WAVES AND WATER (134)

In the long history of Tibetan Buddhism, in both beginning and advanced practices, we find the analogy of waves and water, again and again. The Tibetans point out that our thoughts are like waves on the ocean of mind; both are water. Thoughts, they say, are just examples of the mind in movement, call it the motion of the ocean. Thoughts are equally mind -- water to water.

 

I have watched how the Tibetans gently brush mosquitoes from their arms. In Tibetan Buddhist meditation, thoughts, like mosquitoes, are not slapped down or suppressed. Thoughts are as natural to the mind as waves are to the ocean. In fact thoughts are the most common appearance of the mind to us. Thoughts are literally our own mind appearing. Without them many of the more advanced mind practices would be impossible.