The Practice:
No-mind Meditation requires a deeper, more immediate concentration. The practice involves stopping the mind's every activity immediately and retaining that state of no-thought for as long as possible. The mind will try to run here and there, it will start thinking, but you have to be highly alert for the slightest and most subtle of thoughts that arise while you yourself remain completely still, completely focused on nothingness: on no-mind. Mental distractions will try to pull your awareness away from your center of consciousness and it is your job to return awareness to your center of consciousness when thoughts arise.Then you'll have to retain that silence again for as long as possible. Ultimately you are no longer distracted by thoughts, not even by the very subtlest of thought-patterns that are hardest to notice. This is why this meditation is for the advanced meditator in the first place; because it is most essential that you know the place of silence and that you are skilled in recognizing the mind's process and the thoughts that arise from this process. If you cannot yet observe your thoughts unaffected without judgment, the no-mind meditation will be a frustrating challenge.
It is in witnessing itself that we find our enlightenment.
What we witness is irrelevant; as long as we witness.
What we witness is irrelevant; as long as we witness.
Mental fluctuations/distractions (thoughts) have 3 sources:
1:Sense objects (the external world);
2:Past impressions (past-focused);
3:Desires (future-focused)
In most of the concentrative forms of meditation, we work with number 1: The sense objects. We try, for example, to establish a steady flow of concentration on a specific object. In other forms of concentration we work with the mental thoughts coming from past experiences or contemplating thought about future events, or imagination. In the No-Mind meditation, we go to the place where there is none of the above three mentioned. There is No mind.
Picture the no-mind meditation process as a circle: The center of the circle is the center of consciousness, while the more you stray away from this center, the more thoughts will rule your mind. The more conscious and alert you are, the easier it becomes to witness and stay in this center of consciousness. You can imagine thoughts (in relation to external sense objects, past-impressions and future-events) as distractions pulling you into the outer rings of this circle. When doing the no-mind meditation, our goal is to witness this process and remain in this center of the circle.
Higher your level of alertness as you remain completely silent. Any thought that pulls you away from this center of silence should immediately be recognized as such a thought. Only then can the identification be broken and let go of the thought immediately. When this happens we automatically return to our center of consciousness, unless we were judging the distracting thought. Don't judge from within the mind, or you will only fight the mind with the mind. This will only create frustration and more duality/illusion/stress. Simply be the witness of the fact that it is a thought pulling you away from your center and return to that center as you let go of the thought.
The higher your state of alertness, the greater the silence.
The key to transcending the mind is a state of relaxed, yet high alertness.
The key to transcending the mind is a state of relaxed, yet high alertness.
Be uninterested in any thought that might cross your mind. If you are still interested in the distractions, if you are tempted to follow your mind's imagination, you will have a hard time staying in this center. So before starting this meditation, it might help you to cultivate an attitude disinterest. Be non-attached to your mind's input and it will become very easy for you to just stay in this center.
Don't get mad or frustrated if you are pulled away from your center of consciousness by the mind's imagination, because then you are missing the essence of this meditation. You see, if you get mad or frustrated once you recognize that you were day dreaming for a second, or a minute etc, that means you are judging (thinking) about what happened and you are not meditating. The no-mind meditation is about something entirely else. You really have to make the shift from the unconscious and with thought-forms-identified state to the state of pure witnessing. Only then can you stay in the centre of consciousness.
That is why this approach to mindless meditation is more suitable for the advanced meditator that truly knows the centre of consciousness from direct experience in meditation. For those not yet there, Mindfulness meditation is a more basic approach to mindlessness.
The more you deepen your witnessing the more enlightened you become. The more you integrate that center of consciousness into everything you do, the more enlightened you will be. Or rather; the closer to enlightenment you come. You will go there more and more as the bliss and wisdom continuous to expand until you realize that this place is truly the only real and eternal source. There is nothing else of importance. If you are ready for it, this decision will arise from the deepest levels of your being, pulling you in. You have then decided, not with your mind, but with your entire being, that you have had enough of the illusion of this world and you are ready for the absolute and only truth. You are now ready to completely let go of your personal self along with all the identifications that you made. This is all about you being ready for losing your self in your Self. When you cross this point, you become pure consciousness and you have then Realized your most inner Self as the only true Self.
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