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No Mind and its aftermath

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  • February 18, 2015 at 10:36 am #72952
    Tony Sanderson
    Participant

    Good day, everyone! Another question just came up that I thought would find its answer in this forum.
    Basically, I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘no-mind’ which is when you think of nothing at all.
    Well, I’ve been doing that every now and then because it’s supposed to clear my mind of thought so that when I come back, I can start on a ‘fresh page’ so to speak.
    What I do is I close my eyes, see a black wall and a black background. My thoughts look like tabs in Safari on iOS and they are trying to jump over the wall, but I send them right back. This goes on for about 7 seconds, when they cease and I can just relax. After about 20 more seconds, I open my eyes, hoping to feel free of the overwhelm of thoughts but they just storm my mind again, like they broke the black wall.
    The question is, why is that happening. Am I doing something wrong?

    Thank you all

    Tony

    February 19, 2015 at 12:50 am #72988
    Rock Banana
    Participant

    You are trying to suppress thinking, which is pointless. What happens if you try not to think of a pink elephant? Huh? Keep trying your hardest NOT to think of a pink elephant…go on…

    You see, suppressing thinking isn’t really an answer. Read up and do some mindfulness meditation, this is about letting thoughts come and go without judging them and observing them from a distance. If you are suppressing the thinking you are trying to avoid feeling a certain way, but what you need to do is to observe the thoughts from a distance and feel whatever comes up. If it gets too overwhelming you can return to the sensations of breathing in and out. So start doing mindfulness meditation which I highly recommend for you.

    Also, read the book “You Can Be Happy No Matter What” by Richard Carlson. If you read that you’ll realize what’s happening with you and you’ll understand why you don’t need to suppress your thoughts.

    Good luck
    All best.

    February 20, 2015 at 4:46 am #73048
    Will
    Participant

    I think the metaphor you’ve chosen is unhelpful. So, you build a wall in your mind, and have to actively send your thoughts back out of sight while they’re trying to invade. You’re under siege in this metaphor, and only barely holding out. So when you stop this meditation, of course you’ll be overrun! You’ve told yourself that that’s what will happen simply by choosing this as a metaphor.

    But other metaphors are possible, and might be more useful for you. You could imagine your thoughts as small animals, ducklings maybe, waddling around and falling over, and they’re sort of cute but you don’t have to pay attention. They’ll just waddle away again on their own. Or, more traditionally, consider your thoughts to be drifting clouds through the bright empty sky of your mind. Some drift by slowly, some quickly, but they always just drift by on the wind, you don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to name them or see what shape they are, they’re not important. You just keep looking at that beautiful blue sky, which represents your mind in this metaphor. You mind is always still and vast and pure and blue. Thoughts are just weather, ain’t no big deal.

    I think if you try out this kind of method, which considers thoughts to be simply uninteresting and unimportant rather than a hostile hoard embattling you, you may have a more lasting peaceful effect.

    I also second Rock Banana’s suggestion to look into mindfulness meditation, which may have a no-mind kind of effect but that’s not necessarily the ‘aim’ or ‘purpose’ of the meditation. (And speaking from personal experience, that effect is likely to happen after a day or so of continual practice at a retreat rather than in a short session. YMMV though!) Some styles of Zen sitting have a ‘no purpose, just sit’ kind of attitude that may also be helpful getting out of this “Besieged!” feeling.

    Good luck, man!

    February 21, 2015 at 8:09 am #73093
    Matt
    Participant

    Raven,

    In addition to the other kindly advice and metaphors, consider the one given to me by my teacher. The quiet space we approach and grow with meditation is much like a house. When a wind blows, it is very natural to run to the front door of our house and close it, pressing our body against the door to keep it shut. “Keeping thoughts away”. Then the wind rattles and blows open the windows, so we run over… And of course as soon as we step away from the door, it blows open. By the time we get up from the cushion, whew! Exhausted from staying on top of all that wind! Exhausted from throwing the tabs back over the wall!

    To sidestep this cycle, instead of trying to push to door closed, we can go to the back door and open it up. Then, the wind passes right through, no biggie. Its just wind, after all. When we don’t do anything with our thoughts, just note them passing through space, they stop being so important. They’re empty, after all, just wind, air, fueled by old stories, attachments. The fuel is consumed, wind passes through, peace grows.

    With warmth,
    Matt

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