Meditation is a kind of work

Meditation is a kind of work. Taking the attention off our thoughts is what we do. How do we do this? Our thoughts are like a stream of consciousness that is constantly flowing. You are thinking about the past, you are thinking about the future, you are imagining, you’re planning, you’re analysing, you are dealing with anxieties, you’re solving problems, you’re cultivating fan-tasies, you’re constructing desires, you’re thinking trivial thoughts (‘I should have bought this at the supermarket last night‘), or you are dealing with bigger questions (‘what am I going to do with my career’). Or you are dealing with emotional problems – relationships at work or at home. So the mind is going to be constantly filled with thoughts. Just use the word ‘thought’ to cover all of this kind of mental and emotional activity which wells up from deep levels of consciousness, sometimes from the unconscious of course as well. So how do we deal with that? Well you don’t build a dam. You don’t block them. You don’t use force.