Zen Practice: You Create Your Own Reality

The mind has no form. Thoughts are energy, material things are energy, and reality is energy. Thoughts come from the mind, and reality comes from the mind. Therefore, in the whole universe there is only one cause, one creator: your mind.

Thoughts are not the cause that results in the reality, because thoughts are generated by the mind. A thought is one tiny part of the overall picture. Where the thought is, the reality is there also. This is because thought and reality are energy. They cannot be separated. One might say that we change the reality when we change the thought. They come together. If you can change your thoughts, it means  that you can change your mind’s pattern of delivery or manifestation.

Therefore, if you can change your thought, you can change the thinking pattern in your mind. This thinking pattern in your mind is one that you use to deliver energy outward. The thinking pattern in the mind is like a piping system through which you deliver all types of energy and manifest your reality. A thought is created. Where a thought is, there is manifestation also. It is similar to saying, “Where the head is, the physical body is also.” It is not to say that your head causes your physical body. There is only one cause, which is the mind.

However, there must be skillful means to help people understand. Initially, if you state that the mind has no form but can create everything, people feel confused. They cannot understand this concept. Now, if you tell people that you have a thought, followed by an action and then a result, it is easier for them to understand. That is why I say that by changing your thought, you are able to change your result. By changing your thoughts, you are able to change your future. It is because the mind has no form.

Let me ask you aquestion: Can you say, “When I change my mind, I change my future?” People think this way, as if to say that the mind is the cause. “By changing my mind, I change the whole universe.” It sounds reasonable. So, let us pursue the idea further. The mind is the first cause and only cause, and it can manifest all reality and energy combinations. By changing your mind, you are able to change your future. However, if the mind has no form, where is the spot you can stand on? Where is it? This is the answer: There is no spot.

A person simply realizes, “I am going to change my mind, and by doing so I can change everything.” Still, the mind has no form. How can you change the mind if it has no form? Nevertheless, the mind functions. You cannot see the function of the mind. So, the mind generates a thought, and by making the transition to a different thought you “change your mind.” By changing the creation of your mind, the assumption is that you “change” your mind. The mind has no form. How can you change something that has no form?

Be honest, and ask yourself a question: How can you change your mind? The function of your mind is completely equal to the function of Buddha’s mind or that of someone else. By changing and creating different thoughts, different realities or different phenomena, we change the mind.

Now I am using my mind, and based on the function of my mind, it is generating an angry thought. Can you change this function of your mind? You cannot. Can you change the intrinsic ability of your mind? Again, it is impossible. However, when your mind is generating another happy thought, we say that you are changing your mind. A different thought means a different angle; it is a different tube amid the piping system of the mind. You will be able to deliver a different energy, and this is why we say, “Change your thoughts and you will be able to change your life.” To change your thoughts is the only way to “change your mind.”