Does anyone have any advice as to how to get into the emptiness. My mind chatters almost constantly. I'll get there for a few minutes at a time and then all of a sudden I realize my mind is off and running again. I know it takes practice, but I wondered if there are any helpful hints, other than "relax". The more I tell myself to relax, the less I seem to do it!

Soli

Yep all you have to do is to stop thinking about it. I’m kidding and chuckling a little it is always a challenge to quite the monkey mind. You are right with practice it will get better. I don’t think there is an easy way but here are some things that work. Master Lin has given you a mantra of sorts in the small universe so focusing on this is one way. To amplify this you could visualize not only breathing into the points but sending light, smiling into the spot, sending healing with each breath and or combinations of all of them. This will keep the mind busy enough and focused on where it is needed. Never struggle against it or get mad at it see it for what it is/was and breathe it out and let it go and realign your focus. Just keep bringing it back to your focus and intention it will diminish.

With the exercise you can reorient your focus by tuning into the energy, breath work, and the magnetic feel between hands and so on. Finding the awe in all this can help with the focus as well. Also for all of the above you can take a moment (5 to 10 min) before beginning and let thoughts wander in and out. Jot them down on a note pad and then let them go with the affirmation that you will get back to it after your quite time. Sometimes there is a lot going on and reminders pop up and jotting them down will help release the chatter.

Good luck, have fun and enjoy the ride.
Much love to you

I believe Master Lin is gentler and says that it's okay to not fully rid the chatter but to greatly reduce it. Kind of the Good, Better, Best approach. By taking the gentler approach you don't destroy the Better or Good by becoming upset that it's not the Best (complete silence).

One of the approaches I'm using is that when I notice chatter, I adopt the peaceful, wise and supportive air towards myself that Master Lin would demonstrate. I smile at myself and remind myself in one of several ways. I really do smile. In and understanding manner I tell myself things like:

Nicely done, now return to the emptiness.

This is my time to experience the meditation (active or not) and I'll analyse later.

I give myself permission to be fully in This experience.

I choose to be doing this, here, now.

I release those thoughts and return to myself.

I've taken on the idea that after 20 years I will still probably not be able to completely stop mental chatter, but I will have reduced it to almost nothing. The idea that after all those years chatter may creep in a few times a year. Isn't an admission to failure, but an acceptance that I will always be a student.

You are perfection.
Iam2

You've tried to relax your body and in the process you subvocalize your command to relax. Anna Wise has an interesting technique. She says that all you have to do is to relax your tongue.

Since the tongue is involved in a lot of sub-vocalization, this should reduce the babbler.

shr33m

Soli,
That is the nature of the unrestrained mind, to run off in many directions and create distractions, etc., etc. It you can get your mind to be still for a few minutes - as you say - then you are already a Master. It is said that if you can still the mind for one second you would have achieved samadhi, nirvana, the Awakening, etc., etc. Yes, the mind is like a drunken monkey who has been stung by a hive of bees.

I think your real question has to do with entering the silence. Don't allow your mind to trick you with its distractions that you are no entering the silence. Laugh, but that is just what is happening here: crazy trick of the mind.

Entering the silence is part of the visualization process. You are actually using your mind to enter the silence. That is, immagine - which is itself a sub play on the mind stuff - you are entering this deep, profound and beautiful silence. Doing this actually preoccupies the mind and sorts of trick the mind into silence by causing it to be purposely absorbed into this immagining or visualization (which ever label you prefer).

By the way, SFQ is particularly effective in accomplishing this effect: the entering of the silence. Why and how? Easy! There are a series of things which comes into play with the proper execution of SFQ as Master Lin presents the teaching. For example, look at what is involved in the Level 1 Active Exercises: the smile on your face, relaxes the entire body; the calling upon the Master's energy or help directs and focuses you in the right direction; the breathing and its visualization of the incoming healing and the outgoing scattering of diseases and blockages, etc., etc. all work to create a synergistic effect of quieting the mind and instilling this silence. Note, also, the profound effect of the gently and slow movements. Working together, they all combind effectively to quiet the mind through what I call this subtle distraction (sort of using the same mind trick on the mind). Many other schools or paths teach the same strategy, but SFQ uses a combination of the best of all the paths. And, most important, it works!

Relax, smile, enjoy the practice, and in time you too will have the experiential-knowledge of THE SILENCE .... Rome wasn't built in a day. The process, the journey and the destination will come together for you, just relax - SMILE!

Silence....

Soli,
You may substitue "emptiness" for my use of the term "the silence."
Please excuse any confusion this might have caused. I do appologize.
Thank you....

Meditation is the key to entering the emptiness. Perhaps you could also try another form of this to complement your SFQ, I know training my mind before doing SFQ has definately been a big help to me.

The focusing of the energy in Small Universe is a great way to keep the mind centred.

I don't like the word "emptiness" either Mike. I like silence too...or "stillness" Emptiness makes me feel like I lost something important.

Thanks for all the good info - I'll keep trying. As for the word emptiness, I think it conveys very well, at least for me, what I'm trying to get to - I guess it's just a matter of semantics. Anyway, I think we're all on the same page. Thanks again.

