To Think or not To Think?

[akmal]

HI all,

I've been practising sitting meditation and body scan for 3-4 weeks now. Although it's very short amount of time to feel something positive out of practices, I already can see some changes in my behaviour. I started catching moments, where my mind goes crazy dramatizing and making 'obvious' conclusions about situations I have on daily basis. I started eating a lot less than I would. Now I hate eating and watching TV. I started responding mindfully on some critical sutuations where I would be either nervous or behave usually before. This is a lot to take from practises for such a short period.

But some questions still intrigue me.

Now I usually walk to my apartment to have a lunch as I live like 10 minutes away from my office. I like 30 minutes of body scan or sitting meditation before lunch at home. So I try to be in the moment, pay attention on present moment and my surrounding while I walk to lunch and back to work. Obviously, while doing that my mind tries to think about various stuff. Most of it is either plans after work, or some wierd situation in the past, or some hypothetical situations I build up and try to 'solve' that situation. They were with me all the time starting from my childhood. But it's so cool that I started catching this moments now. And I can see how it's a waste of energy for nothing and I can imagine it can ruin my life as it can build some very unexpected behaviours.

BUT, now sometimes some very simple, yet insightful ideas can come to my mind, especially during or after meditations. It can be a new perspective, openings about like 'oh, why I'm doing this all the time?', or 'Why I'm looking to my phone and checking my email for 5th time in an hour?' I usually gently let it go and keep focusing on my breath while I'm meditating. While walking, I try to focus on walking.

I'm little bit unsure if those 'aha' moments where I think I should take a moment and think about this new thought and feel the new perspectives are really needed. On the one hand, it's just thoughts, on the other hand, sometimes I have a goosebumps on those new thoughts and it's something new that I'm coming to it myself rather than reading it in books and forgetting them the very next hour.

If anyone has opinion on this matter, I would love to hear it.

Thanks,
Akmal

[Peter]

I think you're doing great, akmal. And the contemplating/investigating after an insight, can lead to more insights or give more power to it. So great too.

[Gareth]

I think you're doing great too.

Let the thinking go during your meditation time. The rest of the time it might be wise to carry on your thinking. As thinking is a very useful tool to help resolve situations in your life that that aren't playing out as you'd like them to.

At the point that you decide that thinking isn't helping you, then start letting those thoughts go again.

[akmal]

I think you're doing great, akmal. And the contemplating/investigating after an insight, can lead to more insights or give more power to it. So great too.

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the feedback. Could you please tell more about conptemplating/investigating after an insight?

Thanks!

[akmal]

I think you're doing great too.

Let the thinking go during your meditation time. The rest of the time it might be wise to carry on your thinking. As thinking is a very useful tool to help resolve situations in your life that that aren't playing out as you'd like them to.

At the point that you decide that thinking isn't helping you, then start letting those thoughts go again.

Hi Gareth,
Thank you for your reply!
Its so amazing that I came to this point too! Now I just try to be aware of any thoughts and filter them. If it's some sort of useless thought, I just let it go, otherwise just stick to it for a while.

[Peter]

By contemplating / investigating I mean that when one has a very calm / clear mind (eg after some concentration meditation), and one becomes aware of something (especially some inner working of oneself) and one feels that something is the way it is, one can investigate it with attention, zoom in and out, peal it on and off like an union; change perspective. Try to go deeper; e.g. what lies underneath this feeling? Is there a deeper feeling? Contemplate in this state of being, why it feels this way, why it works like it does. When one is in such a state, one sort of feels when some experimental thought is true or not.

Don't try to force this process, though. Just do it when you feel like it.

[Orao_22]

It's true that reaching such a state is quite difficult in terms of free, undisturbed time; something we cannot all enjoy that often in our fast-paced, demanding, work-obsessed world. And even then, you need a relatively free mind that isn't shackled down by immediate grave issues, or by other things that need you to stay aware of your immediate surroundings.
But when you have the time and occasion to clear your mind and observe what you're aware of (your breath, the feeling of the blood pulsing, the fabric of your clothes on your skin, the breathing rhythm of the cat on your lap, anything), and dig in deeper and deeper, now you can reach an unrivaled level of inner peace that's a truly relaxing experience. The main issue is that you may need a little bit of readaptation time when flying back to the real world, a feeling that isn't unlike jet lag or waking up in the morning... or hell, even leaving the universe of a fascinating book.

[zeddartha]

There is a very good sutra that might answer your question, Majhima Nikaya 138 - Uddesa Vibhanga Sutta.

A thought is just one of six classes of conscious experience, like sight, sound, odour, flavour, and tactile sensations.
It's not so important whether you think or not, the appropriate way to attend to thinking is to be mindful of any craving and clinging that arises in relation to the thinking. This is easiest when you're already attending to breathing, body or loving kindness. If you're mindful you'll notice mind has drifted and is indulging in thinking.

Then if you do as instructed in a number of suttas, and neither feed the thoughts with greed nor repress it with aversion, but simply let it be and attend to a wholesome object of meditation, such as the aforementioned breathing or body awareness, or a feeling of loving kindness, then no sensation hinders yours mind and at that moment you're relieved of a little bit of suffering.

You can find a better explanation of the above method of letting go of craving by googling "how to do 6r meditation"

Hope these will be of help to you.

[JonW]

'But when you have the time and occasion to clear your mind and observe what you're aware of (your breath, the feeling of the blood pulsing, the fabric of your clothes on your skin, the breathing rhythm of the cat on your lap, anything), and dig in deeper and deeper, now you can reach an unrivaled level of inner peace that's a truly relaxing experience.'

Mindfulness is not about clearing the mind.
Jon

[omsingh]

Hi Akmal,

I'm very happy to see your progress in the meditation. I've been in the same shoe years before and let my thoughts going on as they were during the meditation. I never tried to focus on any specific things.