All Dharmas, If Unheeded, Will Naturally Pass Away.

There are always people who say: "Do not fear the arising of thoughts; only fear being slow to awaken." But no matter how quickly you awaken, the thought has already appeared, and meditative concentration (samādhi) is gone—at that moment there was, after all, no enlightenment. Awakening only after the fact, mending the fold after the sheep has escaped—the sheep has, after all, already run away. When sitting in meditation, if you are doing well, clear and lucid, and suddenly a thought arises, do not pay attention to it; just let it pass and that is the end of it, then continue in concentration. If you attend to it, another thought arises—two wandering thoughts appear. The wandering thought of "being aware of the thought" often drags things out, and then, regretting that the thought arose, it becomes very hard to maintain concentration.

If you pay no attention to any dharma, it will naturally pass away; sooner or later it will pass. No dharma, no phenomenon, can exist for long—they are constantly arising and ceasing; once something arises, there naturally comes a time when it ceases. When it ceases, that dharma is nothing at all; when it arises, it was originally nothing either. Pay no attention, and the mind is pure. When the myriad dharmas come, watch them come; when they go, watch them go. Let them arise and cease on their own, playing by themselves—you just watch the show.