During meditation, let your thoughts flow, and watch the unchanging nature behind them.

"It is completely natural [during meditation] that thoughts keep on arising. The point is not to try to stop them, which would be impossible anyway, but to liberate them. This is done by remaining in a state of simplicity, which lets thoughts arise and vanish again . . . Sometimes, let your thoughts flow, and watch the unchanging nature behind them . . . A trickle of thoughts makes the stream of consciousness, the mind-stream, but the mind-stream leads on to the ocean of existence."

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,
Tibetan Buddhist Master

Photo: Ripples on frozen Bierstadt Lake, with Long's Peak in the background, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 19, 2014

Thoughts should pass through our mind like wind.

“The wind blows through the sky and flies over continents without settling anywhere. It traverses space and leaves no trace. Thus should thoughts pass through our minds, leaving no karmic residues and not altering our realization of fundamental simplicity.”

H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,
Tibetan Buddhist teacher

Photos: (Top) A blustery day on Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 15, 2014; (Middle) Snow patterns on Dream Lake, with Hallett Peak in the background, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 15, 2014; (Bottom) Wind patterns in the snow, with Nokhu Crags in the background, December 12, 2014

Melt the ice of your concepts so that the fluid water of free perception can flow.

"Lakes and rivers can freeze in winter, and the water can become so solid that people, animals, and carts travel back and forth on its surface. At the approach of spring, the earth warms up, and the waters thaw. What remains then of all that solid ice?

"Water is soft and fluid, ice hard and sharp. We cannot say that they are identical, but neither are they different - ice is only frozen water, and water is only melted ice. It is the same with our perceptions of the external world. To be attached to the reality of phenomena, tormented by attraction and repulsion and obsessed by the eight worldly preoccupations, is what causes the mind to freeze. Melt the ice of your concepts so that the fluid water of free perception can flow.. . . Simply allow your thoughts and experiences to come and go, without ever grasping at them."

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,
Tibetan Buddhist

Photos: (Top) Ice patterns on Lake Agnes, Never Summer Range, CO, December 12, 2014; (Middle) Boat and reflections on Horsetooth Reservoir, Larimer County, CO, December 13, 2014; (Bottom) Indian Paintbrush and Iceberg Lake, Glacier National Park, MT, July 21, 2014