Q. I read in dharma texts that the process of developing equanimity and insight is one of watching thoughts and feelings arise and pass away. However, in my own experience what seems to be happening is that I become aware that I’m lost in thoughts and then I return to whatever practice I’m doing. It’s more a process of returning a wandering mind. So I’m wondering whether with continued practice, does one reach the point of being able to observe the arising and passing away of thoughts, or for some people does the journey always remain more a case of returning a wandering mind?

A. Through time and diligent practice we become more and more aware of the arising of thoughts, and crucially our attachment to them. Through awareness we see that it is our own attachment to those thoughts that make them ‘real’ and ‘substantial’. We discover through awareness that if we learn to leave them alone, they lose their power over us and stay in their original form of being transparent, ‘neutral’, and something that is always simply arising and passing away. I’m not sure when on the path thoughts stop arising, but their arising or not arising is not the issue. It is identifying with them as being ‘me and mine’, and learning through awareness to leave them alone, that is at the heart of wisdom.