Derek White

I know a friend who is studying engineering and when he’s studying late at night and can’t solve a maths question, he goes to sleep and solves it in his dreams. He does maths in his dream but it isn’t a lucid dream. To do something like this you need to be thinking/doing a lot of sports so that when you sleep your mind is still on the subject. I personally have some experience with lucid dreams. When I was younger like 5 I started lucid dreaming a lot. I gave it up at like age 10 or 11. The thing with lucid dreams is they are not very relaxing, so I got bored and tired of it. If you are into sports then you need rest so think about that. The way to lucid dream is basically that you need to sleep in a straight position on your back (preferably on a straight mattress, not the ones that sink) and not move. The idea is to make the position a little uncomfortable. Also when you close your eyes, visualize a picture of your sport. Concentrate on the pic. And don’t move about. Now, you should naturally go to sleep. You will go to sleep bc you’ll get tired of concentrating on the pic (like they tell to keep your eyes open if you can’t sleep, it’s the same idea). You should get dreams about the sport or lucid dreams about sports. Instead of a picture you can also imagine yourself playing the sport or a story about you playing the sport. If pic doesn’t work then try story or a scene/scenes. Tips: you can use blanket, dark room, play the sport before sleeping, don’t be too tired before bed, just a little tired (if too tired then you might get dreams about sport but not lucid ones), and remember to not move about too much.

Just see people for who they are. There is no need to label people as good or bad, those are relative terms which don't really exist. If you see a fire you don't put your hand in it because it burns, but that doesn't mean fire is bad or good. It is what it is. Compassion doesn't mean you jump in the fire. Compassion is just a better way of looking at the fire than hatred. If you look at something with hate it just makes YOU feel bad, nothing moralistic about it. Now for how to conduct yourself in this world, you need to be realistic. If you want to be with somebody you should conduct it like a business. What do you want form them and what they want from you (money, love, healthy genes for children, etc.)? Will this be sustainable down the road? Is it a good idea to live with someone broke and lazy? Or with someone who has a lot of money but isn't emotionally invested in you? What do I want from this? These are questions YOU need to answer and not your friend. Also, if you're thinking you can change somebody later on, please don't. This is a major distraction from spiritual pursuits and just a bad decision in general.

I'll try to be as succinct as possible time but this post needs to be long, so bear with me. I was introduced to the idea of a thought-less state of mind by my grade 4 drama teacher who challenged us to sit for a certain period of time and not think. Of course I failed at that time. But the desire to reach such a state lingered on. I got into spirituality, so to speak, about 5 years ago to solve very basic, day-to-day problems. As time went on I got more and more into it and wanted to have complete control over my mind and part of that included to experience thought-less state off mind. Long story short, I finally achieved thoughtlessness about 1.5 or 2 years ago. I won't go into the details but I will say the way to do it is to let go and just observe your thoughts and they will eventually go away. Also, seeing the limitations of thought and focusing on external objects like sounds helps in the beginning but you won't need them after a while; you would just be able to do it immediately. I started with Sandeep Maheshwari's Sound of Silence meditation but didn't need it afterwards. Also, Initially it can also be very depressing and empty experience. Anyway, for the past 1.5 years I practiced it whenever I got the chance. I didn't really have any desire to think. I just wanted to experience being or directly experience reality. So on average, I would sit alone with eyes closed and have 20 to 45 min. of silence (no words or images in the mind), 3 to 4 times a day and throughout the day I would have very low frequency of thoughts and certainly no thinking (chain of thoughts). They would appear and then just vanish. I think my experience with this is a little different from what I expected and heard people talk about, so it might sound strange to you. What my experience was like: Pros: Happiness Relaxation Better Body Awareness (helped cured my nasal congestion which drugs and steroids could not cure) No stress Clarity of perception (less confusion) Intense emotions when seeing something beautiful like a movie or a poem Cons: Forgetfulness, I use to have a strong memory but this practice for some reason really crippled it. Difficulty getting back to thinking (it's like changing gears) Difficulty doing math and other academic subjects Hard time expressing myself Hard time planning for the future as you're so engrossed in the moment Meaninglessness (really both a pro and a con) which leads to laziness, and dispassion but not in a depressing way So without wasting time here are some insights I gained: Thought-less State = Increased awareness/ observation Thought-less State = Relaxation and peace of mind and happiness and love Thought-less State = Increased difference between mind, body, and you Thought-less State ≠ Infinite intelligence Thought-less State ≠ Understanding Thought-less State ≠ Solution to practical problems Thought-less State ≠ End Goal And Thinking = Solution to practical problems Thinking = Learning from experiences Thinking = Understanding A few months back I was watching a podcast where some athletes were talking about achieving no-mind while performing their sport and how it will improve their sporting careers, though they think actual no-mind is not possible, they want to get as close to it as possible. It may work for athletes who don't really need to use their mind in their craft but if you're a uni. student you should not aspire to it too much. A math question won't solve itself if you just stare at it and you won't get any insight into the question by just sitting there staring. You need to actually use thinking. Thinking is a very important tool, it's there for a reason. It is probably one thing that separates us form other living things. Thoughtlessness is useful for observations ,but to put those observations to good use you need thinking. I was inspired by Sadhguru's stories, one of which is when Vivekananda holds a book in his hand and after about half an hour know every page of the book by heart without even opening it. He is always talking about how he does stuff without mind and thinking. Also, other stories of his and many other teachers who talk about this state. I think it is a trap to think thoughtless state of mind is a solution to all your problems and an end goal. I don't think this state is any special and most people probably have experienced it before and are just not aware of it. But I didn't experience any new forms of perception or have any ground breaking insights or infinite intelligence or see ghosts or energy or break the boundaries of my sensations or read people's minds or become another object like people claim... Doing it too much made it hard for me to think properly. It is as difficult to go from excessive non-thinking to thinking. Non- thinking is like an addiction, same as thinking. It also had a negative impact on my memory. This ultimately had a very bad impact on my university life. So in the end, I would like to request people who have experienced this state of mind to share their experience below. Also I would like to know, from people who have actually experienced this state, whether to continue with this or not since it is affecting my uni. life or if I am even doing it right?

