Empty your mind

[Gem]

I thought there might be more to it than just emptying your mind, considering our conditioning, false views and so forth, so I wondered if anyone would be interested in a bit a deep and meaningful on this subject.

[r6r6]

Originally Posted by Gem

I thought there might be more to it than just emptying your mind, considering our conditioning, false views and so forth, so I wondered if anyone would be interested in a bit a deep and meaningful on this subject.

Man pulls 7 pound booger out of nose and his head collapsed...childhood joke
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Deep Coma vs Vegatable State

..."The individual in the vegetative state has a lot more lower-brain function, and a bit more upper brain-stem function, than a patient in deep coma."......
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..."Stages 3 and 4 are referred to as deep sleep or delta sleep, and it is very difficult to wake someone from them. In deep sleep, there is no eye movement or muscle activity.

.....This is when some children experience bedwetting, sleepwalking or night terrors. In 2008 the sleep profession in the US eliminated the use of stage 4. Stages 3 and 4 are now considered stage 3.".....


r6

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Gem

I thought there might be more to it than just emptying your mind, considering our conditioning, false views and so forth, so I wondered if anyone would be interested in a bit a deep and meaningful on this subject.

Could you flesh it out a bit more? I'm unclear on what you mean and where to start? Anything to do with our brains (and other creatures) I'm fascinated by.

[sky]

It is mind that deludes Mind,
For there is no other mind.
O Mind, do not let yourself
Be misled by mind.
Shunryu Suzuki.


Sounds interesting Gem, do you mean through meditation or something else ?

[Starman]

Originally Posted by Gem

I thought there might be more to it than just emptying your mind, considering our conditioning, false views and so forth, so I wondered if anyone would be interested in a bit a deep and meaningful on this subject.

For me it is empty your being, that is mind and emotions, because mental and emotional activity play
off of each other and I have found that the spiritual experience goes beyond emotional and mental states.

Meditation teachers usually say "empty your cup," because when we are holding on to stuff; mental or emotional,
we are blocking ourselves from receiving more. When we are as an empty container the energy of life freely flows
through us unobstructed. Obstructions in the flow of energy, besides stifling our spiritual growth can also cause health issues.

My meditation this morning has left me empty and emptiness is something I embrace because besides being peaceful,
it is a prelude to being fulfilled by something deeper. Although that something should not be anticipated, and as long
as I do not let my thoughts and emotions get in the way, one can feel the energy, even at this moment, flowing through them.
When we have nothing we have the potential for everything.

Empty yourself is just another way of saying "let go, or surrender."

P.S. A lot of people have wondered about spiritual surrender; how is it done, etc., and if one is unable to empty themselves
then the next best thing is to "let go and let God," or turn things over to the universe, etc. Doing this can also help empty your self.
With continual emptying we undo our conditioning and erroneous views of life.

[r6r6]

There is also emptying the trash, waste, hang-ups etc i.e. if you have some unresolved business--- ex going to bathroom --it may interfere with the mind to various degrees.

Empty the bladder, empty the mind.

Once we've gone to the bathroom, it is out of mind. But there may be associate circumstances that still interfering with ability to empty-the-mind.


I think the last post references this type stuff.

R6

[Gem]

Right, r6, I notice if I don't take care of menial business, leaving things undone, they play on my mind, so perhaps much of it is very simple mundane things, such as having some order and organisation about you, so that the 'little things' don't pile up and become mental distractions.

Of course there are life problems, and when dealing with interpersonal tensions and what have you, the mind can become preoccupied with all sorts of dilemmas.

In that this about the mind, it has to do with meditation, but I'm not one to instruct method and technique apart from just talking about it, but in the sense of general mindfulness and self awareness, like, we gotta be honest with ourselves. I mean, how can there even be a meditation in the absence of the truth?

In the sense of mental activity and emotion, I would have extend this to the sensation of the body, because the emotions particularly are manifest in the bodily tensions, and the thoughts we might have also affect the emotional content. Of course if the body is in pain, the mind may enter a reactive state which occupies the mind.

I considered that a human being's behaviour is largely determined by the past. For example childhood trauma often becomes a determinant of an adult's thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Perhaps a heart break as a youth effects the relationships in later life. Possibly being bullied, teased, derided, neglected, abused, tortured, subjected to war, and all these sorts of things are not in fact emptied, but held as trauma to varying degrees in the psyche.

If a skilled meditator does go into that emptiness and expanse, we might call that the empty mind, but upon returning to the everyday senses and the mind, that person they are, the 'contents' return just as one left them.

The emptying, then, I thought, would also apply to the resolution and dissolution of mental contents that stem from events of the past, and continue to determine the thoughts, feelings and behaviours in our lives today.

[peteyzen]

lol is anyone else struck by the irony of the subject and the need for filling the mind with debate over it?

[peteyzen]

joking aside, I think it really is that simple. If we empty the mind, stop the thoughts, focus on one subject so firmly and unwaveringly the movement of the mind is stopped, then those other things like false views, conditioning etc cannot affect us. However this unwavering focus is hard earned.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by peteyzen

lol is anyone else struck by the irony of the subject and the need for filling the mind with debate over it?

I don't intend it to be an intellectual exercise, but rather one of introspection, and it has my own experience that past events left residual 'stuff', and during my meditations I sometimes come across what I might call a 'tightly wound ball of thought', which upon discovery starts to unwind, opening up some part of my psyche that had long been dormant - or unnoticed - perhaps hidden - maybe closed off - something like that.

This invariably connects to the present experience, some sensational phenomena invokes it, and we might imagine this opening as a thread which starts here and follows back through this and that live event, like a string that 'connects the dots' of this particular aspect of the life journey. I then see how a particular event long ago connected to a lot of different events along the way, which all tie together as though by cause and effect, and it is like, suddenly, it all fits, as though segments of a jigsaw puzzle come together to reveal the whole picture.

Previously to this happening, perhaps one disconnected part would occur to me at one time, and another disconnected part at another, but just as one can't see the picture by looking at one part and then another of a jigsaw puzzle, these life events in their disjointed form revealed nothing at all, so they continued to have that causal effect. When the 'big picture' becomes revealed it is a ray of understanding, and the entirety of it is resolved. Through this understanding I am freed.

I don't think being occupied with some particular focus is effective in this regard because the thing was already obscured from conscious awareness, and we might imagine it as a tennis ball which would of its own accord float to the surface had it not been held under.

I find these occur when the mind is let rest in something like a breath awareness meditation, for example, and even though quiet and undisturbed, it wanders off quite peacefully on some passage unchosen. It is when mind becomes fairly still, and that 'holding' of the mind is disbanded, that the tennis ball is released and comes to the surface.

I mixed metaphors so I wonder if this is at all coherent, and it is only the process as it unfolds for me personally, but I hope it is at least vaguely understandable in relation to the lived experience of someone other than myself.