Underestimated power of inner silence

Silence of the Mind

'Morning.

There is a subtle hidden truth in this thread about mankind and why he has been so destructive towards himself and the planet he lives on for so many years. I'm not willing to talk about it asap because I'd like you guys to take on a very simple exercice first.

To be fair, I shouldn't be using the word 'simple' because it might not be as easy as it may sound at first. The exercise is hard enough that I'd bet one hundred bucks with anyone that less than half of you guys are going to succeed in it.
I'd be happily surprised otherwise.

Let's go for the exercise (please do it with serious intent) -

1(optional)
Close your eyes and relax.
2(important)
Start to observe the thought process you presently have in your mind.
Be attentive of how so many there are and how they come and go.
3(main challenge)
Free yourself of the thought process. Have complete silence in your mind. Do not think about anything.

Now let's see just how long you guys can handle this.
10 sec without thoughts?
30 sec?
45 sec?
60 sec?

The reality should be that most of you guys didn't succeed to the 1 minute mark.
The reason is simple: we spend more than half of our day just thinking about anything and everything without any place for inner serenity. In fact, our society is based upon persistent and, to an extent, useless thinking. This is the way it works in the 21st century, but it's not always been that way.

What if I told you it is actually possible to be in complete silence (or almost) in the mind for several minutes in a row and that it can have HUGE benefits on the body and the mind?
I believe it has the power to change one's life completely and the way he looks at it.

Some of you guys are probably already aware that this is how meditation works. One of its purpose is to free the mind of all the useless thoughts we have during a day. However, it is also possible to be in complete serenity without the usual meditation (that is to say: eyes closed, lying calmly).

I won't develop any further in this original post on the effect of incessant thoughts and the negative impact it has on humanity in recent times. I'd like to hear what you guys have to say first.

So have you done the exercice?

Its a little noisy outside my apt. at the moment but I can clear my mind of thought pretty easily, but what is odd is that when I do I realize it and then whamo I'm back to thinking again lol. So maybe not totally clear of thoughts.

When it is quiet around here I really sitting peacefully in the dark silence, not necessarily devoid of conscious thought but more reflecting on them.

I saw this link yesterday,
news.discovery.com...

reply to post by St0rD


I meditated my whole first semester of college before i realized college wasn't for me. I was able, with background noise, to maintain silence in my head for a couple hours.

tinner07
Its a little noisy outside my apt. at the moment but I can clear my mind of thought pretty easily, but what is odd is that when I do I realize it and then whamo I'm back to thinking again lol. So maybe not totally clear of thoughts.

When it is quiet around here I really sitting peacefully in the dark silence, not necessarily devoid of conscious thought but more reflecting on them.

I saw this link yesterday,
news.discovery.com...

What you just described about the paradox of 'thinking about not thinking' is one of the most difficult aspect of this exercice.

In fact, the ego will do anything so you never stop having activity in the mind. So, when you begin to relieve your mind out of thoughts, you will have this small voice inside your head subtly saying: ''Hey, you just succeeded, good job!''
In reality, you just failed.

The key is to keep observing your thoughts no matter what. To never get attached and identified to it. The more you will do it, the better you will get and eventually you will learn just how to filter your thoughts and control them.

Worth the try.

Im older and grew up during the big "new age" explosion. Mediation was basically softcore New Ageism.. so we all felt that was more safe and not as "dark". Ive since changed my mind, but anyway... I tried and tried... I can NOT silence my mind. Never been able to. Call it not enlightened or lower plane.. whatever. There is NO silence in my mind and it cant be silenced. I figure there are a lot of people out there like this as well. Ive learnd to roll with it. If I let it run high, like if Im working on something or brainstorming... holy cow its great. Trying to sleep sometimes.. not so great. Sometimes I almost post incomprehensible things because my wires get crossed on 2 different lines of thought Im going through and my fingers are slow to catch up... and I have to delete. LOL!
There is something to be said for clearing the mind as well as letting it run full steam. There is underestimated power in a brain that doesnt stop. I imagine that a person who is like me would drive themselves mad or feel a failure if they couldnt clear the mind as some of you can. Maybe they simply SHOULDNT try to do it and embrace their own natural abilities.

you dont are the body nor the mind transcend that www.youtube.com...

your self true nature

of intuition and instintive know and plane not the material know and the material plane of agree confirm that catch us and programm us to not know more about your self you are your self in earth of your self true nature of intuition instintive the material make us dont know more about yourself but just agree and confirm in material plane and material know that made aware of it you in this know and plane


your true self nature is intuition instintive in the true self nature plane of intuition instintive and know of your self true nature to make you confident

www.youtube.com...

TRANSCEND

www.youtube.com...

TRASCEND TRASCEND TRANSCEND TRANSCEND TRANSCEND


YOU DONT ARE THE BODY NOR MIND YOU DONT ARE THE BODY NOR MIND YOU DONT ARE THE BODY NOR MIND

TRANSCEND OF MATERIAL TRANSCEND OF MATERIAL KNOW YOUR SELF TRUE NATURE OF INTUITION INSTINTIVE

Why would someone want to limit his own faculties by silencing them? Instead of silencing the mind, think about something else.

