How often do our thoughts condition reactions in the mind, as if the thought itself had substance? Yet the thought of a friend is not the friend; it is a thought. How many life scenarios have we created, directed and starred in  and,  for those moments, taken to be the experience itself? We also may get carried away by the intense energy of our emotions, swept up in a typhoon of the mind and body. To be lost in emotions is not to be mindful of their energy; and when there is a strong identified involvement with them, there is no space in the mind for seeing clearly what is happening.

Joseph Goldstein, in Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

photo autumn wind by jojo