Busy minds during meditation?

Here is an idea to help people quieten a busy mind when meditating. Its something I made up for myself, so each person might find different degrees of success with it.

Firstly I try to compartmentalize a train of thought while letting it continue on. Recognizing the train of thought is the most simplest compartmentalization. I tend to visualize them existing within a virtual container; arising, moving, resolving all within a shell of some intangible platonic nature.

Then I deliberately interrupt it by building/initiating another train of thought, and then likewise compartmentalizing that.
Then I stop that one and restart the original one.

Imagine the other train of thought continuing in the background - whether it be almost silent but still conscious, or pushed to the subconscious temporarily. Practise switching between the two doing this.

The idea is that this will eventually empower you to control both compartments down in volume, at the same time, to achieve an overall quieting of the mind.

It might take time, but its a systematic approach which your mind can learn and improve on. I find that to relate better with intellect the created [second] train of thought is a polarity to the first one creating an interesting nullification effect and a virtual Yin Yang symbol of thought. This can work to quieten emotions as well.

I built this approach from reading about how substances are moved through the cell wall against a concentration gradient. The lining of living cells have biological machinery which operate as pump's to transport materials in and/or out as required. I call it the Tusken Technique because its useful when 'wrapped up' in your own thoughts and you need to create two portals to let the light in ... like a Tusken Raiders garb


I hope it works for you and invite others to share any tricks they might have on this topic!?

Thanks for this Id like to hear more on the topic. I have a lot of trouble silencing my mind when i try to initiate meditation. Do you have any suggestions for if you just cant seem to grant yourself silence. I have a couple room mates and they are not helpful in this aspect lol

This is a difficult occurrence to deal with, and it is one that anyone who meditates must learn to deal with.

There are a few ways I try to handle monkey-mind.

1. Allow yourself permission to have a racing mind. Do not criticize yourself for this happening. Whenever you become conscious of a runaway thought, allow yourself to note it, thank it, and then tell it goodbye and let it go. Gently return your focus to your breath, or candle, or whatever you are using to help focus the mind. You may have to do this a lot, and that is ok! Eventually and with practice, this will become easier and easier and your mind will settle.
2. Use headphones and listen to a chant, meditative music, tones, or whatever you like. Listening to something can help prevent monkey-mind. It can and will still happen, but this may help.
3. Use a mantra. Om Mani Padme Hum, for instance. Or whatever works for you.

In the end, it will take trial and error to come up with what works best for you. There are so many different ways to meditate and none are "better" or more "right" than any other.

I hope this, in some small way, help!

MTFBWYAAF

I would tend to agree that the "hardest" part of meditation is letting go. I also tend to believe that if you're mind is that busy, maybe you have other things you should be doing in that moment besides "sitting quietly, doing nothing". I think that if you need help in letting go of your conscious thoughts, maybe you should be examining them rather than finding interesting, semi-passive (passive-aggressive) ways of pushing them out. Meditation is an important part of daily life, it promotes balance and spiritual/mental health, but you just can't "force it". That's the opposite of meditation. Let it come when it's "time" and let it go when it's not. Same as with your thoughts; let them come when it's "time" and let them go when they're done. Letting go is the hard part...always has been.

Headspace meditation has an interesting philosophy. It says, the first few times you it down to meditate, let your thoughts run wild. Let them grow and wear themselves out. At some point, days later, you will get tired of thinking. There are black spaces between thoughts, and they just get bigger as they occur.

This applies to meditation as well :

Tao Te Ching 36

If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something,
you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception
of the way things are. The soft overcomes the hard.
The slow overcomes the fast.
Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show people the results.

Things get simpler when one gives up 'control'.

haha. You've been slowly creeping in tao te ching quotes more and more.

Not 'slowly' ...

... not 'creeping' either.

My observations.

I recommend using an mp3 of rain, or a thunderstorm to meditate to. It helps drown out monkey mind chatter.



There are several, find one you like


Centerpointe holosync awakening prologue is the best commercial system I know of, it's expensive though.

Here are some for you each an hour long 320kbps mp3s.


(ocean waves and Tibetan singing bowls)




(flowing stream and Tibetan singing bowls)