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Problems with totally relaxing my mind

Daniel_Daniel_
edited July 2010 in Meditation
I sincerely apologize if this topic is discussed too frequently, and I'm just making it worse by making this thread, but when I try to meditate, I have trouble clearing my mind. It's always thinking about something. Is there something I should focus on to totally clear it?

Thanks.

-daniel

Comments

  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited July 2010
    Totally clearing the mind is not the goal of meditation. There is always a basic space or background in which thoughts occur, in which we have all these feelings and experiences during meditation. That basic space is undisturbed by thought. In meditation this space is realized by allowing thoughts and feelings to behave according to their own nature. It helps to understand that you are not the controller of thoughts and feelings. You are just the space in which they happen. This is not a metaphysical statement, just a way of seeing it. When thoughts and feelings are allowed to be as they are, this deeper stillness is sensed by their very movement. It's the stillness of non-resistance and non-obstruction. So the practice is just to notice when you have become absorbed in thought, which is natural, and waking up from that again, which is also natural. That is the rythm, just let this rythm, absorbed, awake, absorbed, awake, absorbed, awake, happen. In time the basic space and stillness will be felt in the midst of it.
  • lightwithinlightwithin Veteran
    edited July 2010
    This: http://newbuddhist.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6587 thread holds some good advice and is very similar to the one you made, check it out.
  • kannadakannada
    edited July 2010
    Daniel_ wrote: »
    I sincerely apologize if this topic is discussed too frequently, and I'm just making it worse by making this thread, but when I try to meditate, I have trouble clearing my mind. It's always thinking about something. Is there something I should focus on to totally clear it?

    Thanks.

    -daniel
    Pay close attention to what's going on in mind.

    Thinking arises then subsides, then another thought arises.

    Between the last thought that ceased and the next thought yet to arise there is a space between those thoughts - pay attention to that space.

    The more you practice, the larger those spaces grow.

    Good luck with your practice...
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