Turning off the continuous thought-churn and "stopping" the conscious mind is a large part of what meditation is for, at least to begin with. The reason they ask you to catch your thoughts and refocus them to a single point - the air travelling through your nose as you breathe, for example - is to teach you how to do exactly that. It takes time and practice but most people can do it.

>Turning off the continuous thought-churn and "stopping" the conscious mind is a large part of what meditation is for

I never really understood the 'stopping' part, how is that even possible? At best you can simply refocus it to something you find peaceful, if that is the case how is meditation any different from say watching a movie that you love or playing drums.

It's not really about turning off your thoughts, so much as "stepping back" and observing your thoughts.

How interesting that that thought wandered by just after this other one. It's "smile", that one feels pretty good.

This next one is "boredom"... Fascinating! What is that about? Why do I feel it? What happens if I use "smile" on it?

What about this monologue? Can I step back and observe those thoughts?

The Zen master says he's thinking about nothing while meditating. That doesn't mean no thought, it means observing the thing that Null pointers point to.

(Personal experience and I'm not at all an expert)

See stopping as a metaphor. You are not "not thinking" ever but you can ignore some thoughts. And we do that all the time - usually thoughts we don't like. With meditation you'll learn to do that a bit better. A thought pops up in your head and instead of following it and expanding on it, you simply let it slide. Another one pops up and you do the same. When I meditate for 15mins at most 4-5 mins of it would be close to "peace" - that's all I can manage. When I'm doing it regularly, (it could very well be placebo) I find myself to be less agitated and not following every thought that comes to my head through out the day. I learn to say "not now" and focus on what I'm working on instead.

It's not so much stopping thoughts, as it is to be able to guide your focus at will, as you said. In the end your mind isn't so much blank as hyper-aware of itself without the normal push-pull of thoughts that you described in your earlier comment. Best way I can describe it is as a place where your higher mind is at rest and your instinctive/subconscious mind is fully active.

The mystical philosophies around meditation describe it with all sorts of features and properties, but I'll skip getting into that here. I'll just mention martial arts in particular. They practice relentlessly so that the actions are instinctive, then they use meditation so that higher-brain noise doesn't get in the way of that hyper-awareness and instinctive action.

>I never really understood the 'stopping' part, how is that even possible? At best you can simply refocus it to something you find peaceful, if that is the case how is meditation any different from say watching a movie that you love or playing drums.

With meditation, if you get good at it, you can get lost in a kind of haze that's way less focused than playing drums or watching a movie. Sort of like sleeping while awake.

So that's a lot like "stopping". Sure, neurons will fire, etc, so you're not stopping anything completely, but they also do that when you are sleeping, or when you're completely wasted on weed.

Don't you ever remember a time when you had a choice between thinking and not? If not, you're far overdue for some meditation.

> if that is the case how is meditation any different from say watching a movie that you love or playing drums.

The main difference, I've found, is temporal. By focusing on the breath, you stay grounded in the present moment. Watching a movie will trigger memories or thoughts about the future, which, to me, seem to tax the mind a lot more than simple, objective thoughts about the present moment.

Playing the drums could be like this, but you have to get lost in it and be improvising or sight reading something you've never played before. If you're worried about making mistakes, remembering the music or anything along those lines, you're not as in the moment as you could be. Most people don't play that way.

I occasionally catch moments in which no outside noises are present and I'm not thinking of anything at all. Very rare, but possible (also immediately spoiled by making note of it).

>I never really understood the 'stopping' part, how is that even possible?

With practice.

I recently read something (can't remember where) about how a lot of people have trouble sleeping because lying down to go to sleep is the first chance their mind gets to do something without outside stimulation. I think most people who don't have the mental peace to do nothing would get it if they did nothing more often. That isn't an option for everyone though.

That's me. How often I've been wide awake at night because I couldn't stop thinking about my side projects.

I never have time for them, so the only moment my mind can explore some ideas is when I'm in bed.

Today's Sunday, I'll try and sit on the couch alone doing nothing for an hour and see where my mind wanders.

"How often I've been wide awake at night because I couldn't stop thinking about my side projects."

Try writing stuff down quickly on paper - just scribble the ideas. I do this with my teaching (I don't work in IT). It seems to 'earth' the thoughts and then I can relax.

When it gets bad, I usually solve the problem by listening to some suitable podcast. Preferably politics and not with headphones. I turn the volume so low that I really need to lay still and concentrate to hear what they are talking about.

Go for a walk.

heh yea. that's prbly why sleeping to TV is such a popular option.

I've started listening to podcasts to drift off to sleep.

Pro: in about 10 minutes I drift off easily to sleep

Con: I get the weirdest dreams. Probably listening to Dan Carlin talk about Mongols and Anabaptist religious fanatics in my sleep is responsible.

This is why walking works. Dont bring your phone. It just keeps that minimum of distraction to not freak you out and that makes it easier to actually face what's on your mind, to some extent.

It's called mindfulness[1], also meditation is the tool to train your mind.

[1]: https://youarenotsosmart.com/2015/10/23/yanss-061-how-to-wil...

Impossible? Try breathing meditation. You shut your mind down in an amazing way.

>But you mind is never at rest. Its always thinking, ruminating. 'doing nothing' is impossible and absurd, you mind is always 'doing something'

You'd be surprised.

For those that this doesn't come naturally (or have stress, are anxious etc), they can try some meditation techniques.

Meditation is not about some mystical mumbo jumbo, it's about being mindful and taking control of your thoughts, so think it more of like training of your "thought-muscles" to shut up and enjoy the silence, than "becoming one with the universe".

This is learned behaviour. It can be unlearned.

You seem to have misread the comment you responded to. The author cited external stimulation as a key factor, and you've somehow ended up redefining "alone" to mean "mentally still."