How to Meditate: Thoughts Aren’t…Real!

Consciousness Without Thought

In the book “Zen and the Brain,” author James Austin, MD, writes:

“Meditators discover a surprising fact when they finally arrive at moments of “no-thought”: they do not have to think to be conscious. For consciousness starts with being aware. The awareness has a receptive flavor, its normal landscape is not a level plateau. Instead, it rises and falls as a series of peaks and valleys.” (i)

As you learn to meditate and to work with your mind, you’ll come to realize that if you follow after your thoughts less and return repeatedly to the awareness of the present moment, you’ll find a quieter and more stable nature of your mind.

The consciousness or awareness that exists outside of your thinking mind is what’s real, while the thoughts that arise within that mind are fleeting and impermanent.

Thoughts Aren’t Real

When we begin to look at our thoughts, we find out that our thoughts are quite fragile, nonexistent, and fleeting. We find that what we’ve taken to be so real is very unreal. And we begin to realize that we’ve become so distracted by phenomena that are, quite essentially, unreal! However…

…as you begin to work with your thoughts, you may find that they seem to increase. You may even become discouraged to find that where there was once only a slight buzz, there’s now a loud rumble. It’s okay.

Because we have not spent a lot of time simply resting in our awareness of thoughts without getting caught up in the thinking, when we first begin to work with the mind and with our thoughts, it may seem as if things get worse! Far from anything being wrong, this can be a good sign.

In his book Coming to Our Senses, Jon Kabat-Zinn writes:

“[W]hen you go deeply into stillness, it is amazing—all there is, is hearing yourself think, and it can be louder and more disturbing and distracting than any external noise…We may be shocked at what we discover, at how much of our thinking is chaotic and yet at the same time severely narrow and repetitive, shaped by much of our history and habits…When unattended, our thinking runs our lives without our even knowing it. Attended with mindful awareness, we have a chance not only to know ourselves better, and see what is on our minds, but also to hold our thoughts differently, so they no longer rule our lives.” (ii)

There is No Place to Cut the Chain of Thinking!

To share a laugh at myself and to benefit you, consider the following story:

I remember one difficult period of meditation where every time that I sat down to meditate, I became distracted beyond belief. I was really trying, but no matter how hard I tried, I kept on returning to the cycle of distracting thoughts, stuck in my stinkin’ thinkin’ over and over again. Finally, in desperation, I shouted out, “Help me cut this chain of distracted thinking!” Whereupon a voice inside my head, in the form of a wise old teacher, said, “Sure, show me where it is, and I’ll cut it.”

At that moment, I burst out laughing; all of the pressure that I felt and the solidity of my thoughts simply dissolved. “Of course” I thought, why was I holding on to the belief that my thoughts and my way of thinking were something that could be cut? There was no “where” to cut my thoughts; there were no solid objects called “thoughts.” They were all a product of my mind, and my focusing on them simply made them more “real.” I still laugh when I think about how tightly I was holding on and how ridiculously simple it was to simply let go of what I thought was distracting me…and how hard it was!!

How to Experience Thoughts as Unreal

What keeps you from getting pulled into your thoughts and your stories is your awareness. As long as you stay within your thinking mind and believe that that’s what your mind is, you’ll never be able to recognize your consciousness without thought, or the “…moments of no-thought…” that James Austin writes about.

When you rest your mind in your awareness, even for short periods of time, even for only seconds, you begin to get a glimpse of your mind, the mind that doesn’t need to think to be conscious. And you begin to see thoughts as less real.

Here’s an exercise that I’ve shared before (and that I’ll probably continue to use because it works so well!) It’s a very short exercise that you can use anytime and anywhere to bring your awareness to mind. Try it.

Right now, without thinking about it, you’re breathing. Simply watch your breathing. Watch the breath as it comes into your body and as it leaves. Whenever you notice that you’ve become distracted, gently bring your attention back to the breath, without commenting on being distracted, without giving yourself a hard time. Use your awareness to bring yourself back to your breath. And…relax.

Now all you need to do is to…do this. Continue your practice. Bring your awareness to your mind. Have a sense of humor when you start taking your thoughts as “real,” maybe even laugh at yourself as I did when I realized how much I was suffering due to my belief that my thoughts needed to be “cut.”

Did this post help you to see how unreal thoughts are? Using this content, will you be able to work with your thoughts? Please let me know.

How To Meditate

Maybe you’ve already got a meditation practice. If that’s the case, great! Keep it up. And feel free to use all of the content from this site to support you in your efforts. If you haven’t started to meditate, begin now.

Many people don’t meditate because they believe that they need to do “something special” in order to meditate, maybe you’re one of them. “Doing something” special isn’t the case. All you need is your breath, and a few minutes of time set aside to begin your practice. Here are some tools to get you started:

• Meditation audio for using your breath as the anchor of your attention during meditation.
• Ebook and two chapters from the book, Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind, on how to meditate.
• Even though my book was written with nurses in mind, I continue to get feedback from those who have bought it who aren’t nurses that they find it useful in their lives. So, check out the book, Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind. It’s really written for anyone. You can even buy it in a Kindle version!

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

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. And please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding anything that I’ve written about.

Thanks for visiting and have a mindful day.