Watching the Clouds of Thought

The Passing Clouds

Now, as you rest in this awareness, you will inevitably notice thoughts. They will appear. This is what minds do. For this practice, we are not going to fight them. We will not try to stop them, or push them away, or even analyze them. Instead, we will change our relationship to them entirely. Imagine each thought as a cloud drifting across that vast, blue sky of your mind. Some thoughts are like light, wispy cirrus clouds, barely there. A fleeting memory, a random image, a single word. See it appear in the distance, float gently across your awareness, and dissolve back into the stillness from which it came. You don’t have to climb onto the cloud. You don’t have to become the cloud. You are the sky, simply watching. Other thoughts might feel heavier. Darker. Like storm clouds gathering on the horizon. A worry about the future. A regret from the past. A judgment about yourself or someone else. These clouds can feel immense, powerful, all-consuming. They can block out the sun and cast long shadows. When these appear, the invitation is the same. Watch them. Notice their texture, their shape, their color. Feel the emotional charge they carry without getting swept up in the storm. The sky does not fight the storm cloud. It simply holds it. It allows it to be there, knowing that it, too, is temporary. It, too, will pass. You are the sky, and the storm is just a weather pattern moving through. It is not you. It is an event *in* you. Practice this now. Let the thoughts come as they will. A quick, passing thought… watch it go. A heavy, lingering worry… let it be held in the vastness of your awareness. No thought is a problem. No cloud can harm the sky.