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No matter how free they may think they are, all thoughts — as Albert Einstein also sagaciously pointed out — are conditioned reactions… and to go beyond conditioning is to intelligently go beyond thoughts/symbols/reactions.  However, the thoughts of the brain — including the conditioned thoughts of “I” or “me” — cannot merely decide to do this whenever and however they like.  Whatever is conditioned cannot (in any way, shape, method, or form) fabricate or bring about the true state of the unconditioned.  Fully understanding this is deep intelligence; and in that intelligence (if one is lucky) there may be, at times, an ending — though not, of course, a permanent ending — of thought/thinking.  If that ending comes about naturally, without any compulsion or methodology (which thought fabricates), then a profound silence may occur.  (A fabricated silence is something which is completely different and is just another limited concoction of the brain.)  In a truly profound silence is immense order and intelligence (beyond mere symbols, ideas, mental fabrications, and representations); in that silence is freedom, integrity, and wholeness; in that silence (if one is very fortunate) a profound, immeasurable, majestic, unnameable immensity may arrive.  (However, much more than even unconditioned silence is involved for that immensity to present itself.)   Profound silence is not conditioned, nor is it capable of being permanently held, manipulated, or retained by what is conditioned.  Such silence is beyond the realm of conditioning and mundane reaction.

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[A Silver-spotted Skipper Butterfly visiting a Red Clover.]

What a dining spot! Photo by Thomas Peace 2015