Why keep the mind clear?

[qibrush]

Hello, I need some insight on this question I've been wondering about. I've heard somewhere

that keeping the mind clear (no thoughts) is good to do for some spritual reason. I just wanted more explanation on that. I'm at the point where keeping the mind clear the whole day would be no problem , sure it takes a little bit more concentration but that'll only because I'm not used to doing it for that long. The problem is is that even though I know it's good I don't know why its good. So often times while walking or on the bus I have the option to keep my mind clear and just be or to think just because it's fun (who designed this bus, I wonder how it works, etc). Most of the time I'll choose to think because it's more of a habit and also I haven't learned exactly why I should choose keeping my mind empty over thinking. I'm not talking about times where one has to think but rather when one has the option to think or just be. Someone please enlighten me on this topic

[Yasjua]

Perception creates soft but definite separation between objects. Hence, "tree" and "car" are separate entities. However, mind creates rough distinctions - i.e. tree and car as so fundamentally different that they must be ideologically, even racially at odds. The two must fight to destroy each other!

 

Ironically, keeping a quiet mind is actually a pretty controversial subject. Some people force their minds into submission when they hear it has something to do with enlightenment. This builds up an unnatural suppressive effect on the body's energy and balance. You can't plug the ocean shut with a bathstopper, which is what those practitioners try to do. You dive deep into the ocean and discover that it's very still deep down.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

With the provisos that thought is a useful tool in many things, that it shouldn't be suppressed, and that mental composure (samadhi) should come from tranquility rather than force - if it feels like effort, that's not what you're looking for...

 

The sheer level of chatter most people have is the result of a deep-seated restlessness. Letting go of this restlessness while staying alert gives the mind peace, contentment and brightness. This is itself just very nice, like the mind is a summer sky. Your memory improves, your baseline happiness increases, you understand things faster.

 

Also it provides an excellent basis for greater virtue and deeper insight. Trying to develop insight with a restless/dull mind is like trying to read in the dark with a dim flashlight that's swinging on a rope. And when the mind is like a summer sky, it's less prone to being irritable and craving random stuff.

[qibrush]

So what I'm getting is that when I get the mind truly still there really is no choice between thinking and non thinking

because the mind by it's natural state is one of stillness, and that this stillness is the preferred state? Relevantly

I was setting my mind yesterday and I got a good glimpse of what I think you mean when you say the mind is naturally like a clear sky. It was like this permanent state in which the mind is like the sky and it was always there I just had to notice it. Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding, I always like learning more.

Edited March 25, 2015 by qibrush

[doc benway]

There is no better teacher than the natural state of mind - 

the state which is not characterized by any specific thought or experience but holds the potential for and hosts all thought and experience.

 

If one is truly able to rest the mind in stillness, silence, and spaciousness, the reasons for and benefits of this practice will become clear. 

No book or website can make it any more clear than direct experience. 

 

Sometimes being in a state without thought is more like being in a stupor - this has no value whatsoever.

It's important to be able to distinguish between the two and the former generally requires some degree of competent guidance whereas the latter does not.

 

Good luck!

[Jetsun]

Keeping the mind clear all day is impossible, even for five minutes is pretty much impossible. You can go into blank states of mind through repression but below the repression the mind will still be moving.

 

Yet you can be in or rather become aware of the prexisiting complete stillness and silence which is always there even if the mind is moving at maximum speed, it is usually when people give up trying to make the mind silent after much effort at trying that this is recognised, but it doesn't have to work like that you can become aware of the preexisting peace at any moment.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Jetsun

[Seeker of Wisdom]

An advanced practitioner of shamatha can enter the jhanas and rest in them for fair periods of time. In the first jhana there's still a certain extent of thought and evaluation, but from the second jhana on is 'noble silence'.

 

Shamatha or 'calm abiding' is the form of meditation aimed at making the mind composed, focused and vivid. Normally the mind tends to be restless or dull - this is about being calm and alert. The practice essentially involves focusing on an object, and whenever the mind is distracted, gently letting go of the distraction, shifting back to the object.

 

It's important that this isn't forceful - rather than forcing the mind to clench down on something, it's training it to let go and be still on something.

 

Advanced practitioners can enter states which Buddhism refers to as 'jhanas'. I'm not yet at this point, but even early on you can start to feel much more mental clarity, peace of mind and a fulfilling sort of happiness in daily life.

