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Sometimes people think that the point of meditation is to stop thinking — to have a silent mind. This does happen occasionally, but it is not necessarily the point of meditation. Thoughts are an important part of life. Mindfulness practice is not a struggle against thoughts, but overcoming our preoccupation with them. Mindfulness is not thinking about things; it is observation of our life in all its aspects. In those moments when thinking predominates, mindfulness is the clear and silent awareness that we are thinking. Thoughts can come and go as they wish, and the meditator does not need to become involved with them.
In meditation, when thoughts are subtle and in the background, or when random thoughts pull you away from awareness of the present, it is enough to resume mindfulness of breathing. However, when your preoccupation with thoughts is stronger than your ability to easily let go of them, then direct your mindfulness to being clearly aware that thinking is occurring.
Sometimes thinking can be strong and compulsive even while we are aware of it. When this happens, notice how such thinking is affecting your body, physically and energetically. Let your mindfulness feel the sensations of tightness, pressure, or whatever you discover. When you feel the physical sensation of thinking, you are bringing attention to the present moment rather than the story line of the thoughts.
When a particular theme keeps reappearing in our thinking, it is likely being triggered by a strong emotion. If the associated emotion isn’t recognized, the concern will keep reappearing. For example, people who plan a lot often find that planning thoughts arise out of apprehension. If they do not acknowledge this, the fear will be a factory of new planning thoughts. If there is a repetitive thought pattern, see if you can discover an emotion associated with it, and then practice mindfulness of the emotion. Ground yourself in the present moment in the emotion itself. When you acknowledge the emotion, often it will cease generating those particular thoughts.
Thoughts are a huge part of our lives. Many of us spend much time inhabiting the cognitive world of stories and ideas. Mindfulness practice won’t stop the thinking, but it will help prevent us from compulsively following thoughts that have appeared. This will help us become more balanced, so our physical, emotional and cognitive sides all work together as a whole.
One of our main objectives in practicing mindfulness is to create a calm and clear mind. Our aim is to be able to see clearly, to see things as they really are, so that we can be wise and effective in life, understand others, and be compassionate. There are four mindfulness practices with regards to thinking that can help us with this:
(1) The first practice is to ask ourselves, “Are you sure?” Many of our perceptions are erroneous and cause suffering. You might write, “Are you sure?” on a large piece of paper and hang it where we will see it often. Perhaps it would make a good screen saver as well.
(2) The second practice is to ask ourselves, “What am I doing?” Although the answer might seem obvious—“I am feeding the birds”, this question counters the habit of rushing into the future. It returns us to the present moment. Asking, “What am I doing?” can also reveal the extent to which our thoughts are conditioned—if not created—by whatever we are doing. Having that awareness, we may be less inclined to believe our passing thoughts or lose ourselves in speculation.
(3) The third practice is to say, “Hello, habit energy.” By “habit energies” we mean our habitual patterns of thinking and behaving. To become aware of those energies is often to diminish their power. Insofar as we can recognize the habitual components in our thinking, we can respond with wisdom rather than react with reflexive judgment.
(4) The fourth practice involves becoming aware of our deep, heart-felt aspirations for life and setting our intentions so that they become the basis of our thinking. When we get in touch with and generate a deep wish to cultivate love and understanding for ourselves and others, it guides us towards compassionate speech and action. We can begin each day evoking these aspirations and setting our specific intentions for the day. We might ask ourselves, what qualities of mind do I want to generate today? Clarity, kindness, compassion, ease, mindfulness, gratitude, joy, determination, equanimity? We can set our intentions each morning, for example: May I be kind today to all I meet. May I experience each moment fully. May I practice understanding and compassion today. May I be helpful to those in need. May I smile in gratitude for the blessings in my life. May I be clear, calm, and focused when I take the test today. May I be kind and honest, listen deeply, and contribute to others in the meeting that I attend today.
Guided Meditation on Thinking
Establish your posture. Lengthen the spine, chin slightly tucked in so back of neck lengthens. Shoulders relaxed, eyes open this time with a soft gaze, hands folded or on knees. Relax the face, the jaw, with a half smile. Strong back, open front – exemplify your attitude!
Set your intention—to sit in relaxation with a focused, alert mind, keeping attention on the breath and then on thinking.
Bring yourself into your body. Feel yourself sitting with stability--stable, upright and open. Sitting with dignity and presence. Feel yourself grounded in your body.
Bring your awareness/attention to your breath. Feel the breath as it moves in and out of the body. Let the flow of the breath relax your body, calm your body. Breathing in, I’m aware of my breath; breathing out, I calm my body.
You have nothing to do in this moment but follow the breath—nowhere to go, nothing to do except sit in mindfulness, enjoying your breathing.
If you notice yourself thinking, for the next couple of minutes, let go of that and re-establish yourself in the breathing…
And now, with a certain degree of calm and deliberateness, let go of your breathing, let go of paying attention to breathing, and now simply notice when you’re thinking. You’re welcome to think. No need to stop thinking now. As you’re thinking, you’re clearly aware that thinking is happening…Rather than letting go of thinking, look at your thoughts directly, head on. Like a curious scientist, not caught up in content, but very intrigued by the process of thinking.
If your thoughts fade away as you watch them, just wait until they come back or go back to your breathing until such a time as thinking begins again. When it does, clearly look at your thinking, see that it’s happening, be aware of it.
Very, very softly, whisper in the mind, as you are aware of thinking occurring, label it or name it, “thinking” very softly.
For the purposes of meditation, what you’re thinking about is not important. But as we pay attention to thinking in meditation, you might notice other aspects of the process of thinking besides the content. So, for example, if you’re thinking words or images, what’s the quality of the inner voice? What’s the quality of the pictures that you see? The inner voice that thinks, is it soft and gentle, is it harsh? Adamant? Is the inner voice critical? Or very accepting, easy-going?
Are there any emotions connected to what you are thinking about? Do emotions cause the thinking or does the process of thinking cause emotions to arise? If there is, then quietly note the emotion. Include that in the awareness.
If thinking goes away as you watch it, relax into the space that’s left behind. Relax into the spaciousness of the quiet mind.
And then as you notice your thinking again, notice if there is any physical aspect to thinking. Is there any pressure or tension connected to thinking? Somewhere in the body? Tightness? Could be pressure in the brain, in the forehead, tension around the eyes, the jaws. Holding in the shoulders, the chest, the lower back. Is there some part of the body that feels activated in support of thinking, as part of your thinking?
Is there a strong energy to the thinking, or is it more subtle?
Then is it possible to relax, soften any tension or pressure connected to thinking? Perhaps as you exhale, relaxing the thinking brain, you can relax a muscle.
Now can you let go of your thinking enough to re-center yourself on your breathing. Letting go of your thoughts, letting them recede to the background, and enter into the world of your breathing again. Hanging in there with the breathing. See if you can stay connected to a whole series of breaths in a row.
Don’t try to come out of meditation too quickly to end our guided meditation; let your eyes be soft, let your mind be soft. Enjoy this sense of a softer, slower, stiller mind before thoughts, noise, the stress of all you have to do come crowding back in.
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