6
When a Thought Disappears
Christoph Center — Attunement
When a thought disappears, what happens to the stuff the thought was made of?
Think of the number three.
See the number three.
Is this a substance?
Where did it come from?
Where does it go?
See the number three.
Is this a substance?
Where did it come from?
Where does it go?
Before the thought appears, there is no cabinet of experience waiting to be opened.
There is no storehouse of forms.
There is only awareness — empty, awake, and present to itself.
What else could there be?
What else could there be?
When a thought arises, where would awareness find the material to make it?
From where would a new substance be drawn?
Awareness has nothing outside itself to reach for.
All it has is itself.
It is itself.
So when a thought appears, the only thing present there is this aware emptiness.
The thought is not made of something else.
It is the movement of emptiness itself — a vibration, a resonance, briefly sounding.
And when it fades, nothing has gone anywhere. No distance has been traveled. Nothing has been lost.
And when it fades, nothing has gone anywhere. No distance has been traveled. Nothing has been lost.
Thought, sensation, image — all that appears must appear as this.
And yet no “where” can be found from which it comes or to which it returns.
Only this.
Aware.
Empty.
Resounding.
Aware.
Empty.
Resounding.
Only this.
Aware.
Empty.
Resounding.
Aware.
Empty.
Resounding.
