But if you want to go a level where you'll experience things as they are, then thought itself must stop. Thought is from the past, and past is memory, and memory is dead. So death is flowing through you. When you are drinking coffee you should be drinking coffee. Why should you think about the cricket commentary or the score? You should be drinking coffee! If you have truly died to the past and to the future - psychologically if you have died to them - then you would live in the present. There is great joy and bliss there.
The mind is nothing but the flow of thoughts. You cannot conceive of a mind without thoughts. The only way you could become free of the mind is to closely watch it. If you keep watching mind in a very friendly way - without judging, condemning, or commenting, it soon becomes very weak and slowly becomes quieter. That's when all suffering completely ends. There's nothing but joy and love in your life! Unconditional Joy and Unconditional Love. You could be a beggar, you could be a leper, but you'll have unconditional joy.
This joy does not depend on whatever you are gaining or whatever you are losing. It is just there. You could be anybody. You might be the world's most powerful man, the world's richest man, but you would not have this joy and unconditional love unless you experience reality as it is. There would be love towards the king as well as the beggar because there is no thought. So all this is possible to achieve.
The Awakened One no longer struggles with the mind. When the fight is gone, the energy will not be wasted. The energy conserved will manifest as concern for others, and love in relationship; as efficiency and creativity in the work. In short, you will start to experience life.