There is life, and there are thoughts about life. If we see our thoughts as thoughts, we don’t become our thoughts; we recognize that we are different from our thoughts. Thoughts just arise and disappear; we can't even say they arise within us. Leave them alone. Do not grab them, do not collect them, do not push them away, do not think about them. Leave them alone. We just have to recognize that thoughts are thoughts, and we are not those thoughts.
In this recognition, we make direct contact with life, we open to life, and as we open to life, life opens to us, life reaches towards us and touches us right in the center of our heart. Our heart breaks open, and another heart is revealed. This is the true heart, the one that knows how to meet life with open arms.
This meeting with life occurs in Silence. In Silence we have no problems, nor are we confused or frightened by life. When we are not confused or frightened, we do not act in crazy ways.
Without this recognition, we become our thoughts, and we begin to have a lot of problems. Trying to solve these problems with more thought only tightens the noose. Soon, we can't breathe, we become afraid, and we start acting out our fear in crazy ways. The only effective way to solve these problems — the ones created by thinking we are our thoughts — is to touch life again, through Silence.
Silence is the recognition that thoughts about life are not life itself. If we stay in touch with life through Silence, life will stay in touch with us. In this way, we become life itself, not thoughts about life. And then the mystery of life, the magic of life, and the beauty of life become our life.
Some people call this meeting with life "awakening" or "enlightenment." I just call it natural. It is natural. It is simple. We do not need to think anything about it. We do not need to do anything about it. We just have to recognize that we are not our thoughts. Then we live naturally, and simply, and beautifully.