I have a hard time not recognizing thoughts. Ive used a mantra once or twice. "Om mane padme hum, Hare Krishna and the basic Om" I am not sure I am using them correctly. With effort I can become blank, but it seems I just flood back into thoughts when I rejoin the world. Can anyone offer any insight or techniques to help. Also does incense really help? Im a zen buddhist convert just recently embracing it, I read the Tao Te Ching as well.
If you think it will help than it probably will just as almost all those kind of things, but you don't really need anything to help you meditate, try becoming an observer of your thoughts kind of like a 3rd person perspective and work on your chakras hope that helps
You're doing just fine. That's a natural process. Keep the practice going. Wherever you are, use your mind when necessary, and the rest of time, when you catch it blabbering, just replace the thoughts with the mantra. Note - Stick to one mantra. As you do this, with a few months of practice, depending on how firm you are, the mantra will then become automatic. This is stage II. What was a flood of thoughts has become 1 thought. It is then easy to let go of that one thought to enter stage 3.
