To prove ownership of the mind, to actually acknowledge that the mind is not even yours, try this

To prove ownership of the mind, to actually acknowledge that the mind is not even yours, try this: tell the mind to stop thinking and see what happens. The mind will probably just go right on thinking, against your will. If the mind was really yours, you could tell it what to do and it would listen, right? On the contrary, the mind is an impersonal aspect of our human nature.

Bringing humility into our understanding of this is very helpful. It can be very frustrating when one first comes to meditation and realises how strong the monkey-mind chatter is, but remember: there is nothing wrong with it. It is only doing what it knows how to do. Just because you have negative thoughts does not make you a bad person. You are not your thoughts! This is part of the collective unconsciousness of humankind. Everyone else has these same kinds of thoughts too; they truly are impersonal.