Mind Wandering

Whenever I start meditating, I keep getting distracted. Is their anyway to keep focused?

 

one thing I heard helps is to sit in front of a candle and focus on the flame.

 

just watch where its wanders

 

Ditto what Fractual said - if you notice it wandering then you just observe it wandering without putting any extra energy into it or taking any away, just watch it. Soon it'll run out of steam and dissappate anyway.

Blessings


Sebbi

 

Another trick is to come back to the centre and just focus on your breathing...what it feels like, what it sounds like...

 

That is what meditation teaches you, to focus. When you recognize a thought, recognize it, and no more. As soon as you recognize it it disappears. Your own breath is the best thing to focus on, if you want proof, I'll post it. You have to realize your mind will do this, and not to fight it, just gently nudge it back.

 

Bikshu's right. only recognize the thought. to cling to the thought only leads to an endless chain reaction of new thoughts about or relating to the original, which lead to even more chain reactions (most of them completely meaningless), surviving long after the original thought has been forgotten. funny-seems almost like a virus, huh?

 

Counting helps me.

 

Yeah, counting your breath and focusing on your breathing helps me. If a thought pops in your head, just know that it's there-don't ponder on it! It will lead to more thoughts...just see that it's there and try to go back and focus.

 

delete

 

let go
be a witness
watch you thoughts
watch your breath
let go again
be a witness to whatever will happen

 

So often I hear people suggesting quieting the mind as a way to meditation. It is not my experience that this helps. It is only a temporary solution. Soon the mind will be agitated again, and then what? The point that the Buddhas make is that we are NOT the mind and meditation is the process of disidentifying from it. That means whatever is occuring in the mind, aggressive thoughts, peaceful thoughts, confusion, whatever appears and disappears is NOT who we are. We are that which observes the mind.

 

Very good.

All very good observations.

Wandering mind is very good.

Better by far than sticky mind or sluggish mind, sleepy mind, dull mind. All those minds will arise. My understanding from the beginning of meditation was that thoughts are energy. We usually run after them therefore. But during meditation of almost any technique energy and thought are broken through in the process and thoughts are not chased as much, soo they liberate. Some energy is then released.

Easiest way to this state of liberation of thought is through lots of time spent in retreat. Around other worthy practitioners. I say worthy because not all groups are worthy of receiving real and good knowledge. Intention of the group is very important. Of course Bodhisattva trumps all others for motivation so these groups of generous souls come together as well.

Thus you may get some half baked system from some occult group which has nefarious purposes. But you still get the whole shebang from the Boshisattvas, especially of tantric school Buddhism, especially Nyingma, especially Dzogchen. Lots of kundalini awake souls in Nyingma Dzogchen Buddhism.

Thus one can simply by going on retreat and listening to speakers passively use that as a strong kundalini technique in itself. One need do nothing at all but watch the mind wander.

One need do nothing at all but watch the mind wander. Ultimately energy is energy and if you learn to see into the mind and its energy you will see the ultimate first stirrings of thought as identical with ones own self.

So its best to not create artificial observational dichotomies within ones mind. This state often called Vipassana in Buddhist systems arises naturally through simple shamatha especially during retreat.

You know if all this is too complicated which I just said then you can do what many people did first before they formally sat for meditation and that is just sit upright with eyes closed and listen to a piece of music. Music has charm which can attract your mind naturally away from your own constant thinking.

I know some people, too jumpy to meditate, as I also get at times, being a cook, and for them sometimes doing something nondiscursive like building a model or doing a craft can be a meditation, especially if one tries to do it in presence, that is, in freedom, without forcing the finishing of the project. Let the project do itself.

At any rate, the basic nature of the mind is nondiscursive and so naturally free from thought. But thinking still always goes on. We could talk alot about this whole subject and there's a lot to say.

If you are able to sit still at all then take just being the wandering thoughts as your meditation. Best to set aside some time for meditation as a discipline to create a space during which time the mind will turn over and become clear. Often newbie shamatha meditators say an hour is the minimum.

Myself, I came from mantra traditions so for us only 20 minutes a day or such was okay and powerful enough.

Mantra cuts right through discursive mind and thought and releases beaucoup energy so it can get to be too much if done too much. For many. Such as me.

Some people divide meditation from puja but for me the two occur simultaneously so that is what I do then is something like puja every day. With some japa.

But I'm Buddhist so you see it's a rather far out and complicated thing that I do so I can't really speak to simple techniques any longer.

That said, wandering mind is already good mind. Let it wander. My guess is it only wanders so far.

 

One tool you can use is a mantra, or sound. You can mentally a mantra with a a mild concentration, and it'll help to keep you concentrated. Whenever you stray you just return back to the mantra. Really it can be any sound, but try to make it something crazy difficult or long. Something as simple as "love" or "OOOoooHHHH" would suffice. Over time your brain will become conditioned to connect the mantra with "concentration", making it a valuable tool. Breath concentration or any other method that the forum members said works perfectly fine, but it all depends on what works for you personally.

 

If I were you, I would check out a meditation podcast. Go to the Buddhist section in the iTunes store and you'll find a couple good ones.

I know that there's one called "Meditation Oasis" that's pretty good. Mary Maddox has a different voice that takes a bit to get used to, but it's good afterwards.

 

Very good! You notice that your mind wanders. That is all you need to do in meditation. The point is to become the observer of your thoughts instead of essentially being and identifying yourself with your thoughts. Those are just traits of the ego.

If you aren't already doing this, I would recommend:

(1) Focusing on your in-breath (note: "in breath")
(2) Focusing on your out-breath (note: "out breath")

Whenever ANYTHING ELSE enters your head, you're thinking. I consider these to be the uncontrolled thoughts that run wild through your head all day every day. Even if you think about your breathing (i.e. I wonder if I'm breathing deep enough), your mind has wandered.


So when it wanders, just take note that a thought just happened to you, and then return your awareness to your breath.

 

PachaMama made some great points.

You can do a variety of techniques that will be a temporary solution. The mind will never be still - if you are not aware of your thoughts before the arrive in your head what control do you have over your mind.


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i had that problem but what really seemed to help me is not only focus on breathing but focus on how my heart beats, i tend to get to a point where i can feel my heartbeat throughout my whole body, its hard to describe but helps you focus

 

don't stop meditating because your mind wanders
do it anyway
the key is daily practice
you will get more comfortable

 

The mind will always wander - being able to still the mind is a fallacy. You will however get longer periods of time between thoughts as you progress, certainly experiment with some of the excellent suggestions given on this thread. Setting up your environment prior to meditation is essential
1. Don’t meditate straight after a meal – energy is being used for digestion which will make you tired and also contribute to the mind wandering.
2. Slow long breaths for about 5 minutes will slow the system down
3. 5 minutes of gentle stretching beforehand will improve the quality of your meditate
Notice what thoughts are coming up as sometimes they can be helpful, for example it might be something that you have suppressed and need to either accept or take action on




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"The landscape of Illusion is painted by the mind"

www.acceleratedstates.com