Meditation Definitions Part 2 - Meditation Means to Still the Mind (Amnesia)

The next definition of meditation that I want to give is a simple one, and one that many people will associate with their idea of meditation:
''Meditation is stilling the mind''.
Many people are constantly trying to solve their inner problems and find inner peace by using their mind to ''think'' their way out. In many ways this is actually a contradiction, as the nature of mind in action is activity, and activity generally produces stress and and absence of peace to varying degrees of intensity. I remember in one of his books Osho said that anyone who writes a book called ''Peace of Mind'' is an idiot (he called quite a few different kinds of people idiots :-)) as the only way to find real peace is to move into a state of no-mind, where the thinking and imaging processes have stopped.
Actually, it is 100% true that if you can stop yourself thinking, then peace and a sense of well being will arise naturally and easily from your consciousness, because peace, wholeness, luminescence and stability are the true nature of your consciousness when there are no thoughts getting in the way of it.

So, of course simply stopping thinking will not solve all the problems in your your physically embodied journey through time and space. However, it can enable you to enjoy inner peace regularly through meditation, and this peace can give you the inner stability and perspective that you need in order to face your challenges without feeling as if they are harassing you in a way that is out of your control.

So then, stilling the mind, or learning how to temporarily move into a state of no-mind is an essential skill that we are trying to develop in meditation. In many meditation schools, such as Zen, moving into a state of no-mind and stillness is emphasized as a major goal right from the beginning, it is THE training.

Before I go onto explain two techniques for stilling the mind, I want to point out that many people consciously or unconsciously resist moving into a state of no-thought because a state of no-thought seems to be associate with a sense of emptiness (in the negative sense of the word) or meaninglessness. Moreover, to our egos a state of no thought seems like a death, and so our ego, interpreting it as a threat in this way resits vigorously!
This resistance can actually be solved through practical experience of the no-thought state, but in the interim period between fear of no thought and stable experience of it, it may be useful to consider as follows. When your mind is empty of thought, rather than considering such a state to be devoid of life, we can consider it to be in a state of wholeness of life, or fullness of life. When there are no thoughts dividing it up, our consciousness and being naturally and easily become whole, undivided, united. It is a state where we can find unity not just with ourselves, but also with other living beings, the planet, the universe. So, approaching the space of no thought in this way can help us build a positive relationship with it from the outset.

No-mind technique: Amnesia or becoming a Simpleton.

This meditation technique or form involves an act of imagination, where you either imagine that you have suddenly bee afflicted with amnesia and can remember nothing, not even your name, or that you have become a complete simpleton. You have become so simple-minded or ''stupid'' that you can no longer even string a sentence together!
Sitting quietly in your meditation seat in this way, just maintain the recognition of your amnesia or simpleton-ness. Progressively let go of any thoughts, images and feelings. When they threaten to arise, simply remember that you have amnesia, or that you are simply to simple to hold the sentence or stream of thought together in your mind.
Practicing in this way, you will find that your mind will gradually become more and more relaxed, with less and less thought activity arising. From this absence of thought will come a sense of inner peace. When you get good at this, you will be able simply to let your mind rest in a state of no-thought for longer and longer periods of time. This will give you a tangible experience each day of inner peace, and it will allow the mind to start engaging in a process of self-healing that affect your everyday life positively on many different levels.

Question: Won't meditating on no-mind in this way make me actually more stupid, less intelligent and more forgetful??

Answer: Quite simply, no. We are using our imagination here to create a condition of no-mind or no-thought within our consciousness. This in turn allows our mind to really have a good rest and recuperate its faculties, which in turn should result in an increase in our awareness, clarity, intelligence and natural creativity. It should also result in an improvement in mental factors such as memory.

Once you become used to moving into a state of no mind you will also discover that you can use it in many different situations in your daily life. For example if you find that as you walk down the street your mind is commenting in a negative way on all the passers by and this is upsetting you, you can simply ''switch it off'' and ride out your difficult mood in relative inner silence, without making it any worse than it needs to be.

To read the first in this series of articles on meditation definitions click HERE.
To read the next (3rd) in this series of articles click HERE.

© Toby Ouvry 2009 Please do not reproduce without permission.