Doubts About Do Nothing Meditation.

[Hardik jain]

Okay guys so when I'm doing nothing(meditation) and I become aware that I'm thinking and if I can easily let go/stop thinking about that thought, should I stop thinking or do I continuing thinking even if I can easily stop thinking?

[Prabhaker]

17 minutes ago, Hardik jain said:

should I stop thinking or do I continuing thinking even if I can easily stop thinking?

How long can you stop ? Thinking cannot be stopped. Not that it does not stop, but it cannot be stopped. It stops of its own accord. This distinction has to be understood, otherwise you can go mad chasing your mind. The very effort to stop will create more anxiety, it will create conflict, it will make you split. You will be in a constant turmoil within. This is not going to help.

And even if you succeed in stopping it forcibly for a few moments, it is not an achievement at all -- because those few moments will be almost dead, they will not be alive. You may feel a sort of stillness, but not silence, because a forced stillness is not silence. Underneath it, deep in the unconscious, the repressed mind goes on working. So, there is no way to stop the mind. But the mind stops -- that is certain. It stops of its own accord.

Watch -- don't try to stop. There is no need to do any action against the mind. In the first place, who will do it? It will be mind fighting mind itself.

Look with deep reverence. Don't be a fighter -- be a lover. Watch! -- the subtle nuances of the mind; the sudden turns, the beautiful turns; the sudden jumps and leaps; the games that mind goes on playing; the dreams that it weaves -- the imagination, the memory; the thousand and one projections that it creates. Watch! Standing there, aloof, distant, not involved.

The deeper your watchfulness becomes, the deeper your awareness becomes, and gaps start arising, intervals. One thought goes and another has not come, and there is a gap. One cloud has passed, another is coming and there is a gap. In those gaps, for the first time you will have glimpses of no-mind,

Edited October 8, 2016 by Prabhaker

[WelcometoReality]

@Hardik jain when there is an intent of doing something. Drop that intent.

So if there is an intent of stop thinking, drop it. Just let every thought be and just watch.

[Azrael]

3 hours ago, Hardik jain said:

Okay guys so when I'm doing nothing(meditation) and I become aware that I'm thinking and if I can easily let go/stop thinking about that thought, should I stop thinking or do I continuing thinking even if I can easily stop thinking?

Let it happens as it comes. Sometime you will get so aware, that you stop thinking. That's fine. Sometime you will just continuing talking to yourself, that's fine. Some other time maybe something else.

The point of this technique is this: After enough sitting down doing nothing, it will strike you that you actually don't know where your decisions come from. They - in the end - arise like hiccups. Even if you think very strategically and clearly, where is this coming from? Where is 'you' coming from? As you get a taste of that you see that every doubt you have, is god playing a game with himself of "What if my world wasn't perfect?". That's about it. In any will, whatever happens, its okay. Just relax, keep sitting and have a smile on your face. Whatever you do is the only thing that could happen either way and you are the master doing it.

Sounds like I'm a little off here, but trust me. At some time this will come to you and blow you away.

Cheers

[Hardik jain]

4 hours ago, Prabhaker said:

How long can you stop ? Thinking cannot be stopped. Not that it does not stop, but it cannot be stopped. It stops of its own accord. This distinction has to be understood, otherwise you can go mad chasing your mind. The very effort to stop will create more anxiety, it will create conflict, it will make you split. You will be in a constant turmoil within. This is not going to help.

And even if you succeed in stopping it forcibly for a few moments, it is not an achievement at all -- because those few moments will be almost dead, they will not be alive. You may feel a sort of stillness, but not silence, because a forced stillness is not silence. Underneath it, deep in the unconscious, the repressed mind goes on working. So, there is no way to stop the mind. But the mind stops -- that is certain. It stops of its own accord.

Watch -- don't try to stop. There is no need to do any action against the mind. In the first place, who will do it? It will be mind fighting mind itself.

Look with deep reverence. Don't be a fighter -- be a lover. Watch! -- the subtle nuances of the mind; the sudden turns, the beautiful turns; the sudden jumps and leaps; the games that mind goes on playing; the dreams that it weaves -- the imagination, the memory; the thousand and one projections that it creates. Watch! Standing there, aloof, distant, not involved.

The deeper your watchfulness becomes, the deeper your awareness becomes, and gaps start arising, intervals. One thought goes and another has not come, and there is a gap. One cloud has passed, another is coming and there is a gap. In those gaps, for the first time you will have glimpses of no-mind,

 

3 hours ago, WelcometoReality said:

@Hardik jain when there is an intent of doing something. Drop that intent.

So if there is an intent of stop thinking, drop it. Just let every thought be and just watch.