 

The most common shamatha technique is mindfulness of breathing, which uses the breath as the object of meditation. Some people focus on the abdominal expansion/contraction as they breathe, others on the sensations in the nostrils, others (such as me) simply remain aware of breathing without focusing on a particular location.

 

Anyway you keep gently releasing distractions, remaining with the breath, and if pleasant feelings start to arise you relax with them while remaining alert, focused on the breath. It can be helpful, especially at first, to count the breaths as a way to encourage continuity of focus.

IMO the best source overall on shamatha is 'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Attention-Revolution-Unlocking-Focused-v-ution/dp/0861712765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425925702&sr=8-1&keywords=the+attention+revolution You can easily find varying instructions, articles and books for free online, but I think this is clearer and covers more bases than any I've read so far, as well as being accessible to non-Buddhists (as this practice can easily be applied to any path) in both theory and practice. Also it gives tailored instructions for different levels of practitioners, and detail three shamatha methods along with some compassion-based practices.

 

So this book will save you a LOT of time reading different articles trying to understand complicated theory and how the practice is meant to work.

 

The only issue with that book is it has very exacting standards, following the interpretation of commentaries rather than the earlier texts, which are more reasonable. It presents the path as much more long and arduous than it really is, with all those linear stages before even the first jhana, and the 'four hours' thing.

 

For that reason, and also just for more info, you'd do well to also browse these:

 

http://www.leighb.com/jhana_4factors.htm

http://www.leighb.com/jhana3.htm

http://www.leighb.com/case_of_the_missing_simile.htm

[Spotless]

Keeping the mind clear all day is impossible, even for five minutes is pretty much impossible. You can go into blank states of mind through repression but below the repression the mind will still be moving.

Yet you can be in or rather become aware of the prexisiting complete stillness and silence which is always there even if the mind is moving at maximum speed, it is usually when people give up trying to make the mind silent after much effort at trying that this is recognised, but it doesn't have to work like that you can become aware of the preexisting peace at any moment.

This is not actually correct - and repression is certainly not the key to any sort of silence as the noise of repression is quit loud.

 

To Qibrush:

 

Your original post reminds me of someone who was enlightened from a very very early age - but he did not know he was enlightened until he was in his early 20s - he was exceptional and had a great many gifts and spoke and saw spirit all the time and never lost his wakefulness - but it was not clear to him that he was already where others were trying to go until he was at a retreat one year and then realized what they were striving to achieve was where he had always been.

 

One can learn to stop ones thoughts and one can learn to follow a thought through - very very very few can do either. In all these boards perhaps three or four can follow a thought through - stopping thoughts is even more difficult - but perhaps for you it is indeed something you can master with just a little bit of work. (It is quite extraordinary if this is the case but I have no doubt it may be the case for you - not for me to call you on it).

 

Most people do not actually have thoughts - they have reactions in thought forms and trance. Food and the time of the day greatly affect their space and what arises. They are constantly kept asleep by the noise of circular debates and inclinations and digestion.

 

They never take the steering wheel though each and everyone of them will go to great lengths in disagreement with this idea.

So lacking are they in the ability to steer that the notion of ever training their minds never occurs to them - (try to find a thread that goes two feet into the thick of it - it simply can't get past an 8th inch).

If in fact you can stop your thoughts, then I would suggest a very good reason to allow them to cease frequently is to allow other abilities to be exercised within your awareness. Thinking is not necessary nor useful most of the time.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Spotless

[Jetsun]

This is not actually correct - and repression is certainly not the key to any sort of silence as the noise of repression is quit loud.

 

 

I wasn't recommending repression, I was saying that it is the only way I know of to create the perception of the mind being clear for a great length of time, but it isn't a healthy recommended way to go about things.

 

After a few years of regular meditation I personally only experience the mind being silent for moments, its the minds job to keep moving to keep thinking non stop until your last breath, its inevitable, but its not a problem for meditation because what the mind arises within is always silent, always still and at peace, so I recommend paying attention to that which is eternal rather than trying to silence the mind. Whatever the mind creates is temporary and self liberating anyway so why the need to do anything with it other than let it dissolve naturally?

