If you are thinking words, you are not meditating

I was listening to a podcast on halfpasthuman.com and although the site is more about predicting the future, they were talking about meditation at one point. It was said that if you think with words you are not really meditating, as a true meditation involves quieting the mind and there is only sensation and imagery without words.

I've been trying to meditate, but not with any sort of guide as to how to do it or where to start. I just relax and let my mind wander, but always I have words in my mind. Sometimes as I relax I go into a hypnotic state and sometimes random words or phrases enter my mind, or I remember something someone said that day, or a bit of a song lyric will pop into my mind. Always I have thoughts with words. A few times in the middle of the night, I have awoken when it was very quiet. When this happens, sometimes for a few seconds or maybe a minute I can get into a really relaxed state in which it just feels peaceful and like I am not really thinking anything with words. I've only done this a few times though. I don't know how to quiet my mind. It seems like the harder I try to do that, the more I think. So is it true that if you are thinking words that you are not really meditating?

reply to post by jessieg


You are meditating, you're just not reaching the deeper levels as of yet. Just keep at it.

If your looking for a good guide on how to meditate I would recommend the book "The complete book of Zen" by Wong Kiew Kit It's a really comprehensive guide to everything Zen and you can get it really cheaply on Amazon

link

Stopping thoughts is incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Instead, try to be 'outside' those thoughts. Observe them as they 'pop-up' in your mind. The quiet place you seek, I think, is not IN the mind where those throughts are occuring.

When meditating it is good to clear the mind c.q head completely.

All though if are meditating and you have questions you need to think the words to get at one point a clear answer from your subconscious.

reply to post by jessieg


Hello jessieg. When I first started trying out meditation I had this same problem. I asked one of my spiritual mentors for advice and I will share with you his words that helped me.

"To meditate we must break free from the noise of our own thoughts. Imagine each thought, each word, and each mental distraction as a boxcar of a train. When you are sitting at a train crossing you watch as each boxcar passes by. Do this same thing with your thoughts. Allow them to come into your consciousness. Do not fight to suppress the thought, it will only make you focus on the distraction more. Do not elaborate on the thought, do not dwell on it, and do not think about it. Let the thought come and go on it's own. At the train crossing, observe each boxcar pass by. In your mind observe each thought pass by. There is no harm in observing the distracting thought, but do not engage it. Start to see your thought as separate from you. Observe it but do not engage it, do not fight it, do not think about it. Let it come and go freely. Let all the thoughts come and go freely as many as may come. Then you will start to become clear. Your mind will become quiet. Your thoughts are the individual boxcars of a train... watch them come and go until there is no more train."


This advice helped me and I was able to quiet my mind for the first time in life. I hope this advice will benefit you also. May Peace be upon you.

reply to post by jessieg


I imagine that your thoughts are typically thoughts of the world and its things. Take yourself out of the world, or this world, and you will have nothing to think about!

Originally posted by jessieg
I was listening to a podcast on halfpasthuman.com and although the site is more about predicting the future, they were talking about meditation at one point. It was said that if you think with words you are not really meditating, as a true meditation involves quieting the mind and there is only sensation and imagery without words.

Half Past Human is a good site. Higher level Qaballa, including Greek philosophical concepts, would say that through the meditation on words, one is better able to come to a comprehension of reality.

From Cratyus -

Soc. Then, as to names: ought not our legislator also to know how to put the true natural names of each thing into sounds and syllables and to make and give all names with a view to the ideal name, if he is to be a namer in any true sense? And we must remember that different legislators will not use the same syllables. For neither does every smith, although he may be making the same instrument for the same purpose, make them all of the same iron. The form must be the same, but the material may vary, and still the instrument may be equally good of whatever iron made, whether in Hellas or in a foreign country;- there is no difference.

The Qaballist would then point that proper meditation with the intent to penetrate reality of necessity requires the meditation and reflection on words directly.

The correct meditation technique is something you find for yourself. One way may work for me, but will not for you. There is not a right way, but whichever way helps you personally. Granted, some ways may take you longer to gain what the quiet you crave, but that does not mean they are wrong. I chant certain single syllable words like om or hu. I then concentrate on an image in my mind of a perfectly still pond, or a desert. I put all my attention on the image until my thoughts and inner dialogue quiets. Some days I cannot succeed in quieting my thoughts so I try again later. Eventually after a couple minutes of silence in my mind, or a close to silence I am able to achieve, I change the image. I gradually shift from a still pond to complete white. Like a white paper, or a bright light. Usually by this time my thoughts are quiet, or not dominating my attention. Once in this place I can begin to reach a place of peace, and move into heart consciousness. Whatever works for you at this time is what you need to do.
Take care and good luck.
Keep trying it takes a lifetime to achieve the calming of the mind.

If words are to be avoided in meditation, the what the hell is a mantra? Isn't that a word that you are supposed to focus on?

Re Noreaster

Mantras etc

A crutch to lean on, until you can walk well enough to throw it away.

Paradoxically this getting rid of the crutch sometimes seems to be more difficult than anything else in the meditation process. It gets kind of doctrinal on the way.

I've never had this problem meditating, ....

I would think its an obvious one, if your thinking with words.......


my advice ??? stop meditating.

Don't spend your life with your eyes closed,