According to a particular study it was seen that close to 99% percent of the thoughts, in a human mind, tend to be repetitive, with just 1% space left for any original or new thought, if at all.
The reason thoughts become repetitive is because of the law of attraction that gets activated each time a thought arises. Each thought has the power to attract onto itself more thoughts like it and thus strengthen its momentum. Once a thought gathers momentum, it can almost create a wall of thoughts that ends up stifling any sense of spaciousness in your mind.
Bringing in more space between thoughts
The more conscious you are the more likely it is that your attention will not get pulled into each thought that arises. Remember that attention is the fuel that provides momentum, or energy, to each thought. The unconscious state of “consciousness” is when it’s lost in the mind, thus fueling each thought that arises and carrying the burden of a wall of thoughts with no space for real intelligence or creativity to seep in.
There are several techniques that people use to “still” their mind. Having practiced most of these techniques myself, I found that the bottom line of all these practices is to “control” the mind. There may be some temporary benefits to be had from these practices, but they don’t give you any sense of freedom because you are still “caught” in the mind trying to control it.
When I got exhausted of all these techniques and got tired of trying to control the mind, I simply let go of it all. I just allowed the mind to do what it wanted to do, and paradoxically the mind started becoming more and more silent when it was not resisted anymore. The secret to slowing down thoughts is to simply relax and let go of the mind completely, and let it do what it wants to do on its own. You move into a space of relaxed presence.
Moving from thinking to presence
There is an incredible amount of intelligence and wisdom, in the simple state of active presence. When you are simply “aware” without the need to “think”, you are in a state of radical intelligence and creativity. Awareness is the unconditioned intelligence that has the capacity to bring forth something “new” into your experience.
The mind, in its conditioned patterns of thinking, can never hope to create any true solutions because it’s operating from the same structures that created the problem in the first place. The mind is a good tool for mechanical processes but it’s completely useless when you want to come up with “solutions”. Only from the unconditioned intelligence of “pure awareness” can anything new be born, and solutions have to be “new” because they cannot come from the past patterns that created the problem.
The more “present” you are, the less active the mind tends to be. Becoming more present may seem like a “practice”, and in a way it is, but there’s more here than just a technique. Once you start realizing that who you are in essence is the “pure awareness” that is prior to all forms, you automatically start resting in this space more and more – not because you have to, but because you realize it to be your home, who you really are.
Your thoughts slow down as presence increases
To be lost in thoughts is the old state of consciousness; it’s highly mediocre and does no justice to the limitless potential that lies within each being. Who you are in essence is the same intelligence that created this world and this tremendous potential for limitless creation is lost when your consciousness becomes trapped in “conditioned” thinking.
The transformed, evolved, or new, state of consciousness is to move through life in a simple state of “pure awareness” without needing to interpret and label everything through the “conditioning” of the mind. Let the “awareness” talk, let the “awareness” work, let the “awareness” write, and listen, and watch.
Moving through the conditioned mind, is like watching life through tinted glasses. You will never have clear vision. You don’t need these glasses, so just let go them and come to pure vision. The unconditioned intelligence of pure awareness has the capacity to transform your entire reality and it does so without creating any conflict in the totality.
Your mind will automatically start resting more and more, as it allows the intelligence of “pure awareness” to take over from it. You will notice that the pace of your noisy thoughts is slowing down and a silent intelligence is working in your life.
