Achieving a quiet mind may seem elusive, but it's perfectly alright if you haven't reached that state yet. Quieting the mind can be a bit like the famous phrase "Don't think of an elephant." The more you try, the harder it becomes. However, what if the goal itself is the problem? What if attempting to still your thoughts only engages the very part of the mind you're trying to settle down?
Fortunately, there is a better way to approach this. It all revolves around where you place your attention. Let's clarify what we mean by "attention." The remarkable thing about attention is that it is devoid of content. You don't need to actively think about a candle to focus your attention on it.
Of course, when you start looking at something, thoughts naturally arise, mostly in the form of definitions and associations. But before those thoughts emerge, it's simply a candle. Can you hold something in your attention without thinking about it? It's an intriguing exercise that I encourage you to try.
So why should you engage in this exercise or attempt to do it? Well, it's a quick way to quiet your thoughts. And when you succeed in silencing your thoughts, you'll discover a profound sense of peace and tranquility—a rare and valuable benefit indeed.
If you've ever experienced this, you know the incredible feeling when the noise in your head suddenly subsides. Your entire body relaxes, your blood flow improves, your shoulders drop, and you feel at ease and mentally poised.
In the Yoga Sutras, the Hindu philosopher Patanjali describes Yoga as "the intentional stopping of the spontaneous activity of the mind stuff." This immediately tells us that we need to engage our willpower. Achieving a quiet mind is something we must actively do. We have to hold our attention steadily on one thing.
Patanjali also advises us to pay attention to our breath because the effort involved in maintaining our attention on a single object can cause tension. We want our effort to be deliberate yet effortless. Throughout the process, we strive to remain as relaxed as possible.
Focusing your attention on an external object is an excellent exercise. It teaches you how to control your awareness. A mind that races through the conceptual landscape often generates emotional and mental discord, leading to anxiety. By quieting the mind, everything becomes serene and calm. Time seems to stand still, collapsing into the present moment where it remains.
Our minds are naturally inclined toward tasks. Instead of seeing a hammer, we see the act of "nailing." We only recognize it as an object called a hammer when someone asks us to find one in the kitchen drawer or when we organize the garage workbench. Even then, we first perceive the tool's purpose and then infer the name "hammer."
In most cases, this is how our minds function. We are constantly moving from point A to point B, implying that we always have a goal in mind. When people say that mindfulness doesn't require us to "do" anything, they mean that we should be aware of the thing itself without automatically inferring its purpose and assigning a name. This is how we intentionally stop the spontaneous activity of the mind.
But why is this necessary? Our minds operate in predictive mode. If we interpret everything we see as either an affordance (tool) or a hindrance (obstacle), we must predict how it will affect us. This predictive mode helps our bodies navigate the world. By looking past the coffee table and effortlessly going around it, it becomes an integral part of the action of going outside. This efficient use of the brain's energy reduces the cognitive process to a single step. Although each segment of the process is distinct, they blend into a unified action automatically.
While the brain's predictive mode saves energy, it also has drawbacks. We sometimes fail to notice what's right in front of us. Instead, the brain fills in the gaps with assumptions or stock footage. That's why it can be challenging to recall other objects in a room. We only see what is necessary for the current task, which helps us maintain focus and avoid distractions. As long as the room's layout generally matches our mental model of it, we're more likely to perceive the model and not the room itself.
Interestingly, this is how performance magicians deceive us through misdirection. They divert our attention away from the trick and allow our brains to fill in the missing information. They exploit our brain's predictive model. It's also how people can get away with telling big lies. As long as they never admit to lying and repeat the falsehood often enough, our brains use cognitive dissonance to protect their predictive model, prioritizing it over what our eyes can clearly see. This is akin to the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Meditation can help us become more aware of what is truly in front of us and less influenced by the brain's predictive model of what should be. This is why animals find shell games so effortless (you can find examples on YouTube). Their brains have less of a predictive function. By interrupting our brain's automatic and energy-saving autocomplete function, we collapse time into the present moment. Our minds become quiet, and we begin to see the world as it truly is, unencumbered by assumptions.
So, will you ever achieve a quiet mind? As long as you're solely focused on achieving that state, the answer is no. It may not happen for an extended period. Instead, redirect your attention toward holding it on an object without allowing your brain to free-associate or assign names. This exercise is meant to strengthen your willpower and condition your brain to pay closer attention to what's right in front of you. Moreover, it empowers you to better detect misdirection and outright lies, especially the significant ones.
Remember, your spiritual journey is a process, and experiencing a quiet mind is just one aspect of it. Embrace the exercises, cultivate your willpower, and explore the depths of your awareness. By doing so, you can make a positive impact on the world and contribute to the well-being of all living beings.
I find Eckhart Tolle's comment that "there is no fulfillment in the future" extremely clarifying how I used hope and faith like a gambler that someday my cravings would end. I find your term "predictive" equally clarifying and de-traumatizing- as a gentle nudge of will far more pleasant than wrestling with hope and faith. Why they call these things virtues stymies me.