This - "None of what goes through my head is what I "really think" in the sense that I am obliged to hold fast to it and establish it as my position on a given subject."

HARDCORE ZEN: NEW SUICIDE GIRLS ARTICLE "I RESENT MY HIGH SCHOOL":

"...But what I'm trying to express here is that the Zen practice has allowed me the space to be able to step back a bit from that process. None of what goes through my head is what I "really think" in the sense that I am obliged to hold fast to it and establish it as my position on a given subject. And that, of course, is not just true for me. It's true for all of us.

But we've been taught very thoroughly that this is the way to respond to thoughts. We are taught to select certain of our thoughts and adhere to those. We thereby establish a specifically defined and rigid personality. That's where most of our problems stem from. But we don't know this process is even a source of our difficulties let alone the major source of them.

I am not perfect in my skill at allowing thoughts to pass without getting caught in making them "mine." I still do it a lot. But mostly when I do it now I can see myself doing it and know that it is not necessary. But the deeper the level of attachment you have to a certain type of reaction to a certain type of situation, the harder that can be."