How to stop thoughts during meditation…
January 24, 2019
The coming of thoughts during meditation is as natural as our breathing.In the same way that we cannot stop breathing,we cannot stop thoughts from popping up during meditation. If you want to stop breathing, gurus may suggest PRANAYAM but that cannot stop your breathing permanently. What is the natural pattern- inhalation and exhalation of life giving oxygen for us to survive. In the same way if we are actively alive,thoughts would keep getting generated and if there would be no thoughts,then the person would be living a vegetable existence because only humans have been designed to think.
Humans at all times create thoughts of good-bad,truth-lies etc..so the thought process would continue no end. Now i would suggest you to change your direction- from instead of blocking our thoughts,we should train our attention towards thoughts like- we are feeling fresh / healthy today,enjoy the beautiful morning,wonderful day,feel excited.Your focus should be on creation/sustenance of positive thoughts instead of working hard like innumerable other yogis on blocking of thoughts during meditation.Such an attempt of blocking thoughts is futile and an impossible feat since the thought of blocking itself gives initiation to further thoughts thereby a chain reaction happens.
I have never mentioned in my discourses / shared any technique that helps achieve blocking of thoughts. By practicing this activity of letting positive thoughts take over would allow you to distance yourself from the entire gamut of -mind,body,emotions,identity,ego etc. Simultaneously, you would become the observer of whatever feelings come and go,your body getting tired / feeling pain, you now no longer are the conscious mind / thought that keeps coming like a wave on the sea shore. You have to distance your consciousness from your thoughts in the same way for example- if i go a bit away from the room, the sound of people conversing would become feebler proportionally to my distance from the room and finally i would not be able to listen to any of the conversations. But that would not mean that people would have stopped chit chatting.
Also,in such a scenario that even if i ask a crowd to stay quiet / stop talking,they would all the more naturally be compelled to talk / make noise.
Thus,this meditation activity takes you away from your conscious mind,identity,emotions; creates a rift which is a bit difficult to understand but can be achieved by practice. This is exactly why I always first demonstrate the technique and only then later share the theory behind the same. I know that If I would have started with the theory,then people would have been prejudiced into thinking that it may be impossible to do.Now when we have practice,we come to understand that the feat is very interesting and achievable.
Yes,it does feel good if we are able to stem the flow but thoughts would naturally come and won’t stay down for a long interval. The concept is to stop oneself and not stop the thought flow because if we try to stop the thoughts,there would be a lot of friction internally.The end result should be that the entire process should be enjoyed.
I would request you to practice this technique with utmost concentration and zest.
If this is practiced regularly,it has remarkable results like I explained that it helps to distance yourself and become the Observer. In the same way like Lord Krishna in Bhagwad Gita-explained to Arjuna that you are different and are the observer. This stage of being the Observer happens to you like an incident. It does not happen if you keep thinking that i am seeing,i am seeing– because yet again it’s just another thought. This thing should happen to you like an incident during the practice of this technique in it’s entire totality…
