It’s amazing when a thought dissolves into nothingness. First, you’re thinking really hard about something, and then… there’s nothing. No thought. The old thought has vanished. This is an impressive ability to have, and meditation will help me cultivate it.

I had once come to the conclusion that a negative thought pattern must be replaced with a positive thought pattern. Admonishing oneself to “Stop it!” rarely achieves its desired result. Focusing on negative behaviors isn’t a good way to get rid of them, so it’s better to compliment oneself on the positives. However, there now appears, to me, another path: Stop thinking.

Yelling “Stop it!” at a runaway train will still get you run over. But imagine standing in front of the train, silently outstretching your hand, and then having the train disappear. Thoughts, after all, are not solid objects. With much practice, this trick would become effortless.

I return to this:

When fighting with enemies, if you get to feeling snarled up and are making no progress, you toss your mood away and think in your heart that you are starting everything anew. As you get the rhythm, you discern how to win. This is “becoming new.”

Anytime you feel tension and friction building up between yourself and others, if you change your mind that very moment, you can prevail by the advantage of radical difference. This is “becoming new.”

Careful practice of meditation will make it much easier to “toss your mood away.”