# Are You Your Thoughts?

Are You Your Thoughts

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## ****__Chopping Wood and Carrying Water__****.

**The Zen Master was asked what changed when he became enlightened.  **  
**He answered: Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.**  
**Now, I chop wood and carry water.**

### **Just what did he mean?**

**Is it a Zen Koan, an unanswerable conundrum? Something to confuse the mind?**

**In a way, yes.  **  
**Because the answer is just beyond the mind.**  
**The place where you just “are”.**  
**Where you are simply Presence.  **

### ******Eckhart Tolle says it like this:******

“_**Chopping wood and carrying water is the same as folding your clothes or whatever it is that you do. The possibility of doing those seemingly repetitive things – but at the same time be there fully with your attention.**_

### _**The Practice:**_

_**…be aware of that field of attention in you, the consciousness in you, that is perceiving this room…  There is a depth in you, an alert stillness…**_  
  
_**And you can practice that. Practice it here and in the rest of your life with all the little things that make up most of your life.” **_

**As musicians, we have practised giving a lot of close attention to what we are playing.**  
**Now, just add presence to the mix.**  
**Your presence.**  
**Presence as it plays the music through you.**

**If you’d like to find that you are not your thoughts, but are the “Presence” in the gaps between your thoughts, listen to this guided meditation with music:**

[![Are You Your Thoughts, Counting Your Thoughts](https://nandinmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Counting-Your-Thoughts.png)](https://nandinmusic.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5bc35f062031912f6deff31db&id=4700ecc87b&e=d6a549cc19)

******Let me know how it goes!******

****Musically yours,****  
**Nandin**

**P.S.  If you don’t have “The Beginner’s Guide To Meditative Music Making” yet, get it [here!](https://nandinmusic.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5bc35f062031912f6deff31db&id=d2071ae80c&e=fab68875a9)**

**P.P.S. See and enjoy also my [other blogs](https://nandinmusic.com/blog/)**

**P.P.P.S.  If you know someone who might benefit from this, thanks for passing it on!**

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