 

When it is recognised that the mind is just a tool and not who you are you can just let it be and do whatever it wants to do, no problem, no struggling to change it or make it more silent than it already is. When you hear a sound in meditation it arises and leaves your awareness without any resistance or trying to silence it, the space the sound arises within and moves through is not disturbed, so why not treat thoughts and whatever the mind produces in the same way?

[Spotless]

I wasn't recommending repression, I was saying that it is the only way I know of to create the perception of the mind being clear for a great length of time, but it isn't a healthy recommended way to go about things.

 

After a few years of regular meditation I personally only experience the mind being silent for moments, its the minds job to keep moving to keep thinking non stop until your last breath, its inevitable, but its not a problem for meditation because what the mind arises within is always silent, always still and at peace, so I recommend paying attention to that which is eternal rather than trying to silence the mind. Whatever the mind creates is temporary and self liberating anyway so why the need to do anything with it other than let it dissolve naturally?

 

When it is recognised that the mind is just a tool and not who you are you can just let it be and do whatever it wants to do, no problem, no struggling to change it or make it more silent than it already is. When you hear a sound in meditation it arises and leaves your awareness without any resistance or trying to silence it, the space the sound arises within and moves through is not disturbed, so why not treat thoughts and whatever the mind produces in the same way?

I would suggest you re-examine this conclusion:

 

"It's the minds job to keep moving to keep thinking until your last breath, it's inevitable"

 

It is a common misconception that the lunatic cannot become other than a lunatic. We have given the lunatic the seat of our carriage and allow it to tell us where we are going and all sorts of things. This was never its job and it is ill equipped for the job - and the entire approach as though a job were to be done is incorrect - our life is not a job and our life is not positions we must take and defend.

 

Incorrect thinking is something that can be rectified - but it can be very very hard to understand how almost completely incorrect our thinking is because we have allowed proclivities and habituations to completely take over choice - our discernment is obliterated by the false pressure of time and space and the ever present fear.

It is nearly impossible to get the idea of just how completely we are encapsulated in fear and to what extent the fear is driven by the unfortunate and constant noise of the mind which has been asked to solve unsolvable problems - we live a life of fantasy problems in a pressure cooker that does not exist and one we could easily leave if we could just begin moving the mind to its proper function and work on other simple levels of incorrect action.

 

Obviously it is made more difficult to change because the whole of society supports our maladies and in fact detests any real change to the protocol - but it can be done and support is growing by leaps and bounds just now all over the world.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Spotless

[Seeker of Wisdom]

...After a few years of regular meditation I personally only experience the mind being silent for moments...

I feel sorry for you. If this wasn't the case you would clearly see for yourself how learning to contrive a little rest from the noise is an incredibly useful thing... the rest itself, how the mind develops in the process of learning to enter it, and what is learnt in the process.

 

Much of your post sounds more or less like mahamudra to me... the initial stages involve learning to rest the mind so that it is less restless, brighter, better framed to investigate its own true nature.

 

Just because something is contrived doesn't mean it isn't bloody well worth doing.

[Jetsun]

I feel sorry for you. If this wasn't the case you would clearly see for yourself how learning to contrive a little rest from the noise is an incredibly useful thing... the rest itself, how the mind develops in the process of learning to enter it, and what is learnt in the process.

 

Thanks for your pity, but personally I feel quite blessed with the way it is going.

 

You can learn a great deal about the tool of your mind by studying it, but it can easily just be another way of avoiding and putting off the truth of discovering who you really are.

[Spotless]

To Jetsun,

 

You do appear to be quite blessed and doing very well - my comments have been to some specific conclusions you are hovering on at the moment and I am urging you to reconsider them. Heart aspects have been your most recent focus if I am not mistaken - an admirable thing to work in.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Spotless

[Tibetan_Ice]

An advanced practitioner of shamatha can enter the jhanas and rest in them for fair periods of time. In the first jhana there's still a certain extent of thought and evaluation, but from the second jhana on is 'noble silence'.

 

 

 

Hi Seeker,

Have been following Leigh Brasington's instructions?

Perhaps his instructions work, and perhaps they work for people whom do not have internal sight?

There may be many ways to enter the jhanas, but I just have to say this:

 

I had seen his web site before and at the time I dismissed his writings because he seems to have missed it, in my opinion.

