to itself. It clings to them, then under their heavy weight, it moans and struggles, hoping and dreaming of liberation!

Taking pity at our unceasing torment by uninvited thoughts, it is yet another thought, that sometimes suggests us to meditate. But during the meditation session, they appear to fight even more aggressively against their passive un-acknowledgement- they gather around fast in large numbers, and refuse to quit.

The mind pulls out shiny ideas, to lure the attention away from that silent space of mediation, where thoughts are not invited, “Look at me, don’t push me away. See, I have what you want, follow me, and I will get you more.”

Then there comes another thought, pretending to be special, masquerading as the important witness of all other thoughts! It attempts to pick and choose among other thoughts one by one, “This I will keep and this I will throw away”.

But, this does not work.

The only way to be free, is to demagnetize the attention completely, so each and every thought falls away at once, as if it was never there. That is the only freedom. There is no point sorting garbage before discarding! Everything should be thrown away all at once. A complete instant purge.

Thoughts arise from a dim obscure place in the universe, perhaps somewhere deep, in our veiled subconscious. They march continuously out into the vague field of awareness, and hope to capture our attention.

Each thought is just a tiny link, in the enormous chain of thoughts that makes a continuous appearance into our minds, slithering, dragging, at a never-ending pace, only giving us some respite during deep sleep.

Every single uninvited thought in this endless procession, carries an umbrella that says, “I am important! Do not ignore me. You must follow me.” It does not matter what it is, how ridiculous, or insignificant, or random- every thought pretends to be the most important, at the moment it appears in the field of our attention!

There seems to be a conspiracy among all thoughts, they have collectively decided to fool us into trusting them. They convince us, that they are credible, demand our complete attention while they appear, and tempt us to follow them, one after the other- so we cannot slip out of their never-ending train, even for a moment!

Thoughts play a relay race with the baton of our attention. The whole purpose of their appearance seems to be, for them to grab and hold our attention for as long as they can- until it naturally transfers itself, to the next thought in the chain.

It is easy to see through the umbrella of “I am important”, when we notice that every thought that passes by holds it, and yet, none lasts longer than an instant! They all rush by frantically and each is replaced by another in quick succession.

It is interesting that all we need to do, to free ourselves of their fusillade, is to step out of this train, at any moment we choose to! There is always a gap between two adjacent thoughts, no matter how closely and quickly they appear to come.

If we can just bring our attention to this gap, instead of letting it immediately jump to the next thought in the chain, we can instantly step out of their train!

Our inner blue sky persists unscathed, even after being trampled by a million processions of chaotic thought-clouds. All that we need to do is to turn our attention, shift our focus away from the racing clouds to the stillness of the pristine clear empty sky underneath.

We remain the clean empty space of awareness that always remains fresh, unsoiled, untouched, no matter how much clutter comes and goes over it. The stillness of our silent awareness is always present behind every thought, it perpetually shines through the gaps between thoughts. All we need to do at any moment, is to slip our attention into this gap. When our focus is on the gap, we are the gap.

From this gap, we are whole again. In that wholeness with all that is, the procession of thoughts still continues, as a part of the ten thousand things that manifest from our wholeness.

But then, they cannot fool us any more, for we see through their charade! We continue to acknowledge them, and act on them when needed, without becoming a prisoner to their conspiracy and assault.

Then indeed, we use them adequately for our purpose, as truly intended, instead of turning our lives into chaos, that the uninterrupted procession of thoughts, often leads into. We do not react to every imposter holding an umbrella that says, “I am important”. We do not grab them as before, we glance at them briefly from the contentment of our awareness, and let them go!

Then they are valuable tools at our disposal, to be used when situation demands, otherwise stowed away.

What freedom, what space and what a relief it is, to be free from the grip of uninvited thoughts- living in unceasing silence of meditation!