The vail of thought.
While meditating today, I experienced a place where I could observe my thoughts as they came into being. For a brief, illuminating moment, I saw them as they were born—emerging and shaping themselves. And in that realization, it became strikingly clear how my thoughts completely shape my reality. I was far enough removed to simply observe them, detached and unclouded.
As I watched, I noticed how the thoughts formed a kind of veil, overlaying reality itself. It was as if the world I perceived wasn’t just made of raw experience, but of thoughts projected onto it, interwoven with emotions and feelings. These thoughts weren’t external—they were mine, entirely my own. Even those that seemed tied to others, experiences, or external ideas were, in truth, self-created.
This led me to a profound question: What if not just the individual thoughts being projected, but what if the overarching thought of being, the experience of being is too nothing but a thought, all just a dream, uniquely my own?
This awareness was expansive. It felt as though I was seeing the machinery of my own mind, recognizing how seamlessly one thought blends into the next, creating an endless reel—a film that I call my reality. The moments between thoughts are so brief that it’s easy to mistake the string of thoughts for something continuous, something real.
From this place of awareness, it was apparent that the feelings we attach to thoughts—whether they are joy, anger, or sadness—are our own creations, too. When we let those thoughts grow, they take on a life of their own, dragging us into emotions that seem external but are, in truth, entirely self-generated.
This meditation left me with a deep sense of choice. When we can observe the veil of thought for what it is, we can decide whether to engage with it or step back. It’s in this stepping back—this awareness of the dream-like quality of our thoughts—that freedom resides.
Have you ever glimpsed your thoughts from this perspective? Have you ever asked yourself if the reality you perceive is, in fact, a dream uniquely your own?
