Quieting the Mind during Meditation
The Problem
The mind is always busy jumping from one train of thought to another, seemingly without any focus. It the objective of meditation to calm the mind so that thoughts reduce and eventually stop. This is easier said than done. A plethora of thoughts that are running through the mind at all times and that is a major obstacle to meditation. The mind has been described by some as the ‘Monkey Mind” since it jumps from thought to thought like a monkey jumping from branch to branch. It is incessantly active by it’s own nature and gets more active due to thoughts created by desire, envy and pride and other things.
It seems to many that these thoughts become more plentiful when they are trying to meditate. That probably is due to attention being paid to the mind during meditation and not due to an increase in thoughts. In any case, these thoughts distract from the meditation practice and need to be reduced significantly. This problem has confronted meditators for thousands of years and most schools of meditation have found some methods to mitigate the problem. One method is outlined below. This is an adaptation of the method outlined in Raja Yoga by Patanjali (Patanjali lived about two thousand years ago and his Yoga Sutras are considered the authoritative text about Meditation practice).
The Solution
There are three steps which help calm the mind.
1. Deep breathing
2. Observing your thoughts
3. Focusing on an object (Concentration)
Deep Breathing
Breath has a close connection to the mind. When you are agitated, your breathing becomes faster and conversely, when your mind is peaceful, your breathing is also slower. Practitioners of Yoga found that the reverse is also true and controlling the breath helps control the mind. You may have experienced that when you are angry, taking a few slow and deep breaths helps calm you down. We can use this mind breath connection to help with meditation practice.
First you need to take a comfortable seat so your body does not signal discomfort and distract your mind. It is important to keep your back straight and upright. (please see https://yogicmeditation.com/preparation-for-guided-meditation/ for details on preparing for meditation).
In the first stage, just practice taking deep breaths for a few minutes. Breathe in deeply and slowly and breathe out in a similar fashion. Deep breathing has three parts- first inhale by expanding your abdomen, next inhale by expanding your chest and then inhale some more by raising your shoulders. Exhale by dropping your shoulders, contracting your chest and then expel remaining air by contracting your abdomen. You will find that abdominal movement has the maximum impact on the amount air inhaled and exhaled but other actions are also important. Try to keep your attention on your breath but if your mind wanders don’t worry about it. You will find that just doing this for a few minutes will make you feel calmer. This type of breathing will help quite a bit with your meditation practice but if you want to go further you should practice the alternate nostril breathing outlined below.
After you are comfortable with deep breathing, start alternate nostril breathing. Close the right nostril with your right hand thumb and breathe in slowly through your left nostril for a count of 5, then close your left nostril with your middle and ring finger of the same hand and remove your thumb from the right nostril and breathe out slowly through it for a count of 10. It is important to keep the period of exhalation as double of the period of inhalation. If exhaling for a count of 10 is difficult for you initially (slow exhalation is often difficult initially for most folks), you can reduce the period of inhalation, so it is half the period of exhalation. Do this for a few minutes, trying to keep your attention on your breath. Since you are counting breaths mentally it will be easier to focus on the breath. Do this breathing for about 20 rounds and you will find that you mind has become more peaceful but still has a lot of thoughts swirling through it. This practice needs to be done for a few weeks before you see any significant difference in your mental activity. Once you are comfortable with alternate nostril breathing you can move to the next step of observing your thoughts.
Observing your thoughts
As you are aware, your mind is very active and keeps on jumping from one train of thought to another. Any new stimulus will trigger a new train of thought and that will lead to another related train of thought and that to the next, until the current train of thought has no relation whatsoever to the original train of thought that was triggered by the stimulus. This keeps on happening every moment you are awake and you seem to have no control over it. One way of quieting these thoughts is to begin observing them as a witness without getting involved in the thoughts. If you try, you can observe what you are thinking at any moment, but then you get involved in the thoughts almost immediately. The goal is to extend the period in which you can observe your thoughts as a disinterested observer. When you start observing your thoughts, ask yourself who is doing the thinking and who is doing the observing. You will realize that the two are not the same, since one can observe the other. The mind is doing the thinking but it is different from the witness who is observing it. You can try observing your thoughts again and strengthen this realization. Once you are convinced of this, it will be easier to observe your thoughts without getting involved in them. It’s like a movie playing out on a screen and you are sitting and watching the drama. A movie can stir emotions in you, but you don’t get involved deeply in it. Similarly with some practice, you can observe your thoughts without getting carried away with them. It is important not to judge your thoughts as good or bad. Whatever thoughts comes are OK, just observe them. They may reveal different facets of your thinking which influences your behavior, but the objective here is to quieten your mind not to reform it, so don’t pass judgement on any thought however bad it may seem.
As you continue to watch your thoughts, over a period of a few weeks you will find fewer thoughts occurring and even those are not very disturbing to your mind. This improvement will continue as long as you keep on observing your thoughts. You can do this at any time of the day and it doesn’t need to be only a part of your meditation practice. If you are angry at any time, just watching your angry thoughts as a witness will calm you down. Key point is to maintain the understanding that your thoughts are not you and you can observe and manage them.
Concentration
The next step is to turn your attention to a specific object, so your mind does not get distracted by stray thoughts. An empty mind will definitely attract random thoughts so you should occupy it by focusing on something specific. You can focus on a physical object or a mental image, though focusing on a physical object is often easier. It is better to select an object which has some significance for you. It could be a candle flame, flower, dot, religious icon, or the tip of your nose etc. Focus on the object for a short while and then close your eyes and try to visualize the object in your mind. As the object fades in your mind, open your eyes again and focus on the object for a short while, before closing your eyes again and visualizing it mentally. You will find that this practice helps to quieten your mind very significantly. Random thoughts will still intrude occasionally but they will become very infrequent as you continue your practice over a period of time. You can gradually extend the time period in each session for this practice. You will find that gradually you are being able to focus on the object for longer and longer. This focusing on an object constitutes meditation. Stray thoughts will often intrude upon your meditation without you being conscious of this. As you become aware of the stray thoughts, direct your mind back to the object of meditation. Each meditation session should typically last from fifteen to thirty minutes. The longer you can meditate on one object, the more focused your mind will become. However just spending the time day-dreaming without being aware of your thoughts is not of much use. Maintaining awareness of your thoughts is very important.
Once you are able to focus on the object of your meditation, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, for a significant amount of time (about five minutes of uninterrupted concentration), you are ready to advance to the next stage of meditation. This is best learned directly from a teacher.
Since the mind is very active, practice of the above methods over an extended period of time is required to quieten it, but if you don’t have the time and inclination to do all the practices, just the practice of deep breathing will help quite a bit.