 

1 hour ago, Azrael said:

Let it happens as it comes. Sometime you will get so aware, that you stop thinking. That's fine. Sometime you will just continuing talking to yourself, that's fine. Some other time maybe something else.

The point of this technique is this: After enough sitting down doing nothing, it will strike you that you actually don't know where your decisions come from. They - in the end - arise like hiccups. Even if you think very strategically and clearly, where is this coming from? Where is 'you' coming from? As you get a taste of that you see that every doubt you have, is god playing a game with himself of "What if my world wasn't perfect?". That's about it. In any will, whatever happens, its okay. Just relax, keep sitting and have a smile on your face. Whatever you do is the only thing that could happen either way and you are the master doing it.

Sounds like I'm a little off here, but trust me. At some time this will come to you and blow you away.

Cheers

Okay got it. But sometimes when I'm aware & not thinking my mind tells me that the awareness is fake and you're intentionally trying to aware(which is not doing nothing). What should I do at that time? It's very confusing.

[Prabhaker]

4 minutes ago, Hardik jain said:

when I'm aware & not thinking my mind tells me that the awareness is fake

When you are really aware & not thinking, you are just aware, you have no mind to tell anything. Without thinking you can't conclude that awareness is fake. 

[Hardik jain]

21 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

When you are really aware & not thinking, you are just aware, you have no mind to tell anything. Without thinking you can't conclude that awareness is fake. 

In the sense my mind tells me that I was intentionally aware.

[Prabhaker]

7 minutes ago, Hardik jain said:

In the sense my mind tells me that I was intentionally aware.

Relax, these are tricks of mind, don't listen to it, mind will give up, don't hurry. On the path nothing more is needed than patience.

[Neo]

@Prabhaker Any tips on when the mind takes you with it? I mean, you are deviated from watching the mind because you keep going off on little tangents with your mind away from the task at hand? I have made other posts saying I keep falling asleep and this maybe the same problem - tiredness.

I have taken to self enquiry with eyes open which helps, but then I'm not getting to do that meditation.

[Prabhaker]

8 minutes ago, Neo said:

Any tips on when the mind takes you with it? I mean, you are deviated from watching the mind because you keep going off on little tangents with your mind away from the task at hand?

Normally, so long as you are carried away by your speeding thoughts, you do not feel disturbed by the thoughts. But if you pause in-between, and study your mind, you realize how feverishly it works, and disturbs your peace. This pause is essential for curbing the over-activity of mind. You have to halt and watch your thoughts; for, if your thoughts are running fast, you cannot know your mind.

Therefore, I reiterate, your experience is a good omen. Do not be worried about it, on the contrary, be glad. But then take the next step: take a completely impersonal view of the thought process. Be only an observer of thoughts; have nothing to do with them except to observe them. When thoughts cloud your mind, and harass you, ask them, ‘Oh thoughts! To whom do you belong? Do you belong to me?’ You will get no reply to this inquiry! Because the thoughts do not belong to you! Try and find out.

Thoughts are your guests. They have made a lodging house of your mind. It is wrong to think of them as yours; and this same mistake comes in the way of getting rid of them. If you identify as yours, you stand in the way of their exit. And the thoughts which are your temporary guests become permanent lodgers. By looking at thoughts impersonally, you sever connection with them. Whenever a thought or desire is born in you, watch its birth, see it grow before the mind’s eye, and then observe its decline, and the final departure.

Repeat this observation with the second thought that enters the mind; watch also its birth, and growth, decline and death. Thus, in a quiet and detached manner—that is, as a witness—observe the constant stream of thoughts. Feel nothing about them, good or bad. Form no opinions about them, favourable or unfavourable. Just watch. Thus, by silent choiceless observation, the traffic of thoughts slows down; and finally, a state of thoughtless Bliss is achieved.

[Neo]

I'm so grateful to you.

[Azrael]

2 hours ago, Hardik jain said:

Okay got it. But sometimes when I'm aware & not thinking my mind tells me that the awareness is fake and you're intentionally trying to aware(which is not doing nothing). What should I do at that time? It's very confusing.

There is no one right way here. Sometimes you can just listen to your mind and still be aware, sometimes it will confuse you so much that you think you do something wrong here.

"Being confused & not knowing whether you do it the right way" is just a very nuanced game you play with yourself, so that you can tell yourself you have to do a lot of more work. Of course this is just coming up and you are not intentionally doing this - but this is exactly the point. All of this confusion, not knowing it, being frustrated has to purge for a sometimes very long time so that it can leave your mind.

But this is hard to see in the beginning and one is very confused. I was as well. Be patient. The answers will come when the questions disappear.

[Capethaz]

@Hardik jain you cannot stop thinking because there is no you to stop thinking.