Who's Reading This?

This book doesn't work if you read it like information.

Imagine this is the first thing you've ever read.

Who's reading these words?

Not the thoughts themselves.

The one thinking the words in their mind.

Like a constant never ending narration.

Read the next sentence without repeating the words out loud.

Could you do it?

If the thoughts are you, why can't you turn them off?

How are you hearing an internal voice if that voice is you?

Don't try to come up with an answer using more thoughts.

Just notice each thought appearing outside your control.

Notice how thinking has always happened without your choice.

Try to Read Without the Voice

Look over the next sentence.

Don't repeat it in your head.

"The cat sat on the mat."

Is the voice still appearing anyway?

Read it again and really try.

Let your eyes move across the words without thinking out each sound.

"The cat doesn't sit on the mat."

You can't do it, can you?

Even when you try to stop it, the voice keeps going.

Do you see how strange this is?

You're not choosing the voice.

You can't turn it off.

But you fully believe that you're the one thinking.

Isn't This Absurd?

You've just discovered something shocking.

"Your thoughts" have apparently never been in your control.

You don't start it.

You can't stop it.

And you can't even read a sentence without mentally thinking the words.

Yet every decision in our lives is made with it.

Notice how ridiculous this is.

A voice you never chose is leading you around.

Take some time and let the discomfort of that land.

Don't just brush past this.

It's good if it's a bit uncomfortable.

What are thoughts?

Thoughts are a symptom of desire.

A tool using the past to predict the future.

You use thoughts to get what you want right?

When you plan your vacation.

When you search for peace.

But have you ever tried to find the thinker itself?

Who's choosing to read this book?

Who wants to get rid of their fear?

Realize that the "you" looking is the ego you've been searching for.

You've been trying to defeat the ego by being the very thing you want to defeat.

When you try to stop the ego, thoughts appear.

When thoughts appear, you feel needed.

When you feel needed, you get stressed.

So the battle continues.

Not because thoughts are powerful.

But because you believe you're the thinker.

If Not Effort, Then What?

If any effort to get rid of the ego just leads to more thinking, what's next?

Just notice how strange this all is.

Why is this moment never good enough?

The moment thoughts are allowed and witnessed, their game gets seen through.

Thoughts will come back out of habit, to try to convince you that this book is wrong.

But this ends up making their trap even more obvious.

When the trap gets revealed over and over, thoughts stop appearing as frequently.

Even the desire to have no desires is a trap.

True acceptance is not something you do.

It's what remains when you stop demanding change.

The moment you let this moment be what it is, thought loses its job.

There's nothing to fix.

Nothing to improve.

Nothing to run away from.

Without a desire to change, thoughts have no fuel.

They don't need to disappear.

They're just revealed as unnecessary.

Who Are You?

Imagine a world with no past or future, would you exist?

The moment thoughts were believed, the past and future began to exist.

Now you, the thinker, need to exist and prepare for tomorrow.

Notice how subtle this is.

Thoughts sneak in and whisper…

"Just a bit more meditation."

"One more therapy session."

"And then I can relax."

But is this moment really lacking?

Or is there just some thoughts complaining?

The moment the present is compared to an imaginary future, a problem has appeared.

And the moment a problem appears, a problem-solver is required.

That problem-solver is you, the pretend thinker.

What's The Point?

If you knew what this book said before you started reading, would you continue?

Thoughts have tricked us into believing that we are separate from life and need to do something about it.

Now you exist as the desire to change what is.

Paradoxically only when you stop trying to change, do you find real lasting peace and joy.

This is impossible until you allow this moment to suck.

Let yourself be uncomfortable and bored.

If you crave a practice, spend a few minutes a day doing nothing at all.

Ignore every single thought that pops up, you can deal with them later.

Suddenly you'll realize that life was never so serious.

But to get there, you have to be ok with not being there.

And that's the hardest part.

Radical Acceptance?

Being cold only sucks if you fight it in the moment.

Thoughts have tricked us into believing that we are separate from life and need to do something about it.

Now you exist as the desire to change what is.

Paradoxically only when you stop trying to change, do you find real lasting peace and joy.

This is impossible until you allow this moment to suck.

Let yourself be uncomfortable and bored.

If you crave a practice, spend a few minutes a day doing nothing at all.

Ignore every single thought that pops up, you can deal with them later.

Suddenly you'll realize that life was never so serious.

But to get there, you have to be ok with not being there.

And that's the hardest part.

Nothing Is Wrong With You

Take a deep breath.

Nothing has changed.

If you feel relief, that's fine.

If you feel confusion, that's fine.

If you feel nothing at all, that's also fine.

There's no correct response.

You haven't missed anything.

Thoughts might still be active.

Desires may still try to guide you.

The sense of being someone may still appear.

That doesn't mean anything is wrong.

Awakening is not a lack of thoughts.

It's the end of believing that thoughts are all you are.

You don't need to grip onto what you've just seen.

You don't need to remember it perfectly.

You don't need to protect it from being lost.

What's already true doesn't require effort to maintain.

Even the thought, "I hope this lasts," is being seen.

There's a deep kindness in reality.

It allows you to forget, to remember, and to forget again.

Thoughts don't control you.

The belief in them does.

If You Decide to Stop Here

Everything will be okay.

Nothing bad happens if you stop here.

You don't need to turn this into a project.

You don't need to reorganize your life around this.

Just live.

If you're ever unhappy, now you know why.

Let the body move.

Let the mind think.

Let each day unfold.

And when effort or resistance to this moment appears.

Notice it.

Not to fix it.

Just to see it.

If you forget everything you've read here, life will find a way to remind you.

There's no homework or daily practice.

There's just this beautiful, endless moment, being exactly what it is.

If you feel the urge to continue reading.

Treat the next 40 pages as a reminder and preparation for what's to come.

A way to ease your transition to peace.

Nothing else needs to change.

You're already home.