@Enlightenment What do you mean by agencytless state? And yes, counting to 10 in your head is thinking, but what are you trying to get at with that?

@purerogue Yes you are totally right. I have also experienced the ease of looking from other perspectives and changing the logic patterns of my mind relativity easily. I think it can increase your awareness if used 'correctly'. The key word being correctly. Ultimately, what i was trying to get at with my post is that we as spiritual seekers overestimate no-mind and have too many false assumptions about it. We think it will solve all our problems. In my opinion thinking is like working out and not thinking is like taking a rest. Both are important and resting helps with working out and working out with resting. If you rest all the time or if you workout all the time, you won't make progress.

@purerogue Can you explain a bit more if you don't mind ?

@purerogue Have you actually experienced anything unusual by practicing no-mind?

@who chit You are right. But the question still remains, whether it is any good to be in this state of mind because I don't see much use to be in it. Like I don't see it as practical.

@Jkris Thanks for letting me know, it should be fixed.

I found this video where this person is criticizing Sadhguru. I was curious to know other people's reaction on here and to know what you think. Some questions to think about: At what spiral dynamics stage the person in the video is at (blue, orange, or green)? Or Sadhguru is at in your opinion? Do you agree with Sadhguru or not? Do you think the person misunderstood Sadhguru? Is this the typical stage green vs. yellow debate? My opinion: I personally feel he misunderstood Sadhguru on many levels, for instance when Sadhguru says 'reaction' it means 'reacting' to a situation without stopping and thinking deeply about it first. The person is the video assumed 'react' just means doing something about a problem in general, something they would know if they watched the entire interview because Sadhugur differentiates between 'reacting' and 'responding'. Also, when Sadhguru says women in USA are tired of picking laptops and bags he doesn't mean it quite literally like the person in the video took it as. He is saying we don't need to socially pressure women to only think about career and that being a housewife is also tremendously valuable. Moreover, at the end when Sadhguru says don't identify too much with your genitals (gender or sex) he means it is not conducive to spiritual growth to think about being a man, for example, 24/7 and have your entire being revolve around that identity. But the person in the video took it very differently and wan't able to grasp what was being said. There are more bad assumptions as well that I don't feel the need to list. I also think the person maybe in the very early stages of green but I can't put my finger on it. I think this is also a good example of why some people might not like feminism.

@DocHoliday Well in your previous post you did say so I was just pointing out your deeper understanding of why someone says something is also your view/opinion because in your sentence it seems you thought they are two separate things.

From my everyday anecdotal experience some people are just a certain way from the get go. Like some people in my close family just gain weight by drinking water and some are just stick thin. Two people can eat, and perform the same food and activities from the time of birth and have vastly different bodies in my experience.

@DocHoliday That's what I was looking for in the replies, "why someone says what they say," and not to label someone... (That's why I was curious what stage they're at) And your reasons/understanding of why someone thinks the way they think is also your opinion and thus relative...