Quieting the Mind

"If we want to make friends with our minds, we need to learn to sit still, just to sit and watch our thoughts. And in doing so, the noise in our heads starts to settle." - Charlotte Joko Beck

"The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity – the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated." - Eckhart Tolle

"Quieting the mind doesn’t mean there’s no noise; it means we can watch the noise without being lost in it." - Tara Brach

I have spent the past 30 years working so hard to quiet my mind. And, after this much time I can say that it is usually much faster and easier to be still inside than in the past when I sit to meditate. Except when it isn’t.

There are so many tricks that I have learned along the way to help quiet the mind, and some of them really do the job. The first thing I tried was before I met Kathy and got initiated and was from a Ram Dass book, I think. I visualized each thought turning into a drop of water and then gently falling onto a leaf floating downstream on a lazy river. This worked for a long time for me – sort of. I have also done things like saying my mantra while repeating “Love is all there is” over and over, while visualizing my Teacher. Another trick I read in an article about how the military teaches people in the field to fall asleep, is that by envisioning static in your mind and confusing all your thoughts while relaxing the body, your mind will clear and you will fall asleep. The obvious downside of this method is that it can cause me to fall asleep so I tend to use it more at night. Finally, focusing on the back of the head near the bottom of the neck where the pituitary gland is, while saying a mantra, works well. It is very hard to hold a thought using this method. Kathy taught me something very similar when I complained of headaches when meditating. She said I was focusing too hard on Dhyan (focusing inside at the third eye on the image of the Master), and to imagine that I was rolling my eyes up and down in the back of my head to alleviate the pressure that was causing my headaches.

In Her September 4, 2003 Satsang, Kathy said, “You can’t just expect that by sitting in meditation, you’re going to get an answer. The mind needs to be quiet and straight and clear. Doubts need to be cleared up, before the mind will settle into relaxation, which is required in meditation. For the Names to be repeated and the Dhyan to be done, which is contemplation, and for the focus to be able to withdraw from the physical body, the mind needs to be relaxed. For the mind to be relaxed, doubts need to be clear, need to be gone.” In short, the mind has got to be clear in meditation to make progress, although I can say that sitting in meditation and practicing calming the mind does eventually lead to the mind being still more and more quickly. It is circular like that.

Maharaj Ji was asked the following question in Die To Live, "In the books it’s written that several methods for concentration are recommended to get to the eye center, but that Simran is the easiest one. Does this mean emptying the mind would be one of the other methods?”

He responded, “Many people try to hold their mind by analyzing themselves, by not thinking about anything else. They try to adopt such methods, but it’s very difficult. The mind cannot cease working. If you think you’re not thinking, you’re thinking you’re not thinking, and then you’re thinking, you see. If you’re way off somewhere in some other place, thinking about something else, or being somewhere else, you may actually have gone to a place where you think you’re not thinking, but the minute you think you’re not thinking, you’re thinking, and you’ve been thinking all that time. The mind – it has to be occupied. You can’t just stop it. You can’t empty it, stop it. It has to be occupied. This is the object of Simran (repeating the Holy Names given at initiation) and Dhyan as well. There are two parts of the thinking process, one is visualization and one is repetition of words in some way or other. When we’re thinking about something, we’re usually visualizing something, so that’s the purpose of both – it occupies the mind on something that is connected to where we want to go – that’s its purpose.”

Ultimately, in quieting the mind, it is easiest to have a visual focus at the third eye while repeating a mantra. This can be done if you are initiated or not, or if you are just starting to meditate. The goal is just to sit and try to quiet the mind. Even if only for five minutes at a time. Eventually, all the help in this world (and in the next) will be given to you!

All Love to you,

Kelly