How To Make The Mind Go Quiet, Permanently
A quiet mind is something so many people want to experience, if even for a short period of time. An uncontrolled mind is like a living hell and so there’s many different methods people talk about to “control the mind” or to “master the mind” including affirmations, meditations, and more.
So how do you quiet the mind once and for all?
…
You don’t.
Wait, what?
See, quieting the mind is not something “you” can do. The “you” that you think you are IS the mind and the mind is unwilling to commit suicide and kill itself. In fact, the mind would rather throw you (the body) off a cliff to prove a point rather than give up its own positions and desire to be right. The mind does NOT have your own best interests at heart! The ego/mind is something that works on its own and it is not you. By pushing against it and trying to shut it up, you’re creating even more struggle which will never lead to the mind going totally quiet for good.
So what can we do?
Surrender Ego Juice
If you look at the thoughts, you’ll see that it’s not actually the thoughts themselves that give us pleasure, but rather the “juice” the ego gets out of thinking the thoughts. Some examples of this ego juice include the feeling of I (as an individual self) exist, I am better than, I am right, I am in control, I am no good, I can do it, I can never do it, and so on.
Look closely and you’ll find that there’s an emotional payoff the ego gets to thinking. It’s the payoffs that need to be surrendered to God, not the actual thoughts themselves. Take away the ego’s motivation and benefits to thinking and the thinking will naturally subside on its own little by little until there’s a permanent stillness in the mind.
Silence.
How To Do It
Any time you notice a compulsive “pull” within you that says you need to do something, a sense of mental agitation, notice the compulsion and the feeling of “ugh, I GOTTA do this.”
Next look at the payoffs that you’d get by doing the thing. Perhaps it’s a sense of relief, accomplishment, approval, control, security, separation, oneness, or something else that you will obtain by thinking the thoughts or performing the action. There’s some sort of emotional benefit to what the thought is trying to get you to do.
Finally, adopt a Yin position towards these feelings and towards Life, a feeling of ALLOWING thoughts to be and allowing them to be let go of on their own. Simply let go of any emotional payoffs and the thoughts themselves will automatically be released. Do not force them to leave. Allow them to be let go of by simply offering them no resistance. You may need to repeat this process over and over to fully surrender away the attachments to a particular thought or emotion.
Let Go Of Any Personalization
A random pair of shoes you see aren’t deemed important by the mind and thus aren’t spun around in the thoughts and inserted into our conscious memory banks. However, an identical pair of shoes that become ‘my’ pair of shoes are suddenly given a sense of importance and are thus remembered.
The same is true with ‘my’ thoughts, ‘my’ beliefs, ‘my’ body, ‘my’ opinions, ‘my’ ideas, ‘my’ people, ‘my’ land, ‘my’ girlfriend, and so on. The ego loooves to claim ownership of and possessiveness to things because it believes there is some sort of magical benefit to owning things. This is simply not true. Owning more and more “things” does not make one happy.
As one lets go of all beliefs as to personalization, ownership, or value judgments, all is seen to be equally beautiful and valuable. A rose is recognized to be as beautiful as a common weed. Objects and concepts are all seen to have equal importance not because they are mine, but because they are. Everyone and everything is of equal value to the Self.
Collapsing The Mind
The mind focuses on thoughts that it believes are true. For example, you only worry about things that might conceivably happen. If the mind didn’t believe the thought, it wouldn’t focus on it. When one starts investigating, they’ll find that the mind actually has no capacity to discern what’s true.
If you look closely, you’ll find that you can take any belief you believe to be true and find evidence to support why the opposite belief is also true.
Explore some more and you’ll find that every belief is ultimately supported by nothing. There is no belief built upon a solid foundation of truth. Every thought, belief, or opinion that we hold so strongly to be true, we find that deep down we actually don’t know if it’s actually true! Dig deep and you’ll find that every belief and its opposite is false.
Once you realize that every belief and its opposite is both true AND false, you’ll find you don’t really believe anything, nor do you disbelieve anything. Rather, you come to rest right in the middle as the mind begins to collapse on itself.
What remains is your natural state beyond thought. Some call this enlightenment or being your true self.
What Benefit Is There To Doing This?
Peace, Joy, Bliss, Unconditional Love, Stillness, and an Infinite Softness.
The mind is still available as a tool when one awakens, but it no longer runs amok like an undisciplined child. One can simply tell the mind to be quiet and believe it or not, it actually will! The mind will only be used when needed and what one begins to realize is that the mind is needed far less often than originally thought.
When one stops judging and personalizing and mentally farting around, the mind subsides and the ‘veil’ of the mind lifts. Only then does one find the true beauty of God/Nature/All That Is.
When the veil lifts, it’s like suddenly having the experience of a TV show we used to watch on a small black and white TV suddenly appearing on a huge, colorful HDTV.
