Present Still

Is knowledge a medicine, or a poison?  Sometimes, knowing itself is the problem. A few days ago I watched a dharma talk by Venerable Wonbin , and one line has stayed with me ever since: "Stay at ease like a fool."  Without meaning to, I found myself repeating it under my breath — be at ease, be at ease, like a fool. We replay things constantly. Things that already happened, things that haven't happened yet. And somehow we can't let go of the thoughts they leave behind. But in his talk, Ven. Wonbin says something striking: 99.9 percent of what we think of as "problems" are actually fake — pure fiction we've built in our own minds.  Knowledge, he says, isn't always medicine. Sometimes it's poison, and we need to recognize that. Instead of clutching at what we think we know and picking it apart, what if we simply set it down — pretended, for a moment, not to know?  Just doing that can make the heart feel lighter almost instantly. Photo by the author...

Even when you are still, thoughts continue to follow one after another like a chain. Anger or regret arises from past events, and worries about a future that hasn't arrived yet persist.  Your body is clearly resting, but your mind is moving incessantly like a battlefield. That is why many people often say, "I think I have too many thoughts," "Why do I have so many thoughts?" or "I wish I could live without thinking." Photo by the author But why don't thoughts stop as we wish? How can we escape from this hellish repetition? Most people believe that the "arising of thoughts" itself is the problem, but the real issue lies elsewhere. It is true that thoughts are painful, but the real problem is our "attention" that believes in the content of those thoughts and gets dragged away by them.  In fact, you don't need to put in even 1% of effort to eliminate thoughts.  This is because the core is not to control or stop thoughts, but t...

You are lying on a sofa or bed, wanting your body to rest, but your thoughts won't stop. The more you try to control them, the more anxious you feel.  Even when staying still, thoughts follow one after another,  and at the end of that chain, you unexpectedly face an uninvited guest: anxiety. The key is not to stop your thoughts, but to stop identifying with them. Yet we live as if the opposite were true. “I am thinking.”  “This anxiety is mine.” Photo by the author But is that really true? If anxiety, which I don't even want, visits me as it pleases, can I truly call that 'me'? 2,600 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha provided a marvelous key to break this chain of suffering.  It is the truth of 'Anatta (Non-Self) . '  The moment you let go of the attachment to the body and mind that you mistook for 'self,' true relief and peace begin.  How can we actually experience this 'Anatta' in our daily lives and calm our anxiety? How to Stop Anxiety When Th...

Did you know that the past and the future exist only within your thoughts ?  When I first heard this, I was stunned. It felt like a wake-up call. The mind has a strange habit. It keeps traveling into a future that does not yet exist.  Many people feel a sense of dread when thinking about the future. This kind of future anxiety is more common than we think. “What will happen to me?” “What if my life doesn't work out?” “Am I making the wrong choice?” These questions arise when we start worrying about the future, and they tend to intensify at night. While the body tries to rest, the mind begins creating endless future scenarios.  Future anxiety slowly grows as the mind keeps imagining what might happen. This is the moment to pause, recognize the thought, and gently bring your attention back to the present moment. Most of the future we worry about is just a story in our heads.  We can only live in the 'Now.' Why Do We Fear the Future? Fear of the future isn't just abo...