 

For example, he writes this (from one of your links in your post)

 

If the breath gets very, very subtle, or if it disappears entirely, instead of taking a deep breath, shift your attention away from the breath to a pleasant sensation. This is the key thing. You watch the breath until you arrive at access concentration, and then you let go of the breath and shift your attention to a pleasant sensation. There is not much point in watching the breath that has gotten extremely subtle or has disappeared completely. There's nothing left to watch. Shift your attention to a pleasant sensation, preferably a pleasant physical sensation. You will need a good bit of concentration to watch a pleasant physical sensation, because a mildly pleasant feeling somewhere in your body is not nearly as exciting as the breath coming in and the breath going out. You've got this mildly pleasant sensation that's just sitting there; you need to be well-concentrated to stay with it.

 

He is saying that "there is nothing left to watch". How can he say that? He totally by passed the nimittas.

 

When the breath is very subtle or there is no breath, the nimitta at that point is radiant and bright! You can't miss it! You've ignored it up to that point because focusing on it will only dissipate your concentration. After ignoring that nimitta until you can no longer ignore it, you switch to the nimitta and focus on that. It is a very slight shift because the nimitta appears or moves directly into the spot on which you are focusing.

 

Moving your attention to the hands, like he suggests will only dissipate the concentration. The rapture begins the moment when you start to penetrate the nimitta. And, you are not focusing on the breath, you are fixing your "knowing" at the spot between the upper lip and the nostrils, feeling the area.

 

If you cannot feel the sensation of the breath at that point, you keep focusing on the spot anyway until the nimitta appears. Usually by the time the breath is very shallow you have succeeded in maintaining a steady stream of "knowing" and that anapana spot transforms into a white coudy spot of light. You are concentrating the mind at that one spot. That is what works for me.

 

You don't have to go searching for "pleasurable sensations" somewhere else... The rapture will arise on its own when you maintain a steady stream of "knowing" at the anapana spot (between the upper lip and the nostrils). You don't have to go looking for, it finds you.

 

Anyway, that is my opinion, developed from experience. To me, Leigh's instructions and understanding are defective.

 

If you are using his method, how is that working for you? Have you attained any jhanas?

 

Edited April 3, 2015 by Tibetan_Ice

[Tibetan_Ice]

Tibetan ice, do you know if one can attain the jhanas by just focusing on lower dan tian breathing?

What I mean is that you do it until the breath disappears and then focus the mind on the lower dan tian.

Have you ever tried? When the breath disappears, you can't find your lower Dan Tian. You can't find your body. Your mind is so bright and one pointed that your sense consciousnesses have shut down or turned off.

 

I have heard a few teachers says that focusing on the lower abdomen is good for beginners because it is easy to focus on something that is moving accompanied by easily notable sensations, but because the sensations are so coarse, you only focus there when you are in need of an easy post to hitch your horse to. Like Alan Wallace said, you will never see nimittas if you focus on the lower abdomen. It is just too coarse.

 

Then again, in zen, don't they focus on the hara?

 

Keep in mind that I am not an expert... If your concentration was really good and became one-pointed, you can focus it on anything you'd like. But I think that jhana practice is moving through the layers of subtlety and refinement as the powers of perception through "knowing" become enhanced.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

...To me, Leigh's instructions and understanding are defective.

If you are using his method, how is that working for you? Have you attained any jhanas?...

The most important thing I got from Leigh was learning how the first jhana of the suttas is different from that of the commentaries. In the suttas it has the four factors of (subtle) thought, examination, rapture and joy - ekagatta isn't there fully until the second jhana, with the complete release of thought and examination, which is why it's called noble silence. This makes sense, and means the ludicrous commentarial requirement of four straight hours of utter ekagatta to qualify for merely the first jhana isn't necessary.

 

The method I'm currently trying out is focusing on the knowing of the breath, rather than the physical sensation of the breath. I haven't yet got to a point where a nimitta appears, or the breath is completely unfindable, so I haven't tested the 'pleasurable sensations' thing fully.

 

But I have learnt that relaxing more into the pleasure of it helps. I think I'll try combining that with my previous approach, focus on sensation at the nostrils, and see how that works. That might get the balance of focus and release I need. [Edit - yeah, this is better. Focusing on sensation in a spot, relaxing in the pleasure of it.]

