Meditation Can Be Using Your Thoughts as the Object of Your Meditation

For many of us, when we begin to meditate, instead of sinking into a blissful space of quietude and relaxation, we find the exact opposite. We encounter a torrent of thoughts, distractions, and just about anything else that we wouldn’t want to be thinking when we’re supposed to be taming our mind.

But, isn’t meditation supposed to free us from our thoughts? That’s what I assumed when I first began meditating. After all, I’d seen enough photos of robed figures seated, motionless, in peaceful settings, undisturbed by the world. Why wasn’t that happening with me?

In his book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, author (and my teacher) Sogyal Rinpoche writes:

When people begin to meditate, they often say that their
thoughts are running riot and have become wilder than ever
before. But I reassure them that this is a good sign. Far from
meaning that your thoughts have become wilder, it shows
that you have become quieter, and you are finally aware of
just how noisy your thoughts have always been. Don’t be disheartened
or give up. Whatever arises, just keep being present,
keep returning to the breath, even in the midst of all the confusion.[i]

What I soon discovered was that as I came to know my mind, I began to encounter a certain chaos that, up to that time, had been buried beneath the distractions and preoccupations of my mind and my life. I had become so habitually used to engaging with every passing thought and sensation that arose within my mind and body that I’d forgotten (if I’d ever known) a part of me that was beneath this torrent of my mind.

Gradually, as you learn not to flee from the torrent but to remain calmly, abiding, while thoughts, emotions and sensations arise within your sphere of awareness, you may find that these distracting and pervasive phenomena are simply that, phenomena.

Although you may find yourself distracted when trying to engage your mind in a more mindful and aware manner, you’ll have glimpses of what your mind is like free from the grasping after the arisings within it. It is during these times that you may find glimpses of a practice of meditation that isn’t caught up in trying to free your mind from the thoughts and things that arise within it as it is remaining free from distraction by these phenomena.

Watch Your Thoughts As An Old Man Watches Children At Play

Watched from the perspective of “an old man watching children at play,” we come to realize that our thoughts are nothing more than the phenomena of our mind, and that not only do we not have to take them seriously; left without grasping onto them, thoughts will fade away and disappear as easily as they appeared.

In many traditions, thoughts are likened to clouds in the sky; just as clouds come and go within the sky without ever disturbing the sky itself, if we can loosen our grasping after our thoughts, we can come to know the sky-like nature of our own mind.

This way of meditating, really – of being – takes practice, and with that practice come many times when the mind seems anything but cooperative, and when even the notion of meditating seems at best a goal. Yet, within each of these moments is the constant reminder that there is something else besides our distractions.

It’s as if each moment has within it a seed of meditation, of a meditative mind, already present, and it is our job to become more familiar with each moment and to uncover these seeds, moment by moment.

Each Time That You Become Distracted in Meditation is an Invitation Back to the Present

Try to remember again and again is that each time that you find yourself distracted by your thoughts, you can view these thoughts as the invitation to return to an undistracted state of mind; that the very causes of distraction can lead you back to your mind if you don’t grasp on to them, or even grasp onto the thought that you’ve been distracted.

The following link is to an exercise that you can use to begin to work with your thoughts. Try this exercise and let me know how it worked for you. Please feel free to either leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. Please let me know, do you like articles and posts like this?  My job is to give you good content. Enjoy!

Exercise # 2 Beginning to Work with Our Thoughts

This site has tons of tools for learning how to meditate and be compassionate.

I encourage you to look through the HUNDREDS of articles that I’ve written and especially check out my weekly meditation tips and other useful meditation materials provided for your health and well being. Please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding how to enhance your life, the lives of your loved ones or want to learn compassion and meditation practice.

Other Great Meditation Resources and Information:

For More Information on How to Meditate

Please view the Related Stuff below for help getting started in your meditation practice! Also don’t forget to download my free e-book, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World? and download the free e-book, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation and get started learning how to deal with some of the major obstacles in meditation.

As always, please feel free to share your comments on meditation and contact me if you’d like to see additional content or other discussions on this site.

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