Unlinking Chains of Thought
From River… to Mist… to Ocean
The practice continues:
Let go of thoughts of the past.
Let go of thoughts of the future.
Let go of thoughts of now.
Don’t build anything.
Don’t take anything apart.
Just rest.
In meditation, a thought appears.
If it is a single thought and I notice it…
I let it go.
Past.
Future.
Now.
Building.
Taking apart.
Whatever form it takes…
just let it go…
and rest.
But sometimes I don’t catch it at the beginning.
One thought links to another…
and another…
and another.
By the time I notice…
it’s no longer a single thought.
It’s a chain of thought.
A linked chain.
A little mental river already in motion.
So the practice becomes:
Notice the chain…
and unlink it where I find it.
Not where it began.
Not where it might end.
Just where I notice it.
Break the chain.
And rest.
Then another image came.
A river moving steadily along.
Mostly horizontal.
Flowing.
Continuous.
And then suddenly…
the river reaches an edge…
and what was moving horizontally…
begins moving vertically.
Now we call it a waterfall.
But it’s still the same water.
If the waterfall is short…
it stays mostly connected.
But if the drop is high enough…
the water begins separating.
First into streams.
Then into clumps.
Then into droplets.
Then into mist.
And if the drop is high enough…
even the mist begins to disappear into vapor.
No longer falling.
No longer separate.
Just returning.
And that felt like thought.
A chain of thought…
if left alone…
seems solid.
Continuous.
But when awareness catches it…
and allows it to fall through the space of noticing…
the chain begins to separate.
A thought.
Then smaller thoughts.
Then fragments.
Then impressions.
Then mist.
And eventually…
nothing to hold.
Nothing to follow.
Nothing to continue.
And then another image:
A river meeting the ocean.
You can almost feel it.
The momentum of the river…
meeting something so vast…
that movement itself
seems to pause.
And maybe that is what thought stopping feels like.
Not forcing the river to stop.
Not damming it.
Just letting it flow
all the way
into something
so open…
so vast…
that the chain
has nowhere left
to go.
Spiritual Gravity 