How to Empty the Mind

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Uma

Oh my mind - so full of thoughts!
Where is a bulldozer when I need one!
How do I empty this mind?
How do I let go and surrender this ego?

Ideas..........anybody?

Hi Uma,
I have never seen this thread.
Very cute post.

My input having alot of Eastern influence...
Concentration on something more powerful than the Mind is the ticket.

When the Mind has something to place it's focus on
that ''grabs it's attention''...the Mind (thoughts) just stop...
mantras really don't cut it, but can be a tool as patterns or mandalas...they end, though, you can look away or
close your eyes or go to work, where are they then? Where is the candle?
They are not more powerful than the Mind.

Now, focusing on your breathing - or better what is the power 'breathing you'...
what is that motor - that power that is behind the breath making you breathe?
What was there before you were born and has always been?



When you are fascinated with something --- someone can be talking to you and you don't even hear them - you are so absorbed in what you're doing...
picture fixing your watch, a guy with his head under the hood---nothing else can distract him.

Find that thing that fills you with such wonder
and awe that no thought compares.

Ego? Thoughts? Desires? Past or future events? Pale when your heart
is focused on something you love.

You can find that yourself - I'd love to tell you what I focus on for decades - but that's me...it's God...my Beloved...my Provider, Friend, Father, Creator that is within me and all around me..I practice feeling His Divine Presence...but this may not be for you.

It beats mantras, a candle or a dot on a piece of paper!!

Great thread.

Edit: Oh, you have a guru/teacher - I forgot - so this
would be for you!

counting your breath works, up to 10 then back to 1

First, focus completely on one thought or subject, and then once you are thinking of only one thing and nothing else, throw that tought away. it should empty your mind.

What works best for me is to focus on my breathing and ask the angels to help. Can't go wrong!

[Gem]

I use breathing method, and it has good effect. Sometimeis it leads to great quietude, and other times it makes clear to me what is making all the noise. Either way, I benefit.

I use deep breathing and affirmation based on my stress levels for the day it clears quickly or takes sometime, But this is a brilliant post

[Uma]

I just rediscovered this post 3 years later and it's still relevant LOL.

My mind is like this bouncy thing - Shut up will you?!

I read through all the suggestions and they're good.

The only thing that seems to work for me though is feeling really really happy, then I just go into the feeling and it's like a bubble of happiness grows out of me and thoughts just stop... there's no need to think.

I'm reminded of a film I saw not too long ago where someone had to stop thinking and couldn't so the heroine kissed him and then it worked.

I guess I haven't felt happy like that in a long time

[Mr Interesting]

Uma, I've had the idea of stopping thought since I was about 17 and now I'm almost 53. For a long time there I could kind stop thought, then it'd bubble up and then go away in meditation but at the same time quieting the mind, or leaving spaces anyways, became relevant to be intuitive stuff. This became somewhat important as it opened up a trust in what quietness brought and working though this kinda stuff kept me busy for years and years.

Then someone kinda important put me onto Eckhart Tolle and I grabbed onto that big time. I think because of all the practise I'd had I could then basically steam roller thought away and basically went quiet for a few years which actually has some interesting side effects... as in what life offers has a whole other side to it.

Anyways I think the trust is kinda what counts. That when thought stops it's gonna be fine. Nothing drastic will happen which comes with a certain relief almost... like you really aren't holding it all together by thought alone, that alot of what we need actually arrives anyways without our feet constantly in the stirrups. How does that sound?

[Uma]

Originally Posted by Mr Interesting

Anyways I think the trust is kinda what counts. That when thought stops it's gonna be fine. Nothing drastic will happen which comes with a certain relief almost... like you really aren't holding it all together by thought alone, that alot of what we need actually arrives anyways without our feet constantly in the stirrups. How does that sound?

Wow - trust - I like this a lot, absolutely.
I recently had a psychic reading and she had me hold a pebble with the word trust on it, because I've stopping trusting.
Yeah... take off the stirrups and the saddle and also why not the reins and ride bareback, huh?
It takes a lot of trust to live life that way...
In meditation too maybe.
Meditation like the song, "on a horse with no name", might take me into the sunset