Eliminate the Archer, Not the Arrows

Trying to kill your thoughts — which will never stop arising — is like trying to defeat an archer by shooting at his arrows. No matter how many arrows you break, more will appear.

Thoughts arise from vasanas — the latent impressions in the mind — and as long as the archer remains, the stream of arrows continues.

The real work is not to fight the thoughts, but to discover who they are arising for.

Instead of battling the arrows, turn your attention to the archer himself: the ‘I’ who claims ownership of the thoughts.

This is where the question “Who am I?” becomes transformative.

When this inquiry is applied with sincerity, the ego — the false ‘I’ — is exposed as an impostor. It has no independent existence, no substance, no form. It is only a bundle of habits, memories, and identifications temporarily assembled into a personality we mistake for ourselves.

Seeing this clearly dissolves the power of the ego.

The thoughts may still appear, but there is no longer a “me” to grasp them, fear them, or chase them. Desire and fear fall away because their root — the imagined experiencer — has been seen through. The past and the future lose their grip because the one who carries them has vanished.

When the false ‘I’ fades, what remains is the Self — silent, steady, unchanging.

Abiding in this Self destroys the illusion of separation and restores you to your natural state of peace, presence, and effortless being.

You don’t need to silence the mind.

You need only to relinquish it.

https://mounawellness.substack.com/p/stop-the-archer-not-the-arrows?r=6fpk08