Julie - How Do You Empty the Mind?

[Guest guest]

Dear Julie --

 

Is there a specific issue, like racing thoughts at bedtime or

something? That can be addressed, but in general the idea

of "achieving an empty mind" is silly -- how will thought quiet down

thought?

 

"The mind" doesn't exist as an entity... there isn't anything there

but memories arising. Realize that no such entity as "mind" exists,

and simply observe thought as it arises and subsides *now*...

remaining as the observer, thought will quiet down by itself if it

isn't lent further energy.

 

Namaste,

 

Tim

 

 

, Julie Isaac <jei@m...> wrote:

> Hi All,

>

> Tonight I wondered, how do I achieve an empty mind? And then the

> question deepened. How do I empty out what is inherently empty? How

> do I empty out something that doesn't even exist?

>

> And I thought about a story that Catherine Ingram tells:

>

> One day a six-year-old friend said to me, "Pretend you are

surrounded by a

> thousand hungry tigers. What would you do?" I visualized the

situation as he

> had suggested and, coming up with no viable plan of action,

said, "Wow, I

> don't know. What would you do?" And he replied, "I'd stop

pretending."

>

> How do I achieve an empty mind? I stop pretending that I have a

mind to

> empty.

>

> Namaste,

> Julie

[Guest guest]

Dear Julie,

 

No matter how some respondents reacted to your post about the clever 6 year

old, who figured out how to stop pretend tigers from becoming mindful, I

found your vignette quite refreshing.

 

In spite of the subject title of your post, I realize that you are not

really asking how to empty the mind, I figure that you are already figuring

it out.

 

So here is to you... my dear Julie.

Love , Wim

 

PS

Regardless of how we define the reality of "thoughts racing through the

mind" at night, there is no doubt that many people spend their nights

sleeping, but... sometimes many nights not... And when they don't sleep,

they usually report "thoughts running rampant," often in vicious circles

through an area of their human constitution that they usually call their

"mind."

 

All too often I have found it useless urging people to discover for

themselves that:

.. there is no mind to speak of,

.. it is not the mind to be concerned about,

.. self-reflective concern is what is 'mindful mindlessness',

.. 'mindless mindfulness' is no more than 'worry reflecting itself ad

infinitum within the reflective walls of a closed mind',

.. finding and applying 'empty the mind' techniques, hardly ever work.

 

I have found the efficacy of such suggestions very minimal.

 

There is actually a physical process behind this "murky mindedness," which

has to do with the physical constitution of the brain.

Brain cells are in fact cholesterol... that is 'good cholesterol'...

There is quite a hilariously funny story behind this...however interesting

and...truthful it is.

 

And you guessed it..., I can write about it at length. But I won't... at

least not now... In fact, I started wring about this some three years ago

and have repeated it a few times...

 

Over the years my story on this has expanded somewhat...

 

It is this, what I talk about in one of my talks, when I'm on tour... The

physical aspects behind the 'conceptual mind', how come we have it, and how

to deal with it physically.

Part of this talk is that I actually teach people "yawning, stretching and

squeezing" after I spend about an hour explaining what the good of that

is... at least it is all very humorous.

 

We always end up belly-laughing and... belly-dancing and everyone has a good

night's sleep after that...

People have been spontaneously enlightened by this... hehehe

 

I have hinted at the 'fatty brain cells' in the brain, in a post a weak ago,

maybe I can lift the veil a bit more... Those 'racing thoughts' are caused

by rancid fatty brain cells.

Can we replace those cells by new ones... and if so, how do we do it?

 

Interested anyone...?

 

Love, Wim

http://www.aurasphere.org

 

---

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.

Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).

Version: 6.0.306 / Virus Database: 166 - Release 12/4/2001