Sometimes it is easier to write about spiritual stuff when it is personal while “talking” to another. One explains it a lot better than if it is a blog or writing in book-style. Writing in conversational-style makes it up close and personal.
This “speak thinking” anomaly that I discovered for myself that made it easy for me to silent my mind instantly and then being able to discover the other hidden mind spaces in me was an immediate shift of possibilities for me. The advent of the silent mind in oneself is so easy to bring about and how it will solve all the problems of psychological thinking and make it easy to bring on the Samadhi state of mind was not taken quickly enough through the ages is wonder to me. The mantra was used to stop frontline verbal-thinking to bring on the silent mind, but meditation though very necessary has a limitation in that it confines you to a place. What happens when you are up and about your daily activities? This is where seeing the anomaly in verbal-thinking is important as then you can carry the meditative process and the silent mind anywhere and at any time.
There is 2 of you in yourself: the personality you know so well and the other: your true Self is hidden behind all the noise of personality and the frontline verbal-thinking process. Stopping verbal-thinking will bring on the silent mind and help you find the other hidden mind spaces and eventually experience Samadhi.
Mysticism has always been this thing explained via metaphors, mythology and storytelling. I wondered if there were such other anomalies for the body that can be used so we have a tangible process to replace the mystical in us. It is not mystical anymore when all things are known of how it works. This way it is accessible to everybody with no boundaries of society and religion and culture and rituals to make it exclusive. So I came across the Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges PhD, a neuroscientist that discovered how the vagus nerve connected to all our organs had a feedback relationship with the brain and controlled our emotions; whose spectrum was Samadhi at one end and the chaotic fight and flight process at the other. So one now has a tangible mind-body control from science that can replace the mystical in oneself. With the advent of the silent mind, we need to get to mind-body-Universal-mind. So with science and its discoveries, the whole process becomes universal and accessible to everybody. With the polyvagal theory, you will see why yoga was created, why silence in mind is important as a realtime process by seeing this anomaly in frontline verbal-thinking, what meditation can do for you and why it works etc. Spirituality without borders, the future.
In conversation with Universal Minds:
- SIRI
- I think this whole process of finding the final state of Samadhi is a lot easier to do if one can understand what thinking really is. This site had mentioned removing time from the mind and I guess thinking is that time in mind. Thoughts separated by a quiet space in between thoughts. If you can find a really easy way to stop thinking then you are already in the final stages of Samadhi. You notice in meditation a mantra is really a distracting to your mind away from thinking so it becomes silent. But look at the thinking process itself – it is with time the creator of illusions or lies in the mind. Patanjali wants us to get rid of this thinking so when in silence in mind you can see the real thing. Tell me if I am wrong but this is the gist of it right. There is a Truth in the lies in me, stop the lies created by thinking and the Truth or reality shows itself. Remove the lies and the Truth is literally staring you in the face.
So here is the gem in all of this: what really is thinking. If I can find just what the source of thinking is or to see its process clearly then I won’t need that mantra or to sit in a corner of a room cross-legged to be silent in mind and void of thoughts.
I need to be in that meditative silent state of mind in realtime while I am up and about my daily activities, completely silent in mind whenever I want to.
So what is thinking? There are different types of thinking.
-You notice that there is a kind of pictorial thinking like in daydreaming. Just watching images pass your mind. You will notice that you cannot interact with these images and change them or spin them in images into an idea.
-There is a different type of thinking which I call self-talk thinking. I call it “speak thinking”. This type of thinking is very flexible and is also responsible for spinning an idea in the idea. It creates all the illusions and lies in your mind. I think this is the type of thinking that Patanjali wants to do away with to you can get to that quiet Samadhi space in mind so you can see reality for what it is and also what your true self is and its relation to the whole universe. Not just see it in mind as an idea but actually to be in that samadhi space and become one with it. What if I told you that this self-talk thinking is sound- first type of thinking. For you to think at all you need to self-talk what you want to think and if you don’t you cannot think at all. The brain needs to hear what you are thinking for it to process what you are thinking. If it does not hear you via silent self-talk then it does not know what you are thinking and it cannot process your thoughts. This is an anomaly in us that self-talk is wired up to the thinking process. The movements in the vocal cords are minute and the brain needs to hear what you are thinking to know what you are thinking. You can try it now: think something and see if you have to self-talk it too for you to be able to think at all. So you can see how you can silent your mind immediately if you want too – just break the link and do not also silently speak what you are thinking. You can now see why you use a mantra during cross-legged meditation – to distract you from your thinking.
– you will almost immediately find your mind in the quiet zone if you stop self-talking your thinking. This quiet state is easy to maintain because of the link between self-talk and thinking. Self-talk is a physical process which is easier to control like raising your arm rather than concentrating on an intangible process of the mind like thinking to stop thinking. Don’t self-talk thinking is not allowing your mind to hear your thoughts then it has nothing to process.
– In time and the longer, I spend in this quiet space I also found my mind had reverted to a kind of intuitive-stream-thinking mode and me to a listening mode only. This is only a receiving space. I cannot manipulate the information I get from this entity that I am communicating with. I can ask a question and get an answer via intention in mind. There is a sense of knowing in this space and everything seems true. I think it is an evolutionary space. It is quiet and peaceful. Hence you want to stay in it longer. I think it is an evolutionary space. I seem to develop certain “powers” the longer I stay in this space. As time goes by I seem to b able to communicate with my background noise. I understand what it is saying through tonal-modulations. I wonder what new powers I will develop with time the longer I stay in this newly discovered space in my mind.
I think I found the last place in Samadhi by just knowing what the process of thinking was all about – self-talk first if not the brain will not know what you are thinking. Pictorial thinking in time will also disappear in this space the longer you spend in it and you will end up staring at your true self when all else is gone.- MARCH 19, 2019 AT 11:18 AM
- DONDEG
- Dear Siri
Thank you for your insightful comments. It is very kind of you and adds very much. The distinction between the image and self-talk aspects of thinking is very useful and I think your conclusions are generally correct.
The only point I would make in addition is: what is the source of the images and self-talk? The answer is these stem from the deeper unconscious layers of the mind. They are hidden movements that give rise to the movements in the mind of which we are conscious, i.e. the images and self-talk. Don’t forget Patanjali points out the need to get to these deeper levels to “burn the seeds of the kleshas and samskaras” so as to allow the mind to stay in the quiet (nirodha) state for as long as it wishes.
Other than that point, I think your insights are very valuable. Thanks for reaching out and adding them here. - Best wishes, Don
- MARCH 19, 2019 AT 1:03 PM
- SIRI
- Hi, Thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated and this idea of self-talk thinking was difficult to get across to busy minds. I think thinking is the culprit that we need to control.
Thinking is also responsible for the Kleshas (mental states) and Samskaras (patterns) and notice that when we stop thinking and be it in a mechanical way half the battle is won with the patterns created by the mind. Some of the Kleshas are inherently build in into our psyche and to keep thinking off the mind (apart from just using them for practical purposes) will help subdue them and not allow them to keep rising and taking one further away from Nirodha. I am not used to the Sanskrit terms and hence had to look them up, and have come to most of my discoveries through observation and with the help of websites like yours. I see that the state of Nirodha is very much like that space one experiences when all thinking ceases yet the resultant state of being is very much alive and is an interactive space with a kind of intuitive form of thinking. I think (observe) the mind space is evolutionary and at times can be completely silent. This 2nd mind is a long way away from the mind that we know.
CHRIS
- Absolutely thrilling write-up, made me excited to practice again. Toast!