Clearing your mind

[Nikk]

Hi,

I'm sure many people have this problem and as I'm pretty new to all this stuff I wonder if some of you could post some easy techniques in clearing your mind. I really struggle to do it and I think that once I have mastered this, I will progress more.

Thanks,

Nikk

[Sunn]

just occupy your mind on your breathing..  like when I'm doing my meditation at the start I'll mentally be saying "breathe in...breathe out" After that the surface thoughts usually stop.

[mactombs]

Keeping my mind on breathing has never helped me at all. I have the same problem clearing my mind, and I'm still learning to do it. I think it's important to learn - I've tried meaningless mantras ("walrus red prime think"), thoughts on my breathing, counting with each breath to 10, trying to occupy my thoughts with an imaginary scene, just listening intently like I'd seen lightning and was waiting for the thunder.

None of it worked as well as I'd liked - I did find that the more relaxed you are, the easier it is to clear your mind. It's also easy to "just listen" if you have entrainment going. The breath counting worked once or twice, but then became ineffective (same with mantras). Imagining a place is usually a practice in frustration.

The easiest thing for me is, if you notice your mind wandering, gently bring it back. It'll wander a lot. Don't get angry at yourself! But build that discipline, and I think you'll find that you'll make progress. Not as fast as you might like, but be patient. Mastery over the mind is not developed easily.

[interception]

What has worked for me were techniques from a book called Seven Masters, One Path by John Selby.

What it comes down to is to concentrate on TWO or more sensations at once. Concentrate and stay aware of two tactile sensations for example. Or your breathing and a sound. Or breath and a visual input of some sort - a pleasing object. Or breath and heart beat. Expand and hold your awareness.

As soon as you move away from the two dimensional nature of though flowing wildly through your mind, you will reach a state where your mind is quiet. (Eventually anyway, when you can maintain such dual awareness for longer than a few seconds   ) Initially, you should be able to gain more control and observe the flow of thought.

An everyday example of this is when you see an awe inspiring sunset. Do you look at just one spot?
No, off course not, you try and take in the whole, right!? You *gaze* at the scene.

Quieting the mind works like this. You move away from what John Selby calls in the book "point fixation" and enter a "mystical" expanded state of awareness where you are aware of the whole.

It is the same with music. When you listen to music you like, really listen to the instruments, you also enter such a state. It works well with something like Vivaldi, but that might not be your thing. Not sure if it works with death metal though.  

Like everybody says, a quiet composed mind does take discipline and consistent practice to achieve.

[mactombs]

Thanks for that info, interception! I'll give that focus on two sensations at once a try.