Our ''inner voice''

[Osuka]

Hello everyone, i am glad to have found this forum and this is my first post. I have practicing for about a year, trying to find the disciplineto to do it on a daily basis. I have decided to go for ten minutes in the morning, and ten again before i go to bed.

My question is regarding the meditation itself. When I have listened to guided meditations, I often hear the instruction to observe my inner thoughts, images and voices. For me, when I try to do this, it seems like my inner voice that should be observed, sometimes sneaks around and does the observing.

If I have any given thought I will hear my inner voice say something like ''ok that's just a thought, let it pass'' and sometimes the voice takes over so that it comments on everything and there is never silence inside my head.

Any suggestions?

best regards
Osuka

[barbs55]

What you describe sounds absolutely normal - the 'inner voice' is your mind commenting on everything you do, and that is what we are hoping to quieten down by meditating. You can note those thoughts (say to yourself 'thinking' or 'commenting' or 'worrying' ) and then let them go and return to the breath, gently with no self-criticism for having 'wandered off' or 'failed'! This IS meditation, the moment you realise you've wandered off and bring yourself back to the present is awareness. It doesn't matter if you are distracted 10 times or 100 times, the moment when you catch yourself, each one, is a moment of mindfulness. It is called a practice as we have to practice it, but it does like most things, get easier with practice!

[FeeHutch]

I think Barbara has summed it up really well
One of the first things I became aware of when I start mindful practice was just how much my 'monkey' brain chatters. This sums it up perfectly:

It doesn't matter if you are distracted 10 times or 100 times, the moment when you catch yourself, each one, is a moment of mindfulness.

[BioSattva]

Yes, as above.

I have enjoyed marvelling at the process of labelling my thoughts with 'thinking', and then labelling my labelling with 'labelling', then switching to thinking about my labelling and labelling it 'thinking', and then switching to labelling my labelling, back and forth ad nauseam, until it becomes so repetitive - like a video on loop - that my mind and body 'lets go' of it - my whole being's like "change the record, dude!", and then I can quieten down somewhat. And then when that happens, I label it "I've stopped thinking!" - a new thought, and then "DOH!". Accept and continue as before.

Soto Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki calls this 'burning completely' - if you are going to do something - like be angry, or think, or paint, or whatever - do it with all one's heart and focus - don't be a smoky fire going "I wanna practice mindfulness but I don't want to be mindful of this or that"... A famous samurai once said it's easy to wield a samurai sword unskillfully and thus cause a lot of unneccessary pain and suffering to one's opponent and also oneself as this and that part of the body is hacked off while the victim is screaming and wailing and flailing about.

They intended to chop off someone's head with one blow - with one mind; efficiently and 'peacefully'. This is remains a symbol of one-minded mindful focus, like a cat about to pounce on it's prey, even though it is not compassionate or wholesome in it's vocation. When we sit down to be mindful, we should have this kind of attitude, however - as Kabat-Zinn says; "Like your life depended on it (and it really does)" - detach from thoughts and label them if you like, until the labelling eats itself up like a snake eating it's tail; labelling the labelling itself. This is a constant endeavour - burning completely - "without trace" as Suzuki Roshi says. Noticing and letting go. Catching and releasing. Over and over again. This is the skill one is honing. It is like every time one has labeled a thought one has defeated an opponent in battle, or one has befriended a wild animal, to use more wholesome imagery.