LET THE THOUGHTS GO
It is common for spiritual teachers to be asked how to quiet the busy mind, for this is the common experience of anyone trying to meditate for the first time. Even experienced meditators experience over-active minds at times.
The great Hindu sage Ramana Maharishi was often asked this question, and he would tell his students not to identify with the thoughts. What does this mean?
As Ramana would teach his students, we are not the body, nor are we the thinking mind. We even are not the emotions that we feel. All of these are transient; they come and go. Our true Self is unchanging and is a witness only to our thoughts and emotions.
The ancient philosophy of Vedanta, which is based in the Upanishads and other scriptures, teaches that it is our subtle body, sūkṣma śarīra in Sanskrit, that holds our thoughts and emotions. This subtle body, unlike our physical body, follows us from life to life. So we carry our tendencies, good or bad, from past lives, and these influence our thoughts and emotions in our current life. In addition, our thoughts and emotions are based on the conditioning that we have received in our current life. Realizing that this “history” that we carry in our psyche is not who we are and can be changed for the better gives us a sense that we can free ourselves from the psychological tendencies that have held us hostage.
So we need not give our thoughts any energy when they arise in our meditation. As Ramana would counsel his students: “Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.”
