You watch the mind by being alert and recognising when thoughts arise. Try this now by picturing yourself watching and listening to your brain’s images, words, and voices from a short distance. Let these contents arise. Sense their presence, location, surrounding space and weight. Don’t worry if this method first appears unclear. In time, with experience, your understanding of it grows and thoughts become easier to notice.
The act of watching the mind is a confusing exercise in its early stages. Most confusion arises from the belief that this method uses strained levels of thinking, expertise, skill, focus, stress, and effort. Such notions are false. In reality, you don’t require forced thought or mental input. Taking gentle notice of a passing thought is sufficient. Soon, this awareness gains its own momentum and leads your mind into a natural, quiet, and effortless state. As you relax, inner thoughts and their movements become distant yet clear. Confusion then passes as your mind becomes watchful by itself. Here, it requires no further action. When starting this course, the following pointers offer guidance through this process.Â
As you relax, inner thoughts and their movements become distant yet clear.
Put aside other practices.Â
When you’re ready, put aside any methods that you first used to activate the brain’s awareness. Instead, channel your full attention toward watching the mind. This shift means stopping the methods outlined in earlier chapters, such as noting the inner body, aware breathing, and mindful practice. These techniques awakened you from being lost in thought. They also helped divert the mind’s focus away from stress, fear, and mental pain. After using these programs for three to four weeks, the brain’s mindful centre becomes active enough. Sense this maturity. You’re now ready to leave behind previous methods and move to the stage of watching thoughts.
Once awareness gathers momentum, you can start leaving aside your attempts to catch thoughts and fears as they arise.
Be alert to the mind’s contents.
Alertness to the mind’s thoughts, concerns, feelings, and worries helps you catch them before they gain hold. Where do they come from? What will your next thought be? By asking such questions, you grow alert toward the mind. To deepen this practice, imagine yourself as a hungry cat sitting outside a mouse hole. While waiting for a mouse to emerge, your mind, brain, and senses remain sharp. In this image, the cat symbolises you and the mouse represents your thoughts. As you follow this engaging, focused, alert meditation, don’t allow one thought to cross your attention without being aware and catching it. Remain here for several minutes. Stop the practice if you notice tension, pain, or excess tiredness. Â
Alertness to the mind’s thoughts, concerns, feelings, and worries allows you to catch them before they gain hold.
Notice the urge to turn away from your mind.Â
Note the mind’s volume of unwanted energy and your urge to turn away from viewing such content. What mental pictures, memories, fears, questions, sounds, troubles and words don’t you wish to see? Do you strive to answer, argue with, justify, analyse, or repress them? Such reactions are normal. Notice the initial, unwanted thought and the part of you that commentates and analyses it. Set aside five minutes. Start with one thought and note it down. Highlight your comments towards it. While reflecting this way, you activate fresh, conscious wisdom and become the watcher, rather than a mental target. From this point, the mind’s unwanted energy reduces as you grow more aware of its power.
Note the volume of energy in your mind and your urges to quash, escape, distract yourself from, or avoid it.
Don’t try too hard to watch the mind.
The act of trying too hard to watch your mind places tremendous stress on the brain. Such efforts often narrow your focus, thus blocking the mind’s freedom to think. As you practice being watchful, does tension occur? This effect stems from intense effort. When exerting yourself this way, you might also catch the brain becoming quiet for short periods. This silence happens because of your rigid attention on the mind. In this state, it cannot move freely. It’s common to confuse such imposed silent states as meditation or peace. Don’t be mistaken. Your brain cannot sustain forced silences for long. The moment it tires, noisy thoughts resurface, and it’s easy to trap yourself in cycles of refocusing your mind. Instead of imposing such stressful efforts, relax your focus and let your brain ease into a gentle, aware state.
The act of trying too hard to watch your mind places tremendous force on the brain.
Let your mind become watchful by itself.Â
Once you grow aware of the mind, it soon becomes watchful on its own. This action happens as your brain’s mindful regions relax and open. These include the areas related to handling emotions. When this process gains pace, you can start leaving aside your attempts to catch thoughts, troubles and fears as they arise. Such gradual reductions in effort allow your brain to settle, relax and function well. No further action is required. Are you ready to let this process happen? By relaxing this way, your mind becomes aware and watchful itself.
Watch a lion hunting. Its aware of its prey and surroundings. Be attentive to your thoughts, emotions, and feelings in the same way.
Outline of how to observe thoughts.
To outline the practice of observing thoughts, start by listening to the voices inside your head. Are they nearby or distant? Note their appearance and sound. Gain a visual sense of this method by imagining yourself watching a film at the cinema. The large screen portrays your mind’s thoughts. The seat is the point from where you watch these contents. Check the distance between the screen and your chair. View this region as your inner space. While grounding yourself here, let thoughts, inner voices, past images, and emotions unfold on-screen, as though you’re watching a film. Soon, your power to observe increases as the size of thought, mind and emotional voices reduce. Remain with this practice for however long you feel comfortable.
While doing this exercise, it’s normal to see mental movies of pain, fear, and turmoil. Expect such content to arise. Instead of leaving the practice in response, recognise and grow wise to each reaction. Trust the wisdom of your awareness and inner space. By doing this, the mind’s voices soon calm by themselves and you gain full power to observe them without effort.
What is the practice and purpose of watching your mind?
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