Is it possible to meditate without changing your thoughts?

It’s not only possible, but necessary, to meditate without changing your thoughts. Don’t “do” anything to your thoughts at all. The idea that we have to “control” or “silence” our thoughts to meditate is a misconception. While it’s true that the mind becomes more quiet and calm when we meditate correctly, that is not the result of changing or controlling our thoughts. Rather, it’s the result of changing the way we respond to our thoughts. Our usual response is to interact with them, whether by engaging in a conversation with them, agreeing or disagreeing with them, elaborating on them, or trying to suppress them. When you do any of those things, you are nourishing the mental energy and making it stronger, just as pushing a child on a swing makes him go faster and higher. The real skill of meditation begins with shifting into a non-reactive mode. Allow your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, memories, fantasies, plans, and judgments to just be. It’s like riding a bicycle. On the one hand, you accept these mental objects without the slightest resistance. But on the other, you neither cling to them nor interact with them in any way. You simply observe without judgment. When you get the knack of maintaining this delicate balance, your thoughts will settle of their own accord, sometimes even to the point of complete stillness. This is not the result of changing or controlling your thoughts, but of gently refraining from feeding them.