Mind of Infinite Tolerance

  I recently read an analogy which goes something like: imagine our vexations, thoughts (whether good or bad), as the various fish or shrimps in an ocean, and we ourselves are that ocean. Now, I normally don't think this way at all. Me, an ocean? Can't be!! But according to this analogy, indeed, the mind is an infinite ocean that is constantly renewing itself. In fact, even the analogy of renewal is inaccurate because it suggests that there is some recycling depot out there where the mind either purifies itself or "recycles" back to a normal state. Perhaps even a giant toilet that flushes and replenishes itself? I think the analogy suggests, to the contrary, that the mind is so vast that nothing can pollute it. 

   All too often, we think there is not enough in us. I reflect on how, when the mind is seen as a shallow pool, the creatures that inhabit it (our thoughts) feel like they are running out of water and can't survive for very long. They start knocking on the door, one by one, asking for sustenance, and asking to be the number one priority in the mind. They even want to shut out the other thoughts, for fear that their own voices will be drowned out. But if the mind is clear, vast, and non-grasping, there is more than enough room for all the thoughts. All thoughts are given their due consideration, without the illusion that the thoughts have an independent reality apart from mind itself. This is to say that when one can reach the point of purely observing thoughts and how they arise and disappear, one will not fall for the trap that thoughts endure forever as separate entities. I might think so and so is "this way", but that thought of the person has already disappeared. They, whoever they are, are not in that thought. They have moved on, and so have you, so why be bound to that one thought of the person (whether positive or negative)? 

   The insecurity that one has is the fear that they themselves are not "good enough". This leads to a clinging mindset, fear and regrets, which are all related to grasping conditions and how we are taking them to be permanent. Are they permanent? Is there anything one has worried about that still remains with them after 10, 20 years? In fact, most worries become other worries, or just resolve through the passage of time. So reflecting on emptiness is the only way to develop the confidence that no thought is getting  in the way of who we are. It is only our vexation and attachment to thoughts that causes us to feel scarcity, grasping and insecurity in life.