Soli

I only need to remember standing out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around as far as the eye can see and and then notice the silence.

Lands me in the emptiness

Alex

I had some difficulty getting into the emptiness/stillness today and I think it was because I was worried about something but didn't know what it was - this happens to me sometimes. The smiling does help and becoming absorbed in the movements and the sensory experience of them also helps. Sometimes I notice this thought forming: 'yes I think that I am truly in the emptiness now'. Then I realise that that thought in itself means that I'm not at that moment in the emptiness but that I was in the moments before it. How long the moments before it might have been is not really a question that can be answered because I suspect that awareness of time is suspended when are in the emptiness and you only notice time again when you come out. I am reminded of the experience of waking up early, say at 4 am, and feeling that you have never really been back to sleep until you have to get up at 7 am, even though you know that you could not really have been awake for 3 hours. Consciously you recall the times when you wake up and your irritation at being awake again but ignore the times when you were asleep because you were not conscious of them. In a similar way I think our consciousness and perhaps irritaion at not being in the emptiness attracts our atention more than the time we spend in the emptiness.

Did that make sense to anyone else I wonder?!

Love,

Kev

Kev - it made sense to me, and that's kind of scary!!

Kev, it makes sense to me too. You're actually on to something, and it is BIG! You're on the right track, so far as you just shared. Keep up the good work.

Soli, I sense there is something further lingering with respect to your original question. I'm sure it pertains to SFQ, so please don't hesitate to share it or to further elaborate. We're all here together, we learn from each other and we help each other. If we can help, we'll be happy to assit you in moving to the next higher place, or else just soften any seeming veil or cloud.

By the way, Soli, I too like the word "emptiness." It works just fine for me. But as Mayflower indicated, I've come to learn that some of us associate it with less than positive connotations. It is for this reason only that I've tended to use the some what more neutral and easier to digest (by some) word "silence."
Until....

For those that don't like 'emptiness', how about 'oneness'.

This is my preferred saying and conveys that we become one with the universe and all the energy within it.

It seems to me it isn't a word but an experience of pure being when you feel 'at one' with the universe and everything present. The emptiness to me is the absence of the earthly bagage we carry around in our minds.

Alex

Kev, it did make sense and the analogies are great examples.

Soli, Here is what I learned over the past couple of days. I have had a lot on my mind and found that during the small universe I would always get lost a blank moment of babble time only to return and not be sure of where I was in the flow. Boy I do appreciate the difference in the breath and ohm at the lower dantien more so now than ever before. I found that I would repeatedly loose place down in the lower energy centers and up around neck to head area. There are a lot of possible reasons for this but definitely related to a drifting or distraction of the mind. Sometimes depending on where I thought I was in the cycle I would breathe into the whole body (seeing new revitalizing energy enter all centers) letting all unwanted energies dissipate on the exhale including distractions of the mind. I would do this until the dantien then try and get back into the cycle again. This was an extreme approach if I was totally clueless and loss in the pattern in most cases I would continue where I thought I should be and was usually pretty close.

I have tried a couple of approaches to help focus the mind that might help someone if they encounter the same obstacles I have been experiencing. One approach was to take a couple of cycles to physically connect to each of the points with gentle pressure. So at the point of ohm and inhale I would put my hand or hands on that point with gentle pressure. This I found help to increase my awareness of the points and the sensation of touch seemed to last for quite some time after. This was especially helpful at times when I was tiered and seemed to help sort of wake up the body for the process of mental relaxation.

The second approach I tried today and that was to use each point as a mantra. So I would call out the name as I was inhaling, repeating over and over sort of in rhythm with the ohm. On the exhale I would say the new points name over and over, (as the mind shifted awareness to the new point) and then inhale the name and so on. This helped to quite the babbler and distractions of where the mind wanted to go and refocus where I wanted it. I found that once the flow started and I relaxed into it that I could also focus on the breath, the visuals and the energy work which distracted the babbler allowing me to focus my intentions where it was needed.

I feel that this is not something I would do all the time but may try on occasion depending on what the situation calls for. Eventually I would hope that the need for these methods would diminish as the discipline of the mind comes into a more habitual effortless focus.

Anyway I hope this helps someone in someway at some place,,, ahhh sometime

[This message has been edited by Ascending1 (edited October 30, 2003).]

I find that getting fully into the experience cuts out the babble best.

----
Emptiness for me is connecting with the entire universe. The universe and I combine together. I conceptualize every atom being fully connected to every atom in the universe. Hence I'm mostly emptiness. I don't know if I've achieve what Master Lin has set out for me, but that's what I do.

----
Small universe: I always identify, whether subvocally or visually the next destination as I push the energy. My perception is that as soon as I identify the destination the energy starts flowing. So the pushing is sometimes more of a pulling, depending on were I consciously am relative to the main body of energy.

You are perfection.
Iam2

P.S. I did touch each of the destinations the first couple of times I did small universe.

[This message has been edited by Iam2 (edited October 30, 2003).]

