Do You Have to Stop Your Thoughts to Meditate?
A common assumption about meditation is that you need to stop thinking. You sit down, close your eyes and try to make the mind quiet.
For many people, this is where meditation starts to feel like hard work. You try not to think. You try not to think about certain things. You try to focus on one thing rather than another.
But all that effort can have the opposite effect. Instead of settling down, the mind gets busier.
Trying to quiet the mind
If you’re actively trying to control what the mind is doing, you’re introducing effort into the process.
You might notice a thought and try to get rid of it. Another appears, so you try to stop that one too. Or perhaps you attempt to concentrate on a particular object, sound or idea and keep bringing your attention back whenever it wanders.
There’s a lot of trying involved.
And when we use effort to make the mind quiet, we can end up making it more active. The experience then becomes frustrating: you’re trying to meditate, but your mind doesn’t appear to be doing what you want it to do.
The problem isn’t that you’re incapable of meditating. We need a technique that doesn’t require us to force the mind into silence.
Meditation can be easy and natural
With the right technique, quietening the mind can be very easy and very natural.
In Vedic Meditation, we’re not trying to stop thoughts or hold the mind in a particular place. We don’t need to focus or concentrate.
Instead, we use a mantra.
How the mantra allows the mind to settle
A mantra is a sound used during Vedic Meditation. Rather than using it as something to concentrate on, we allow the mantra to take the mind towards quieter and quieter levels.
The meditator isn’t having to force this process to happen. There’s no requirement to stop thinking or keep the mind fixed on the mantra.
This is what makes the technique effortless.
Instead of judging your meditation by whether thoughts are present, the important thing is to have the right technique. When we stop trying to force the mind to become quiet, we allow it to settle naturally.
That changes the experience of meditation completely. It becomes smooth, easy and something we don’t have to work hard at.
Vedic Meditation is taught in person over four consecutive days at London Meditation Centre and New York Meditation Center.
Find out more: London | New York
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