Shutting Thoughts From Childhood

Peter Zelezny, modified 1 Year ago at 11/1/22 3:32 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/1/22 3:32 AM

Shutting Thoughts From Childhood

Post: 1 Join Date: 11/1/22 Recent Posts
When I was a kid (like 9 years old), I have heard something about meditation. They said, you can learn to switch off your thoughts. There was no internet and I have no books about meditation. I have no idea what is this about. But I liked to experiment. So I though, OK let's try to switch off my thoughts for at least couple of seconds using any method I can find.
 
So I tried to switch off my thoughts somehow in my brain without any success. I could hold my thoughts for 0.1 second and than my brain started to process incoming information from senses and generate a thought the very next second, so there was no silence of mind.
 
One day I watched how birds move their head. Some birds have very robotic head movements almost looking like driven by servomotors. They look at something very shortly, than change position of the head sharply. OK, I tried to mimic this because why not. And I found a funny thing, while quickly jerking the head with eyes fixed like a birds do, I was able to shut down all thinking and pattern recognizing in my mind! So I trained this ability and gradually was able with this method to shut down thoughts in the brain for minutes. After that, I ditched the "head jerking movements" method and just looking straight, I was also able to shut off the brain. There are things though, that make the brain start thinking and it is not possible to stop the thoughts. One example is, if any letters are in the field of vision, the brain immediately recognizes a pattern and tries to read it and that starts the thinking.
 
Till today, I am able to shut down any thinking in my brain very effectively at will. Recently I have read something about jhanas and the popular guide how to achieve this. It said, start with "access focus" like shut off thinking, being one with breath. Than redirect your focus on a pleasant sensation in your body, become one with it and let it grow. OK, I tried it. Just kneel silently (I tried also lying), I switched off thinking, as I know to do it almost immediately, focus on the breath, breathe without any thinking going on in my mind. Than go with the focus to a pleasant place in your body and whoa it works! Really pleasant. The other day I tried my second try and already got a tingling and pleasant sensation all over my body!
 
Now that I have found this place on the Internet, I have many questions! What do you think about my method to shut off thinking in the brain? Did I discover something by chance? How is the "brain without any thoughts" state actually called? Did I have discover something in me or is it some kind of talent or skill? Is it good for something? Should I cultivate it? How, and what can I become if I do?
Top
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 11/1/22 5:22 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/1/22 5:22 PM

RE: Shutting Thoughts From Childhood

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
Why not cultivate it if feels good?
Top
thumbnail
Dream Walker, modified 1 Year ago at 11/3/22 11:01 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/3/22 11:01 PM

RE: Shutting Thoughts From Childhood

Posts: 1688 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
Peter Zelezny
One day I watched how birds move their head.
OK, I tried to mimic this because why not. And I found a funny thing, while quickly jerking the head with eyes fixed like a birds do, I was able to shut down all thinking and pattern recognizing in my mind! So I trained this ability and gradually was able with this method to shut down thoughts in the brain for minutes. After that, I ditched the "head jerking movements" method and just looking straight, I was also able to shut off the brain.
You found a hack that focused your attention on one thing. nice

Till today, I am able to shut down any thinking in my brain very effectively at will.
Got practice at sustaining your attention. nice

Recently I have read something about jhanas and the popular guide how to achieve this. It said, start with "access focus" like shut off thinking, being one with breath.
Or you might interperate it as focus on one thing and get good at it.

Than redirect your focus on a pleasant sensation in your body, become one with it and let it grow. OK, I tried it. Just kneel silently (I tried also lying), I switched off thinking, as I know to do it almost immediately, focus on the breath, breathe without any thinking going on in my mind. Than go with the focus to a pleasant place in your body and whoa it works! Really pleasant. The other day I tried my second try and already got a tingling and pleasant sensation all over my body!
your mind likes plesent sensations so it makes it easy to sustain it....less effort to keep your attention on that

Now that I have found this place on the Internet, I have many questions!
nice
What do you think about my method to shut off thinking in the brain?
works for you, nice
Did I discover something by chance?
yep
How is the "brain without any thoughts" state actually called?
your thought is focused on what you are doing
Did I have discover something in me or is it some kind of talent or skill?
anything that occupies your attention will work, skill is what you did in practicing and getting good at it.
Is it good for something?
yep
Should I cultivate it?
yep
How, and what can I become if I do?
you can get better at the jhanas. very nice and cool to master all 8 of them but 4 is enough for getting a path or 2. you can get awakened some by mastering the jhanas and then working on the 'progress of insite' 
read MCTB.org to get most of your questions answered.
good luck,
​​​​​​​~D
Top
thumbnail
Griffin, modified 1 Year ago at 11/4/22 2:30 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/4/22 2:30 PM

RE: Shutting Thoughts From Childhood

Posts: 271 Join Date: 4/7/18 Recent Posts
I have rarely seen anyone giving an explicit instruction to "stop thoughts". The usual approach in most meditation methods is "you can't directly prevent thoughts from arising, and if you try to do it you will just create more thoughts, so just focus on an object and let go of thoughts and eventually the mind will start getting quitet on its own and less thoughts will arise".

What you are describing sounds like a very interesting and rare skill. Could you describe the process in some more detail? Did you passively relax your mind every time a thought appeared or you have somehow actively prevented thoughts from arising? If having a thought is like "tightening" a mental "muscle" inside your head, I assume you were actively monitoring this "muscle" and kept it relaxed so thoughts don't form? How did head movements exactly help you to shut down thinking?
Top

Breadcrumb