The emptiness for me is a place of silence and stillness. It is a place where the "chatter" in my mind ceases (still difficult to achieve with any consistency, but improving with every meditation). I find the Small Universe meditation very helpful for focusing because it takes me "out of my mind" (so to speak) and into my body and breath.

Starfish, I find this a very special aspect of the Small Universe meditation too. Because it is so absorbing in terms of its focus there is somehow no time to have much chatter - I still manage it though! I suddenly realise also that I must re-visit the other meditation on the tape as well because it has very different but useful qualities.

Another thought: sometimes I feel that I haven't been anywhere near the level of stillness that I desire. But even so I notice that after a meditation or the active exercises that whatever my 'intellectual judgement' of the 'depth' of the stillnes is, I am in a very different state to the one in which I started - calmer, more integrated, breathing very differently and thinking more clearly. This is one of the wonderful things about deciding to commit to a period of time doing this 'work'.

Love,

Kev

Aloha,

Much Love, Shawn

I have something I came across that applies to this thread. It is probably Daoist, but I am not sure.
"The human mind does not have an innate tendency toward stillness. However, because the spirit dwells in it, the mind is still when the spirit is in control.

The human mind does not have an innate tendency toward activity. But, because knowledge dwells in it, the mind is active when knowledge is in control."

Every qigong exercise has a singular focus. Whether you accept the original as given , or create your own, this singular focus is the simplest way to enter the emptiness. When focused this way, the mind is assisting, not leading. Your spirit holds the intention, the mind assists in a secondary role. At some point, you move through this single focused intention, lapsing into emptiness, stillness, or oneness, or silence, etc.. You just 'are', and don't monitor or notice anything. There is no experience, other than being.
On a personal note, I often make a journey in my exercise or meditations, that takes me back to source, before the physical universe was created. My master's energy exists there, as do other higher beings that existed to assist in creation. Moving deeper, or farther back, there is just the source, or God. I either see it as an expansive sun, or hear the sound ohm in this great expanse. It is very expansive, and removed from this dimension. Sometimes I experience it 'there', or sometimes this sun, then enfolds over everything, including where I came from to get there...I use a visualization of travelling out in space past the known planets, big dipper, and north star. Then I envision a great sun in the center of the physical universe. I go through this sun to enter that space of pre creation, leaving the physical universe. I acknowledge all, and pay respects as I go. When in this pre creation space, I then move past beings that exist there, and enter another space/place, the source, prior to 'their' existence. Even if I am doing a meditation like small universe, I connect with this place through my master's energy, as, that is where his energy is coming from.
My mind, is not important during this process, other than the fact that it assists, and is given a needed rest. When you begin your exercises or meditation, don't take lightly, the merging with the universe, and the connection to your master's energy. You are setting up a state of being at that point, a singular focus, putting the mind in its place, connecting to spiritual and universal energy. Sometimes, I will stand for ten minutes experiencing all my relations, before I move my hands. I will have journeyed, and aligned. You 'are' in the void at this stage, moving back to your origin, or the source. The movement starts, from 'nothing'. Then the two hands move, establishing the yin and yang, and the beginning of the physical universe. Prior to the forming of yin and yang, for instance, in a Taoist view, as you move back through pre creation of the physical universe, you will find the five element stars, and the three pure ones, in that space prior to creation. The beauty and power of how level I active embodies source, pre creation , and creation, is very powerful. Do it as sacred movement, aware of this powerful return to source, and beginning from that point. Your mind will not interfere with this experience. Your active exercise starts with nothing,"nothing",,,, within(source), and then the yin and yang forms. Where are you , before you begin to move?? Even with the visualization I mention, this journey, although sacred and meaningful, is not the emptiness, it is just one path that can thlead there. I share this to emphasize your beginning state of being, when you start your mediation or exercise. How do you start? Have you empowered your spirit through a sacred joining with the universe, and the source, through your master's energy? Was it felt in your heart and experienced in a way that overrides busy thinking? I often wait, if I am using a CD or tape, before turning it on. I like to experience the beginning first, and sit in that. When I get to the meditation or exercise, I am having a full experience, devoid of distraction. enough!!
love,
gallen

And may I add three letters...

W O W!

Ok one more.

Thanks

From a more practical point of view, your chatter is your mind going through it's habitual cycle that it continually does all day. Your conscoius mind has I think 7 slots to hold information, in the form of the five senses. One non-meditative trick is to consciously fill these slots with something else, thus breaking the cycle. A neural linguistic programming approach would be to look up and visualize some pictures, look down and to the left and listen for a sound or inner dialog, and look down and to the right and feel a body part or two with your mind, thus filling the 7 slots with pictures, sounds and feelings. They have found that when you look in those directions, your mind accesses those things. I don't know if it is useful here, but I like to pour fuel onto a raging fire...

The SFQ active exercises and small universe already have enough to fill many of those slots. I like the previous idea of adding more to the visualizations and feelings, which keeps the focus on SFQ and fills more slots, thus preventing the slots from being filled by our habitual thoughts, as long as your mind is not too busy.

Thanks everyone for your input. All of it has merit, and I'm grateful for your insights.

Soli