Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
1. tinnitus. Use it to your advantage. Concentrate on it. If you concentrate on it, you WILL see, how mind produces less thoughts. I, actually, use timer noise, for that purpose. In Shiva's 120 techniques to enlightenment, concentration on something is commonly used.
2. yes, mind is impossible to fight. And there is no need to, as any effort of that nature only aggravates the situation. Mind should be simply watched. Pay attention to something, next time you meditate. Thought appears from somewhere and you can either hear it or see it, right? Or both. All you want to do is to PAY ATTENTION to what you hear or see. As in - direct your inner concentration onto it.
Interesting thing happens. Thought will instantly disappear.
then, surely, another one will appear. So do same. Don't try to dispose of it, fight it...simply be attentive to it. DO NOT ponder over that thought. Just "look at it" with your concentration.
Also, consider a simple fact.
WHO hears or sees thought?
True You.
The Watcher. This is actual proof that YOU exist and are separate from mind and its mental chatter clutter.
What you, also, WILL notice that, as you continue to simply focus the light of your concentration on thoughts, gaps between them are becoming longer and longer.
I can now get to several seconds long gaps and before, it was nothing but non stop mental diarrhea...
Also, you have to meditate daily. The very moment you miss a day, it sets you back a lot.
As I was going to say...use the tinnitus to your advantage.
I don't claim to have an answer.
But beginners always have trouble with their thoughts.
Throughout the day tame them...practice having only wonderful, constructive, kind thoughts to start...learn
to push away anything you don't want, gently....others would disagree...but it's like flipping the channel.
It's a start to teach you that you DO have control and are not a pawn to these unwanted thoughts.
Worked for me 40 years ago.
A thought is a thought.
It is neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
Both are interpretations.
Both are distraction, as both are product of mind and mind is not YOU.
Switching from unpleasant thought, pushing them away, one only makes them stronger and more eager to come back, as they then are fed with your energy. Thoughts that are accepted and entertained as pleasant, simply bind you to the physical.
A thought is a thought. It should come, be acknowledged and gone without leaving any impression on YOU.
It is nothing else but a cloud, crossing sky. It may even close the sun and immerse you into darkness yet, eventually, it is gone and sky stays as it always was - non existent yet present, without dimension and unperturbed.
Every time a choice is made between thoughts, - it is creating bondage to them, no matter what choice was - to accept or to reject.
This is why, when progressing, any thought is to be treated only one way - non attachment.
And a beginner having too many thoughts can try both ways...let the thoughts roll in
or
laugh at them and gently push them away....see which technique works for you.
I'd assume that such approach may create duality in any person, least to say - in a novice.
As Sukyamuni Buddha said, path started from the wrong leg leads in wrong direction.
Life is short and, though a new one will always come, wheel of Samsara keeps spinning, if such opportunity for progression is wasted...
Who wants to sit in meditation watching their thoughts?
I can do that driving my car if I wanted to.
Wouldn't gently stilling them be 'the thing'?
(Like shewing away a fly. Then, ah, the peace.)
Thanks.
When you drive, you should be watching the road... not your thoughts.
Typically, when I meditate I'm not watching my thoughts, I'm paying attention to breathing. The thoughts are the things that come and go and I don't fixate on them.
I have had experiences that seem to be action without thought or, at least, without conscious thought. Driving can be like that when I'm aware of everything around me and how to reach my destination and being appropriately safe. Very different from, say, long trip highway hynotism when I don't notice a semi-trailer in the other lane. Playing a golf shot can be without conscious thought when all I notice is the target and just swing the club. Is this self directing the mind without thought? Or just an unconscious thought process?
I have had experiences that seem to be action without thought or, at least, without conscious thought. Driving can be like that when I'm aware of everything around me and how to reach my destination and being appropriately safe. Very different from, say, long trip highway hynotism when I don't notice a semi-trailer in the other lane. Playing a golf shot can be without conscious thought when all I notice is the target and just swing the club. Is this self directing the mind without thought? Or just an unconscious thought process?
I would say it's an unconscious thought pattern.
But there is so much going on in our lives that we can't be mindful in everything. And some things don't require mindfulness.
I've found mindfulness to be very useful, and the first lesson in that was when I learned to un-do what I had been taught professionally -- to STOP multi-tasking as much as possible.
But there is so much going on in our lives that we can't be mindful in everything. And some things don't require mindfulness.
I've found mindfulness to be very useful, and the first lesson in that was when I learned to un-do what I had been taught professionally -- to STOP multi-tasking as much as possible.
I think this subject raises the issue of Buddhist "theory", where analytical people encountering original Buddhism put their own twist on it. I suppose this has been going on, generation after generation, ever since the Buddha's death. It has its Western appeal, but seems like a distraction - an inevitable curiosity to be discarded.
It also seems likely Buddha would have anticipated this and addressed it in his teaching. Perhaps it is all "physical realm"? But doesn't that raise the question of "differentiation" as a mistake? If all is one, why differentiate as "physical" or otherwise?
I have had experiences that seem to be action without thought or, at least, without conscious thought. Driving can be like that when I'm aware of everything around me and how to reach my destination and being appropriately safe. Very different from, say, long trip highway hynotism when I don't notice a semi-trailer in the other lane. Playing a golf shot can be without conscious thought when all I notice is the target and just swing the club. Is this self directing the mind without thought? Or just an unconscious thought process?
Many of our actions are reflexive, we respond to stimuli. It requires mindfulness to break from it and consciously do the act.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
