Have you ever wondered what the mind is?
Not just thoughts — but the vast space in which thoughts arise. That silence you feel when you open your eyes in the morning, before anything has even begun. That emptiness where everything stops for a moment, where you breathe in and out.
That's where the real problem begins.
Imagine a mirror. Thousands of images pass through it—beautiful ones, ugly ones, long-lasting ones, fleeting ones. But the mirror reflects none of them. None of them can stain, scratch, or wear it down.
The mind is like that too.
Thoughts come. Emotions rise. Sometimes they are so intense that they overwhelm everything, like clouds that completely cover the sky. But no matter how dark the clouds become, they cannot touch the sky.
You are not your anger. You are not your anxiety. You are not that fleeting thought.
These are guests who come and go in your mind. The mind itself—open, empty, untouched—always waits there.
In Dzogchen teachings, this state of clear awareness is called rigpa. It is not something acquired. It is not a place to be reached. It does not appear when thoughts cease — it is always there, beneath, behind, and within thoughts.
The blue doesn't just appear when the storm subsides. It's already there.
We focus so much on the clouds that we forget the blue. Anxiety comes, and we try to resolve it. Sadness comes, and we suppress it or struggle with it. Yet both—anxiety and sadness—are transient guests. They are not the home.
It's not about stopping, it's about noticing.
You don't have to silence your mind.
Trying to stop thoughts is like trying to grasp the clouds—both exhausting and impossible. The solution is much simpler: observe your thoughts without trying to stop them, without being swept away by them.
Let it come. Let it pass.
And in those brief intervals between transitions—to realize that the silence was already there.
This realization doesn't change your mindset. But it transforms your perspective on your mind. And from that moment on, your relationship with thoughts is forever different.
Because now you know: clouds pass. The sky remains.
With Peace and Love
Sibel Kavunoğlu
