Between Thoughts

The purpose of life is in the gap between thoughts.

As an entry point to what may, at first, appear esoteric and mysterious, consider the gap between thoughts as a recognition of the present moment; the only moment there is. Between thoughts is presence.

We spend so much of our lives caught in and identified with discursive thought, ruminating on the past, or worried about the future. It’s this persistent “self-referential internal narrative,” as Dr. Gary Webber calls it, that is the root of human suffering. While this may sound hyperbolic, it’s an empirically verifiable truth. In fact, Eastern traditions and philosophies all seek to liberate us from the tyrannical influences of the thinking mind. No thought, no problem.

It’s in the stillness of presence where you can begin to Know your Self, or as they say in Zen: your Original Face before your parents were born.

In other words: the purpose of life is in discovering, or more accurately, revealing, your Original Face.

Thoughts shroud the essence of Who You Are. Thus, the thinking mind cannot make any positive assertions about the Self. The Knower can’t be the object of its own Knowing. In the same way, the Sun can’t illumine itself; it is light. Anything that can be an object of awareness—that can be positively identified—cannot be that which is the ground of awareness.

So what is it that Knows? All that can be said, to use a Sanskrit expression, is “neti, neti,” or “not this, not that,” to strip away what you are not. You can only negate. I am not the body; I am not my past; I am not my job title; I am not my thoughts; and on. What you’ll find—what remains—is simply spaciousness, or in Christian mythology, The Kingdom of Heaven. The I Am. Being-ness itself. The constant within which and as which the impermanence of life arises.

Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian Hindu sage, taught this path of inquiry: “The thought ‘Who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts and … will itself in the end get destroyed. Then there will arise Self-realization.”

Thoughtless Awareness. The timeless background upon which the experience of life is projected.

This empty, aware space, is peace, joy, and love. And it’s always available, but typically concealed by thought. Like the Sun always shines, but is often obscured by clouds.

To rest in the stillness of the gap between thoughts is liberation.

“Inner rest is the sacred ground on which we meet the light of enlightenment.”

—Anam Thubten