This is why meditating is so hard for people like me.
In order to clear my mind, I have to think about clearing my mind, which means I’m thinking, which sends me down a rabbit hole.
So you can think about the act of not thinking, and what it would be like.
Therefore to put it into practice you need to perform an action.
For me, that is repetitive motion. Something that my autonomic system already is trained to do so that no thinking is involved. Once my body is set to the task I can effectively shut my brain down.
For other people, that is visual de-stimulation – unfocused staring at a fixed point.
There are other ways as well, but the idea is to wind down the brain.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/Can-you-know-that-you-are-not-thinking
Originally Posted On: 2016-07-15