How to Contemplate the Unreality of the Aggregate of Perception

Thinking itself is also subject to arising and ceasing; if you try to keep thinking continuously, it simply cannot be done. Making the content of thought not shift, thinking about one thing all along—this too cannot be done. No matter how the mind consciousness thinks, once the manas feels that a matter is unimportant and there are more important things to do, the mind consciousness must turn to other matters and no longer has the heart to think about it. Lying awake at night unable to sleep because of thinking—that is because the manas cannot let go of matters, driving the mind consciousness to deliberate back and forth. Once the manas empties its mind and lets go of the matters, the mind consciousness immediately ceases, and one falls asleep.

Thinking that arises, ceases, and changes—when it comes, it comes from nowhere; when it goes, it goes to nowhere; it leaves no trace when it arrives and no shadow when it departs. Where can one see that thinking is the self? When thoughts are myriad and swirling, if you track the flow of thoughts, you can never find their traces; even at the very moment of thinking, the thoughts are also empty. What is a thought? What is thinking? Where are the people and affairs being thought of? In what place are the matters and principles being pondered? What is the conscious mind that deliberates? It cannot be grasped; nothing is obtained—it is utterly empty. This dharma of arising, ceasing, and impermanence cannot be clearly articulated; one cannot cling to it, and looking back to search for it again, there is not the slightest trace.

Last night withered branches were battered by wind and rain; this morning mist, dew, and the slanting sun shine upon them. In past lives, thought after thought of old friends' affection; in this life, we have forgotten each other and become strangers.