I definitely recommend looking into the Janas while meditating.
"Who Is My Self" by Ayya Khema has a great description.
Why go to this trouble? Without thought there is no ego. If the “hold” or addiction to ego is broken, even for a few seconds, the whole bunch of story lines that is Mark loses power. Thus less fear, depression, etc.
My experience: This experience of thoughtless consciousness is of course different for each individual, and also fairly impossible to describe. Thus the myriad writings about it.
I have some tips however.
- At some point when you are disgusted with the same old internal conversation over and over, use that as a tool. “The thinking is futile and getting me no where so…..stop.
- For me it helps to spacially distinguish an “energy” that I percieve. Hard to describe, but a good energy, located outside of my body on my left side a foot or 2 away. I’ll call it my heart chakra energy, because it can really be blissfully overflowing with loving kindness. If I focus on this spot, it gives me the concentration required to remain thoughtless for a 10-20 seconds.
- Meditating outside with the birds singing 1st thing in the morning.
- When I’m starting to think of something and my mind goes blank – ride the wave – my mind will stay blank for a while.
- Set a thought trap. Get ready to jump on the next thought and surprisingly – this will blank things for awhile.
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