Recurring thoughts during meditation

[Astrolopology]

I'm quite new to the spiritual scene, this website, and meditation. I have a few concerns about what's happening in my head when I meditate. I'm wondering if anyone else tends to have recurring thoughts that seem to not go away. Some of these thoughts are ones that I haven't had since I was a toddler I'm really confused and I don't know if it's a an external being shining light into my world

[kpate10]

I am new too. I would say try not to think about it too much. Just keep on meditating and moving forward. I did not like that answer when I first heard it but it did help me focus better and relax more. Let things unfold like they are supposed to I guess is my best advice for you.

[earthtuner]

I am old on the spiritual scene, starting out back in the 1970's.I have meditated for most of my life, and have witnessed the many changes it makes in our awareness and our bodies...........................Let all thoughts gently go and allow your meditation to deepen naturally.Treat thoughts like clouds drifting up in the sky.They don't even belong to you and you are not trying to tether them.Observe thoughts but just let everything drift away.Approaching the realm of "no thought" is not easy but gets easier as we progress.If thoughts continure to trouble you, a mantra can replace thought with sound.I use this method myself if I am not reaching my "meditation awareness" fast enough.Eventually you will just live in the present moment, and thoughts will not have the same power as they do now.You will discover that "No thought" gives us back our power................I had the same problem with sounds and tones since i am a musician, and sometimes couldn't get tunes or rythmic structures, out of my head.I used meditative techniques and now treat tones the same way I treat thought.Music and tonality can be just as annoying as our "monkey mind" looping, thought flows.Many people, including prominent spiritual teachers, claim contolling our thoughts is not possible.It is not only possible but it is also the greatest reward from our meditation practices.The benefits gained from this practice spread out into every facet of our lives.

[SkyLights3]

In my expereince that is the sign of a particular energy pathway within yourself being used a lot. It doesn't necessarily mean the particular thought itself is a block or causing a problem. It is just showing you a mental pattern of processing you have. Since energy doesn't move like the logical mind trying to think about why the reoccurring thought is happening won't really lead you to an answer. The thought itself isn't really important. As you heal your mental body, smooth out existing thought patterns, and free your mind reoccurring thoughts will subside. It took me years to figure that out and was very frustrating for me at times since I thought I needed to figure out what the thought meant.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Astrolopology

I'm wondering if anyone else tends to have recurring thoughts that seem to not go away.

Welcome to the mind. This is what the mind does. Incessant chatter chatter chatter. Most of the thoughts are completely irrelevant to anything, but the mind keeps churning them out.

And this is actually nothing new, but when we first sit to meditate and try to concentrate then it may be the first time we really become aware of the mental activity going on.

We experience the mind as one thought at a time. The fact that we can sit and observe these thoughts arising in the mind shows that we are not our thoughts, and therefore we are not the mind. In order to observe something we have to be separate from it. Therefore what we are, our consciousness, is something separate from the mind.

And when we investigate these thoughts we discover that they mysteriously arise out of nothing and dissolve back into nothing. And between these thoughts there is a space of nothingness. Try resting in that space for as long as you can without allowing the next thought to arise.

Meditation is perhaps the most important aspect of Yoga, and as the second sutra of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras says, "Yoga is the suppression of the transformations of the thinking principle."

So this mental chatter will not disappear overnight, but with practice and through being present it can be greatly reduced. And then we find peace.

Peace

Originally Posted by Astrolopology

I'm quite new to the spiritual scene, this website, and meditation. I have a few concerns about what's happening in my head when I meditate. I'm wondering if anyone else tends to have recurring thoughts that seem to not go away. Some of these thoughts are ones that I haven't had since I was a toddler I'm really confused and I don't know if it's a an external being shining light into my world

They've always been there. It's what bubbles up from the subconscious. You're just noticing them now that you're paying attention. In time and with practice the mind will begin to calm down and how much depends on how much practice.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Looking at thoughts rise and ebb away, to return again, like waves of the ocean ... we may recognise their origin in habit patterns, orbiting fickle and unceasing desires, which in turn are rooted (where else) in mind body, seeking fulfilment of transient cravings.

Getting then to the roots, we may look at thoughts with an easy nonchalance, accepting that they are there, even if deluded and misdirected, to address yearnings of our heart. As we look at them, as we would at an insect, with childlike curiosity, feeding them not, rejecting ownership of thoughts purporting to be of our origin ... the bubbles burst noiselessly in the flow of stillness. Even if they resurface from time to time, we choose not to be affected.

Silence as our ever present orientation, embraces a contented and tranquil heart.

The shift of consciousness, internalising attention requires us to sincerely prioritise, as in a burning yearning, to connect with our own divinity within. Thought rested awareness is where we abide, our softened attention poised in effortless animation, trusting the divine energy to fill our emptiness with its sublime essence.

Thoughts then merely an instrument, to address actions in the external world, whilst yet centred and not straying far from the vibrant throb of bliss within our heart.

I have always had repeated sentences in my mind and too in meditations, too same scene play out. It means something. It can lead you to get your final answer or it could be the answer alone. I would just register it, write it down. One day it will make sense to you. I think it is meant to be this way, the higher soul sending out like a signal, and repeat.

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by iamthat

And then we find peace.

Peace

Is this lasting peace?

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by pixiedust

Is this lasting peace?

Our very nature is stillness and peace. In our heart there is an empty space which is permanently at peace, whatever else may be happening in our lives. The value of meditation is learning to rest in that empty space and be the peace which we are all seeking.

Peace