Do You Have to Clear Your Mind to Meditate?
The single most common reason I hear people say meditation doesn’t work for them is that they can’t clear their mind. It’s a misunderstanding that we need to clear our minds to meditate, but a persistent one. Many people are left wondering if they are meditating correctly if they cannot clear the mind on command.
This has to be one of the myths about meditation that I think does the most harm. People try meditation, can’t clear their minds, and think it isn’t for them. In reality, meditation is absolutely not about clearing the mind. Sure, specific practices may work to still the mind, but other practices specifically work with a thinking mind.
The Myth of Clearing the Mind
I’m not sure where this myth comes from. Maybe it’s popular media or something, but I have never in my years of meditating in various traditions heard a teacher tell their students to clear their minds. I have, however seen it in movies and shows.
I’m going to start by talking about concentrative practices and stilling the mind. This is the place in meditation where we are actually called to do something that can most closely represent “clearing the mind,” so I want to clarify what is actually called for with these practices.
The Role of Concentration
In concentration meditation, we might mistake the practice for clearing the mind. However, the practice is to actually collect our attention onto the object of meditation (such as the breath). We aren’t called to clear the mind of thoughts or emotions, but to leave them be instead of engaging with them.
As we develop deeper states of concentration, the mind becomes stilled. This is probably what most closely represents a clear mind on the path. These states are acquired often after dedicated practice, sometimes taking years. There are other factors to be cultivated first such as ethical behavior, overcoming the five hindrances, and developing the five factors of absorption.
This state of stillness is not something that is just expected of any meditator right off the bat. Even those who can achieve these states of stillness may require long sitting periods to find them. And without ethical conduct or dedicated abandonment of the five hindrances, they are not attainable.
So let’s to the question, “Do you have to clear your mind to meditate?” The answer is still no. If the question were if we have to find stillness of the mind in order to enter the third and fourth states of absorption, then the answer is yes. But this is one type of meditation, one way to practice, and one specific case where we find this state. It’s not something we just do easily.
Thinking During Meditation
Outside this one specific practice of absorption, clearing the mind is simply not called for. In fact, we are actually called to practice with thinking. This is true in Buddhism, MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction, and MBCT (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy). Thoughts are a part of our human experience, and thus should be included in practice.
I’ve written about this a bit in my post Is It Normal to Think During Meditation? The short answer is yes. The brain is processing information and doing its job. It’s not abnormal, and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you nor your practice. Instead of treating it as such, we can actually make some effort to include it in our practice!
Being the Observer
With thoughts, we can play the observer. This is much like any other object of our awareness. We might observe the breath or the body in other meditations. In the same way, we can observe the thinking mind with equanimity.
In one teaching, the Buddha told his followers to specifically practice mindfulness of mental states. This teaching, known as the discourse on establishing mindfulness (https://oneminddharma.com/four-foundations-mindfulness/), contains the Buddha’s instructions on mindfulness. Thoughts and mental states are explicitly listed.
To play the observer, we watch the thinking mind and mental states without getting involved. You can watch the thoughts arise and pass, getting to know the habits and processes of the mind. As we do so, we familiarize ourselves with how the mind thinks, the way we create suffering, and the impermanent nature of thoughts.
Mindfulness Techniques to Work with Thoughts
There are many ways to work with thoughts during meditation. Some of these are more introductory or basic practices, while some are deeper Buddhist practices.
Labeling Content
This is one of the most basic and useful ways to approach thoughts during meditation. Labeling the content means labeling the thought as it arises. You can use any label you like, such as planning, analyzing, regret, daydreaming, etc. When you notice the mind thinking, you simply label the thought with a simple identifier.
You can do this in concentration practice when the mind wanders off, or in an open awareness practice. The labels are helpful because they give us the ability to recognize what is occurring without getting fully sucked in. You don’t need to listen to the thought deeply or get sucked in to know what the thought is.
Mental States
As mentioned, the third establishment of mindfulness in Buddhism is mindfulness of mental states. At first glance, this may seem the same as mindfulness of thoughts. However, a mental state is more of the overarching flavor of the mind or quality of mind rather than the individual thoughts.
You might think of thoughts as individual components of a soup, while the mental state is the overall quality such as flavor, richness, or temperature. For example, if we are thinking about what’s for dinner during meditation, the mental state might be labeled as craving or wanting. Thoughts of how somebody wronged you might fall under the mental state of anger.
Of course, mental states and thoughts are closely related. Often, awareness of mental states can help us see thoughts more clearly, and awareness of mental states can help us see thoughts more clearly. Again, you don’t need to find the perfect or “right” label. Use whatever feels true to your experience.