Thought happens - it is the silence that notices them.

Aphorism
Why would someone want to limit his own faculties by silencing them? Instead of silencing the mind, think about something else.

Maybe the answer isnt necessarily one or the other. I perceive the silence in my mind as a canvas of sorts. On that canvas is painted the thoughts, emotions, and dreams that make up my perspective.

I think that when I tried to control this process by negation, it ended up having the opposite result. Though, for a while, I did successfully convince myself that I was able to stop thinking altogether. Then I figured I would have to think about it to even know the difference.

reply to post by Serdgiam

Maybe the answer isnt necessarily one or the other. I perceive the silence in my mind as a canvas of sorts. On that canvas is painted the thoughts, emotions, and dreams that make up my perspective.

I think of it a little differently: that we think when we are alive and that we don't think when we are dead.

I try to go from total silence to tuning into my environment or just to my breath. The trick is to "tune" in without starting some sort of chatter in your head. Meditation has a bunch of health benefits including I feel balancing the left and right hemispheres of your brain. When you start any kind of chatter in your head your using more of your left brain and tuning out of your right brain more wheras when you are in the flow without chatter is when you are tuning into your more intuitive right hemisphere.

Here is a quick test to see which side you use more of. Try making her spin both ways if you can.

CLOCKWISE- more Right brain
COUNTERCLOCKWISE- more Left brain

www.youtube.com...

Aphorism

Maybe the answer isnt necessarily one or the other. I perceive the silence in my mind as a canvas of sorts. On that canvas is painted the thoughts, emotions, and dreams that make up my perspective.

I think of it a little differently: that we think when we are alive and that we don't think when we are dead.

I think what I said can still apply regardless of what happens at death.

Im not so sure that we keep "thinking" beyond death either, since what we perceive as "thinking" is a construct that includes the physical brain as a large component. But, I am equally unconvinced that the physical, material body (as understood in a general sense) is the entirety of our "being."

Either way, I attempt to make the "thinking, emotions, and dreams" into brush strokes on a canvas. I am just as aware of the canvas as I am the tools I am using to paint on it. There is always more to learn though.

Aphorism
Why would someone want to limit his own faculties by silencing them? Instead of silencing the mind, think about something else.

You clearly don't grasp the concept here.

Humans have the faculty to think and that's a good thing, I can't disagree with that. That's what makes us human.

However, we also have the faculty, just like animals, to observe what is without any thoughts and judgments whatsoever.
In fact, animals are always in the present moment and there is a reason for that.
They don't have to think about everything and anything constantly. In this instance, when they look at a beautiful landscape for example, they won't try to judge and personalize it just like we do. They will just look at it. They will just be. And we can learn a lot from that.

That's the secret of this thread.

Mankind has been given the power to think, observe, rationalize but it was a also a double-edged blade. There was a risk to it and it's the possibility of loosing contact with life and nature because of our ego.

Most people nowadays will think all day long. They will think about the past or the future, they will judge, they will criticize, they will label things and in the end they will never have a time when they are fully in the moment of now just appreciating life for what it is. They will always try to make it look like what they want. Life wasn't meant to be lived that way. We have been given a mind to truly experience life and make the best out of it. Sincerely, look at what most people think and do recently. Pay attention to what they say and think. You might be surprised just how useless and recurrent their thoughts are.

When you meet an unknown girl on the street, what are you gonna do for the most part? Judge and label her physical look, think about how she walks, how huge her breast his, etc etc. Why can't we just look at each other and see the best out of everyone?

Now, you may think this is normal because that's what everyone do and that's the way it is.
But in fact, it's not always been that way. Ancient civilizations were aware of the danger of the ego taking complete control over the mind. That's what just happened in the last 100 years.

I'm not kidding, the actual mental state of humanity could be easily compared to a mental sickness. A sickness that makes everyone completely identified to what is going on in their mind without even realizing they have a control over it and ultimately that we are much more than these low vibrating thoughts.

Have you ever wondered why the most beautiful things of nature are completely silent? We have the ability to use this power.
That doesn't mean we have to stop thinking, that's not what I'm saying.

Simply that we can control the activity that is present in our mind and make it much more efficient and life-driven. To think when it is really necessary and on the other end, to just be and observe without any judgements.

When you are in silence, that's when you truly look at life for what it is.

reply to post by St0rD

You clearly don't grasp the concept here.

It's only clear that I disagree with your concept.

Thinking occurs in the moment and is an act of nature. In no way is it possible to live outside the moment or outside of nature—so why not just do that? To limit thinking is an ego-based attempt to limit nature and one of the very faculties of our observation.

Aphorism

If anything learning to be able to silence the mind helps my quality of thinking. It's like the saying, "Does your brain control you, or do you control your brain." Do you drive the car or does the car drive you type of thing.

reply to post by 112233

If anything learning to be able to silence the mind helps my quality of thinking. It's like the saying, "Does your brain control you, or do you control your brain." Do you drive the car or does the car drive you type of thing.

Do you also stop swimming when you wish to get better at swimming?