Hi, I have tried lots of time to meditate. I've tried a few different sorts, and had most luck with the tense-and-relax method of relaxing your body... But I CANNOT get my mind to stop working. When instructors and books say things like "recognise the thought and let it go, don't engage with it" what on earth do they mean? Please forgive me if this has been discussed around here already - I've had a lookt rhough the old posts, but I'm new here, so I might've missed it.
Pick a single focal point, your breathing, a candle flame, etc and focus only on that. Feel your inhales and exhales, if a thought comes into your mind you become aware that there is a thought trying to form there, but go back to focusing on your focal point. I'll be thinking about my breathing and then I won't realize that my mind has wandered to grocery list, so when I notice that I have wandered away that is called recognizing and then let it go by not continuing to think about it or wander why you are thinking about it and go back to your focal point.
Monkeys= SATAN It takes practice honestly. Sometimes it comes easy and other times it doesn't. Honestly, I've meditated for years and it still takes a while for me to get into the groove! I can go for months without meditating though, however sometimes it becomes a drug to me. Don't get discouraged... in fact, use your meditation time to help yourself understand why you think too much. After you've let go of all the bullshit in your life things will get easier.
By his own admission, even the Dalai Lama has trouble with thoughts! You're never going to be able to get rid of thought - it's a basic feature of having a brain, and stopping thought would be like asking your heart to quit beating. And stopping thought isn't the point anyway. It's rather about changing how you deal with thought over time, so that we realize at some point that thought itself has no substance. It's just like everything else - totally transient. What is meant by instructions to "watch your thoughts from a distance" or "label your thougts and let them go" is that they are strategies for getting over that tendency we have to concretize our thoughts. Through a dispassionate observation of our mental functions we eventually are able to realize that we are NOT our thoughts, that they really are just wisps of smoke - completely insubstantial - and we are then better able to see the clarity that lies beneath. Now, this is just what I have learned from my own teachers, so I'm partial to it , but as many here have rightly pointed out, there are virtually unlimited paths that all end up in basically the same place. It's more about what you want out of it and what works for you. While I have to say that this process is not easy, and you have to have reasonable persistence, neither should you feel like you "have" to do it a certain way if another is more suited to your goals and abilities. Good luck, and hang in there - it's a bumpy ride!