For more on working with mental states, I recommend checking out the episode of my podcast on the Third Foundation of Mindfulness here.
Feeling Tone
Another practice straight from the Buddha’s teachings on establishing mindfulness is noting the feeling tone. Feeling tone is not the feeling or emotion, but the raw nature of the experience. The feeling tone can either be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
To note the feeling tone of a thought, we can note the type of thinking (such as regret) and then note the feeling tone (perhaps unpleasant). This is a useful practice to begin to understand and know the nature of our experience around thoughts. Feeling tone pervades everything we experience, and can help us understand how we cling to or avert from certain experiences.
This is not exactly an advanced practice, but we should develop some mindfulness of the thoughts or mental states before adding on feeling tone recognition. We don’t want to overwhelm ourselves with things to do in meditation before we’ve trained the mind sufficiently.
Consistency
One of the best things we can do for our practice in general is to actually practice. Consistency is crucial when it comes to meditation. You can read my post How Often Should You Meditate as a Beginner? for more information, but the research strongly suggests consistency is what matters most when it comes to progress and results in meditation.
Even short sessions done regularly can help us cultivate the ability to calm the mind a bit, be mindful of the thoughts, and return to awareness. I know it can be hard to find the time to meditate, but remember consistency matters more than time, especially for beginners. Prioritize frequency rather than time meditating, and allow yourself some time to build your practice.
Focusing Elsewhere
If the thoughts just don’t seem to leave us alone, we might try focusing our attention elsewhere. This may be with phrases of loving-kindness (more on this in a moment), a body scan meditation, or feeling tone. Sometimes, whatever we are doing in a moment isn’t the most conducive to the cultivation of mindfulness.
Be willing to switch what you are doing. Often when I talk to students who struggle with thoughts, they are trying to focus on the breath. If you can’t keep focus on the breath in this moment, consider making something else your object of attention. You might find something more interesting to observe that helps hold your attention more easily.
Mindfulness of Breath
Mindfulness of breath coloquially means just tuning into the experience of breathing. In the Buddhist context, it refers to the practice of anapanasati. This Pali word literally translates to mindfulness of breathing, and is a set of 16 steps. It can be a bit much for people truly new to meditation, but the teaching does contain the way the Buddha taught to develop mindfulness
Working through the steps of anapanasati, one learns to observe the mind and mental thoughts with equanimity and acceptance. We cultivate the ability with a systematic practice to gain insight from and observe the mind rather than see it as an obstacle or problem.
The Five Methods
In one teaching, known as the teaching on relaxation of thoughts, the Buddha gave five methods for dealing with unwholesome thoughts. I do want to make sure to note that this teaching is specifically for dealing with thoughts that are unwholesome or unskillful.
Replacing the Thought - Similar to the concept in CBT, we replace the thought with a more wholesome one. For example, we might meet a thought of anger with a thought of loving-kindness. The teaching says it is like a carpenter using a small peg to knock out a larger peg that is stuck in a hole.
Scrutinizing the Drawbacks - This is rooted in the fourth establishment of mindfulness. We recognize the way these thoughts cause stress and suffering. The imagery used is of someobdy who loves jewelry having a snake carcass hung from their neck. The calling is to recognize the unwholesomeness.
Paying no Mind - We can try to simply ignore the unwholesome thought, not engaging with it. The story told to illustrate this is somebody who chooses to close their eyes rather than see something. This takes practice, but can build the ability to “close” our attention to the thoughts (perhaps by focusing on something else).
Recognizing and Calming Sources - Again related to the fourth establishment of mindfulness, we can recognize where the thoughts come from and work to calm them at their roots. The Buddha tells a story of a man walking quickly, then deciding to walk slowly. He then decides to stand still, sit, and lie down. In the same way, we can invite in calmness into the thinking mind bit by bit.
Constraining and Crushing - This one is often surprising to people, but the Buddha taught that when all else fails we can crush the unwholesome thoughts with wise effort. The imagery here is of a man literally crushing things down like we might do with unwholesome thoughts.
Loving-Kindness
My final tip is to practice some loving-kindness. You might do this in the moment, extending phrases of loving-kindness to yourself and your experience. You also may consider making loving-kindness a regular part of your practice.
When we practice loving-kindness regularly, we gain an ability to respond with more gentleness and patience to experience. The thoughts, judgements, and entire mental experience are easier to detach from, observe, and investigate.
I recommend checking out my Mindfulness for Beginners Guide for more tips, practices, answers to common questions, and more!