Witnessing the Mind

When we first sit down to meditate, we often discover just how unruly the mind can be.

Thoughts rush in, one after another. They jump around - reviewing, rehearsing, reacting, reminding. They dart in all directions - distracted, scattered, restless, and sometimes even chaotic.

We can think of the mind as a puppy that hasn’t yet been trained, constantly wandering to anything that tugs at its attention - sniffing, chasing, barking.

But please know: the mind isn’t misbehaving. This is just what minds do - like a puppy, it’s full of energy and shaped by habit.

It’s been running wild like this for so many years. To now suddenly ask it to sit still requires effort, skill, and a whole lot of patience.

So don’t punish the mind by berating it.

Don’t push thoughts away. Don’t empty the mind. Don’t try to force stillness.

Instead, we train the mind as we would train a puppy - gently, firmly, repeatedly.

Again and again, we guide it back to the present moment. To the breath, to the body. To the very here and now.

We’re not attempting to fix the mind. Neither are we trying to control it.

We are learning to let the mind be the mind. To accept it as it is, whether it is distracted or focused, tense or relaxed, chaotic or still, turbulent or peaceful.

We become the witness - the one who notices mental activity without getting caught in it. The one who stays calm and steady while watching the waves rise and fall, while observing thoughts come and go.

No need to engage. No need to interfere.

In this witnessing, presence begins to grow. Not through tension or force, but through softness and trust.

And as we deepen this practice, we may discover a stillness and spaciousness within - one that’s always been here, quietly waiting.

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In this Take A Pause session recorded on 16 March 2025, the TAP community practiced witnessing the mind with open, non-judgemental awareness, allowing mental contents to arise when they arise, linger as they linger, and eventually fade away.

We also mindfully listened to the poem “Let The Mind Be The Mind” by Danna Faulds.

Meditation Begins: 08:54

Reading Begins: 30:40

Meditation Duration: 22 minutes

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Let The Mind Be The Mind

by Danna Faulds

Let the mind be the mind...

Behind its restless activity,
just one layer deeper is stillness,
and beneath even that,
is an ocean of mystery and truth.

Swim in this eternal sea
until you know yourself
to be infinity,
and bring that knowing
back into your day.
Why struggle to be what
you already are?

Let the mind be the mind,
but don't bind yourself
to its limited reality.

Trust your experience of vastness.
Trust the truth that never
loses potency
or disappears
in fear.

Let the mind be the mind
and identify not with thought
but with Silence...

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