Thoughts and Images

The mind loves to travel in familiar territory, endlessly recycling thoughts and images we have thought a thousand times before. We move through the world making it familiar through our concepts and labels.The world doesn’t invite or command us to impose our thoughts of “good,” “bad,” “beautiful,” or “ugly” – yet we find ourselves freezing the universe into something known through concept, memory, and association.

Knowing Fully

Within all the activity there is little room for surprise. Intuitively, we may understand that our capacity to deepen and learn is linked to be surprised by life, by other people, and by ourselves. Our concepts, ideas, and knowledge can only tell us what we think about the world, drawing on memory and association. To know anything fully, we must learn to be still, to listen, and allow it to reveal itself to us.

The Buddhist Path to Simplicity
Christina Feldman