 

Have you seen this? http://www.leighb.com/case_of_the_missing_simile.htm I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this particular article.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Seeker of Wisdom

[idiot_stimpy]

Its useful to keep the mind quiet, because most of the time the nonsense that it spouts is the cause of our suffering.

 

For me, forced repression gave relief for sure but can only take you so far. Whenever I hear forced repression, it triggers the thought of 'Dead tree Zen'. 

[idiot_stimpy]

Some people, when they hear of emptiness think that they must make their minds blank.  Some masters have stated that a cultivated mind is empty of thought.  I can attest from experience that as one cultivates ethics, mediation, and right living, thoughts tend to become quiet and less in number.  Patanjali starts his yoga sutras by stating that the aim of yoga is ending the modification of the mind.  

 

Accordingly, people wish to jump to the end.  

 

Because of this, people think that if they make their mind empty, they will achieve the same thing the masters are talking about.  However, they are mistaking the outer appearance for the inner nature.  A mind becomes empty of thoughts naturally when it stops clinging to things.  This is why Hui Neng said that no mind means freedom from thought in the midst of thought, not a lack of thought.

 

A forced emptiness is sterile.  I believe this is what the masters criticized as dead tree zen.  A mind in a forced state of stillness is not responsive.  The Taoist virtue of natural spontaneity is lost.

 

A mind that does not cling is ready for anything, on the other hand, can respond to everything.  This sort of mind attains the best of wu and kong.  It is open and pregnant with possibilities.  

 

http://zenanddao.blogspot.com.au/

[Tibetan_Ice]

I haven't reached that state. I think you're right about the point of achieving one-pointedness and applying it to other things. Have you ever read the Shurangama Sutra, if not, it states that focusing on the Nimita is one method to attain Samadhi. So I'm guessing that any method that increases your concentration can allow you attain all of the jhanas and Samadhi.

However, I could be wrong.

To be quite honest, there is something about the Shurangama Sutra that bothers me. For one, there are no repetitions like are found in the Pali Sutras... Then it states that the goal, in a few places is to realize the Tao. There is no mention of nimittas in that specific terminology and much of the terminology that I'm used to seeing is missing. And the dialogues between Ananda and Buddha have way too much detail that it makes me think that someone invented this sutra and it wasn't Buddha. I'm not convinced that Buddha actually said those things. Not that there is a definitive text that is truly known to be written by Buddha, but I get a general feeling to "stay away from that text".

 

Where exactly does it mention nimittas in that text? The one I looked at was by Charles Luk

[Tibetan_Ice]

The most important thing I got from Leigh was learning how the first jhana of the suttas is different from that of the commentaries. In the suttas it has the four factors of (subtle) thought, examination, rapture and joy - ekagatta isn't there fully until the second jhana, with the complete release of thought and examination, which is why it's called noble silence. This makes sense, and means the ludicrous commentarial requirement of four straight hours of utter ekagatta to qualify for merely the first jhana isn't necessary.

 

The method I'm currently trying out is focusing on the knowing of the breath, rather than the physical sensation of the breath. I haven't yet got to a point where a nimitta appears, or the breath is completely unfindable, so I haven't tested the 'pleasurable sensations' thing fully.

 

But I have learnt that relaxing more into the pleasure of it helps. I think I'll try combining that with my previous approach, focus on sensation at the nostrils, and see how that works. That might get the balance of focus and release I need. [Edit - yeah, this is better. Focusing on sensation in a spot, relaxing in the pleasure of it.]

 

Hmmm. I realize that there are different practices and interpretations of the various teachings, but for me and what I've learned, there is no relaxing in anything. It is hard work. It is finding a balance between effort and trying so hard your eyes bug out. you have to keep the body relaxed with conscious effort and you have to work on letting the breath be, but you will get nowhere unless you can point and sustain knowing. Like a laser...

 

 

Have you seen this? http://www.leighb.com/case_of_the_missing_simile.htm I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this particular article.

That article is horrible. Nimittas are not similes or metaphors. I've literally seen all the nimittas listed in that article including the sun and the moon.

 

YOU ARENT SUPPOSED TO TURN YOUR ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE ANAPANA SPOT. There is no danger at looking at nimittas other than it defeats the purpose by dissipating the concentration.

 

And then, at the end of the article the author gives their own bad advice for meditation which dissipates the built up concentration.

