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Hold Court With Your Thoughts

Imagine a man arriving at the gates of a great palace, covered in dust and carrying the urgency of someone whose entire world has gone wrong. He has come to present his complaint to the king.

“My horse was taken. I cannot work. My family is starving. I need you to do something!”

In the old world, when ordinary people formally brought their problems before a monarch, they were presenting a petition—a request for redress of a grievance. And when the king agreed to listen, he was said to be granting an audience or holding court.

The king did not necessarily solve every problem. He listened.

Perhaps this is what we ought to do with our thoughts. Perhaps it is time to hold court.

Unlock the Palace

Most people approach meditation rather strangely. They sit down, close their eyes, and immediately discover that there are people shouting outside the palace gates.

I need to call that client. Did I send that email? What if this doesn't work? I need more money. Why did she say that? What am I going to do about the house?

And the meditator says, “Quiet!”

So he hires guards. He tries to remove the thoughts. He tries to empty his mind. He locks the palace doors.

But what happens to all those people outside? They don't go home. They form a line. The line becomes a crowd, and the crowd becomes a dull roar. Eventually the king is spending all of his energy guarding the palace from the very people he is supposed to govern.

This is rather like trying not to think. The thought is not necessarily the problem. Your relationship with the thought is the problem.

You have told the thought it isn't welcome, so naturally, it keeps knocking. And because it hasn't been heard, it begins to knock louder.

Perhaps the answer isn't to strengthen the guards. Perhaps the answer is to unlock the door.

Let them come.

The anxious ones. The ambitious ones. The frightened ones. The ones who want money. The ones who want love. The ones who want recognition. Let them all enter the palace.

And now do something very peculiar:

Don't solve their problems. Simply listen.

Thoughts Are Not the Enemy

In fact, thoughts can be extremely useful in meditation.

A thought is an opportunity to go deeper.

If you are sitting quietly and suddenly think, “I need to schedule that meeting,” you haven't failed at meditation. You have just been handed something interesting to investigate.

Instead of following the story, turn toward the thought.

What does it feel like to have that thought?

Perhaps the meeting represents a promotion. The promotion represents more money. The money represents the ability to add another bedroom because your family is growing. And beneath all of that might be something deeper: security, love, responsibility, or the desire to provide.

The thought has just taken you somewhere.

Not into the future, but into yourself.

So rather than trying to get rid of thoughts, you can use them as doorways.

Ask:

“What is this actually like?”

A Meditation Exercise: Give Every Thought an Audience

Sit comfortably and close your eyes. But don't try to empty your mind. Quite the opposite. Unlock the door.

Tell yourself: Every thought that wants an audience may have one.

When a thought arrives, don't follow its story. Study it.

First, locate it. Where does it seem to be happening? Is there a sensation in your chest, throat, forehead, or stomach? Don't decide where it should be. Notice where it actually appears.

Then discover its form. Is it a voice, a picture, a movie, words, or a physical sensation? Maybe it is all of these at once.

Now zoom in. If the thought says, “I need to call my client,” don't make the call. Listen to the sentence. Hear the first syllable, then the next. Notice where one sound ends and another begins. Notice the beginning of the sentence and notice its end.

Something remarkable happens when you look closely. What seemed like one solid thought begins to reveal itself as a procession of tiny events. Flicker after flicker. One sound giving way to another. One image replacing another. One sensation appearing and disappearing.

Ask yourself: How large is this thought? Does it have edges? Where does it begin? Where does it end?

And then simply watch.

Eventually the thought changes. Perhaps it becomes weaker. Perhaps another thought replaces it. Perhaps it disappears completely.

Notice that too.

Gone.

This is a direct lesson in impermanence.

The thought that seemed so important only moments ago cannot hold its shape. It arrives, changes, and disappears. You didn't have to fight it. You didn't have to solve it. You simply watched it reveal its nature.

And then another citizen arrives.

Perhaps this one says, “What am I going to do about the money?”

Good.

Open the doors.

Maybe underneath the money is the bedroom. Underneath the bedroom is the growing family. Underneath the family is love. Underneath the love is the fear that you may not be able to provide.

And perhaps underneath all of that is simply a tightening in your chest.

Now you have something very interesting to observe.

Not the story of your future. Not the conversation with the contractor. Not the calculation of your bank account.

Just the sensation happening now.

Feel it. Where does it begin? Where does it end? Does it move? Does it change?

Suddenly, the enormous problem called “My family's future” has become something much smaller and much more immediate: a sensation occurring in this moment.

The Kingdom Was Never in Danger

This is the strange trick of meditation. You don't have to defeat the population. You don't have to silence the kingdom. You don't have to make the citizens stop complaining.

You simply have to discover that the king doesn't have to chase every citizen through the streets.

A thought says, You must solve this.

“I hear you.”

A thought says, Something terrible might happen.

“I hear you.”

A thought says, You need more money.

“I hear you.”

You are not agreeing with the thought. You are not disagreeing with it. You are not solving it.

You are holding court.

And this is where thoughts become useful. Every thought gives you another opportunity to practice looking rather than following. Each one can become a doorway into sensation, emotion, attachment, fear, desire—and ultimately into impermanence.

The goal isn't to have a palace without citizens.

The goal is to become a king who no longer needs to fear the citizens.

You don't have to stop having thoughts to become free of them.

You simply have to become intimate enough with them to see what they really are.

They appear.

They change.

They disappear.

And another one takes its place.

The palace doors are open.

Let the people come.

Let them speak.

Give each one an audience.

And when they have finished...

let them go home.



















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