Colors are richer and juicier, tastes are more delightful, sounds are exquisite, sensations are glorious, and the whole world feels radiantly alive and beautiful. It’s like someone cranked the “juiciness” knob WAYYY up on life.
All that used to be a struggle has been changed into a conscious observation, an all-pervading softness, and effortless power to accomplish anything necessary.
Life becomes a magnificent journey for no one, an exquisitely beautiful moment perpetually unfolding from perfection to perfection all on its own. What an incredible ride…
For further reading on this topic, continue on to read about accepting things totally the way they are, without resistance.
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I follow a slightly different approach although it is mostly the same. Essentially I do ‘watch and pray’.
The watching is the conscious awareness that sees thoughts as they arise, knows them. The yin stance.
As they go by I ask for their removal.
I notice consistent growth using this method, but I wouldn’t say I’m at a stage that my mind is permanently quiet. Rather it doesn’t have a hold on me and it attempts to take me away less often.
Jarrod – Warrior Developments last blog post..My Brief History
Jarrod, that’s a very effective technique as well.
The key point is that one can not trasncend the mind via their own personal will for personal will is part of the mind and the mind will not transcend itself.
In order to do this, you absolutely MUST surrender to a higher power, call it God’s Will, Spiritual Will, Divine Grace, or something else. It is via the Spiritual Will that this can happen.
Constant prayer to God is great.
Would you please go into some more detail on the How to Do It section? I don’t quite get it, and frankly, I’m nearly desperate to figure this quietness out. More examples might help…
Thank you!!!!
Dyanne, of course I will.
Ultimately there’s two things needed.
1) The mind is getting a lot of motivation to think. Thinkingness keeps the false self feeling like it exists. It helps make “me” feel important as the star of my own mental show. It’s important to surrender (just letting go of the compulsive craving sensation, or release (via the sedona method… both techniques accomplish basically the same thing) all pleasure or pain that arises due to thinking.
2) Instead of focusing on the thoughts, the awareness that you are needs something to focus on. The best thing the awareness could focus on is itself. This is the Self looking directly at the Self, or “looking within.” Simply notice the part of you that is aware of your thoughts and feelings. Take that awareness and turn it back in on itself. Be aware of the fact that you are aware.
Remain in this state. Be aware of your own awareness while also allowing yourself to surrender all attachments and aversions to things of this world. This will both let go of the necessity of thinking as well as give you something else to pay attention to so that the mind doesn’t jump back in instead.
Practice these two continuously and the mind will grow progressively quieter until it ceases to run on its own entirely.
Hope that helps!
Ariel, some questions.
When you say that you cannot silence the mind with personal will what exactly is personal will? Is the difference between personal will and spiritual will the difference between demanding an outcome and asking for an outcome. Where the results come not from your actions but rather from a source responding to your request?
Jarrod, excellent question. I’ll probably turn that into a post itself because that’s an important topic.
The personal will is our own individual efforts to try and do something while seemingly cut off from a larger power. Our own personal will feels like a craving, forcing, pushing feeling, doesn’t it? It’s like we’re struggling to really make things happen.
Surrendering into spiritual will involves trusting God (however you understand him) to help you overcome things such as the compulsion to think.
For a perfect example of surrendering to spiritual will, check out the first few steps of the twelve step program. They are a key reason why programs like AA are so powerful.
The results don’t happen by you but to you, perhaps through you. You are not the source. “You” are the allower, the observer, the appreciative and trusting receiver.
Ariel,
The way i surrender is by thinking the thoughts of ‘I surrender blank to god” or “i surrender to god” and just choosing to surrender things to god, letting them go. Is what I described what you talk about?
I wanted to know if you had any wisdom about surrendering all the time, i know that one can simply go back to surrendering if they started thinking and whatever but i wanted to know if you know anything that helped you keep doing it over and over again.
Thanks
Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Hey “Loyal Reader”, what you described is a good verbal description of getting started. The words can serve as a conscious reminder of being in a state of surrender, but it’s not a replacement for it.
Surrender is a way of being in the world, the source from which your actions arise. It is not the actions or words themselves. Surrender is about BEING surrendered, not DOING surrender. BIG difference. It’s not about the outer actions you take, but about your inner state of being, who you truly are at your very core. This can not be faked.
What would it feel like if you were constantly saying “YES” to the way things are right now. You don’t have to necessarily like them, agree with them, or disagree with them, but what if you were to simply allow things to be the way they are right now? This is what surrender is about.
The words “I surrender [blank] to God” are simply a pointer to help direct you back into this state of being.
At first it may seem forced, taking a large amount of effort, but like walking, keep doing it enough and it’ll become totally natural. It will be an effortless way of being, your natural state, and you won’t have to keep reminding yourself to “put one foot in front of the other.”
It’s just practice.
Thanks for your question.
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