 

It is too bad the author wrote from ignorance and not experience. They would have never written what they did.

I would suggest reading this text, from an accomplished practitioner:

 

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/know-see.pdf

Edited April 4, 2015 by Tibetan_Ice

[Jetsun]

To Jetsun,

 

You do appear to be quite blessed and doing very well - my comments have been to some specific conclusions you are hovering on at the moment and I am urging you to reconsider them. Heart aspects have been your most recent focus if I am not mistaken - an admirable thing to work in.

In essence my approach to the mind has changed in recent years, I have found trying to manipulate the mind or change it is basically just another way to go into resistance with it, so it is another trick of unconsciousness to keep you engaged and feeding its stories and existence.

 

So I find going directly to what is below the mind either in terms of basic awareness or energetic sensitivity is the best way to manage it because then you invest no energy in what the mind weaves, so it loses its power.

 

I am open to the mind becoming more silent and I'm sure that there are people with minds much more silent than mine, but who has a mind which only produces a few thoughts a day? There might be Yogis who have temporary experiences like that but I doubt they can last longer than hours or maybe days and only in the right circumstances.

[Mandrake]

Have you ever tried? When the breath disappears, you can't find your lower Dan Tian. You can't find your body. Your mind is so bright and one pointed that your sense consciousnesses have shut down or turned off.

 

I have heard a few teachers says that focusing on the lower abdomen is good for beginners because it is easy to focus on something that is moving accompanied by easily notable sensations, but because the sensations are so coarse, you only focus there when you are in need of an easy post to hitch your horse to. Like Alan Wallace said, you will never see nimittas if you focus on the lower abdomen. It is just too coarse.

 

Then again, in zen, don't they focus on the hara?

 

Keep in mind that I am not an expert... If your concentration was really good and became one-pointed, you can focus it on anything you'd like. But I think that jhana practice is moving through the layers of subtlety and refinement as the powers of perception through "knowing" become enhanced.

 

Alan Wallace also talks about the nimittas not being mentioned by the traditional pali accounts or all subsequent masters: I.e. Vasubandhu doesn't speak about nimittas or the breath being focused on the "nose-spot"; Asanga champions an entirely different method of Anapana that is absolutely congruent with the early expositions in the pali canon: You focus on the breath throughout the whole body. Since Vasubandhu knew him, he would have objected if it was wrong. All in all, the indian masters didn't really use the "nose-spot"; it is not a recquirement of attaining shamatha and the subsequent jhana. What matters is what happens with your hindrances, and the jhana factors. Traversing along the way over there, the mind naturally takes on a more and more subtle focus, just as when using the "nose-spot" version of Anapana, one eventually leaps to the uggaha nimitta and then the patibhaga nimitta.

 

The lineages sprawling from Buddhaghosa and his writings (such as the Pa-Auk lineage) tend to follow the "nose-spot" Anapana; the others don't. Depending on the type, quality and nature of object used, there are discreet changes in object or not during the path to jhana/dhyana.

 

 

Mandrake

[Mandrake]

Have you ever read the Shurangama Sutra, if not, it states that focusing on the Nimita is one method to attain Samadhi. So I'm guessing that any method that increases your concentration can allow you attain all of the jhanas and Samadhi.

However, I could be wrong.

 

I am almost 100% that the word "nimitta" as it is used only appears in commentaries - especially the Buddhaghosa lineage.

Are you sure Malik you understand the word? Maybe you mean/understand it as an [small, mental] object in general as a gateway to jhana/dhyana?

 

 

Mandrake

[Everything]

If you are thinking in ways that cause you to feel really bad, you can meditate and feel better when you silence those thoughts.

 

Some people can calm their minds down so much, they actually feel very good in that.

[Josama]

qibrush, I wouldn't try to force stillness if I were you. What happens if you do that is that you add another layer to your ego. It will feel like stillness, but will only block your spiritual progress. The thoughts you have are due to emotions. Once you start letting go of emotions, the thoughts start diminishing. Trying to concentrate on breathing or a single point to achieve stillness is actually pretty difficult.

I would recommend that you use a form of chanting like 'namo amituofo'combined with Vipassana/letting go, as for the explanation I recommend 'letting go the pathway of surrender' by david R.Hawkins.

Regards,

Jos

Edited April 8, 2015 by Josama