You don’t have to stop your thoughts, but you do have to relate to them clearly and sanely. A teaching that might help you do that is alternating sense awareness practice (ASAP). This is about including, in particular the five sense fields of touch, sight, hearing, smelling and tasting.

https://youtu.be/qEF6622JtCU

The projecting part is thinking things occur because of our interpretation of the situation. We conclude without really looking beyond our thoughts about it. Only awareness sees beyond thought. Thought is trapped by thought.

https://youtu.be/G3ruIm_Uqz0

These are opinions or structures we use to protect self-centeredness and to reify and reinforce that we are someone going somewhere and doing something, which is also ego. The impulse is to stop it. Just try to be aware of what’s happening rather than trying to control it.

https://youtu.be/qhw3tZVIa1k

Something happens and instead of just receiving what that is, we comment on it: thinking, judging, concluding. Rarely do we receive something as it is, unless it’s so intense, we can’t help but receive it. It’s not about getting rid of anything; it’s about awareness.

https://youtu.be/vc8g21FbGjI

A reading from the Majima Nikaya, the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, speaks about the bondage and shackles of of theorizing. The Buddha said, “It does not lead to nirvana; This is the danger I perceive in these views, which makes me discard them all.“

https://youtu.be/1QTfjFiqwPI

Empty of Other is a third turning teaching. The otherness is what confuses the self-centeredness and gives the illusion that you have some say so about things. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something here, but it’s not a centralized entity, a ‘me’ with some kind of credential. Bodies come and go - you don’t go anywhere.

https://youtu.be/Q8K3pgIDnew

It’s very important to just observe. We never can look at what something actually is. We add on things; what that is and, and almost imperceptibly, the person who is looking at it. We create an individual over and over again. Not only is what it looking at is unreal but that which is being looked at or observed is unreal.

https://youtu.be/0OJvaOL0xxY

A subject that comes up with students that there is often misunderstanding about is therapy, and how it relates to meditation. There are many ways to get into the structure of the way in which you’re confusing yourself. A good therapist will meet you, “where you’re at.”

https://youtu.be/w1Ngynkd8VA

Observe the Confusion. If you try to fix it, change it or cover it up, you’ll miss what it actually is because you’re running away from what you think it is. It is not separate from you and also not the same as you. If you see confusion clearly, this is wisdom.

https://youtu.be/OwFGbmqFOtY

Concepts rule when you grasp onto your thoughts and ideas and the emotional dynamics that are reinforced by that structure. Just watch the movement that arises around any particular story.

https://youtu.be/DtlqaY-_wDI