Chitta Vritti, Thoughtlessness, and the Mind.

I’ve written about mindfulness and meditation a few times before on my blog, but meditation is such a diverse topic. I find I am constantly discovering more and more about the practice, and I’m always excited to share what I’ve learned!

Something I have been exploring lately is the idea of Chitta Vritti, often translated to mind chatter, or monkey brain. I would say most people experience this mind chatter regularly in their everyday lives. It’s hard not to when we live in such a sensory-driven society. While having thoughts is totally normal, why is it that we try to suppress them when we meditate?

This idea of having absolutely no thoughts when meditating is a little daunting. It’s hard to stop thinking completely, and it can seem impossible when you sit down and try. This is why so many people are drawn away from meditation, or feel like they’re really bad at it.

Thoughts are normal though, 110% n o r m a l. Sadghuru explains thoughts and mediation in a very practical way, and I love it! He says that our thoughts are the result of years and years of evolution within our brains. The fact that we have thoughts, and that we are conscious beings is a gift. Meditation is not meant to backtrack this gift, but rather allows us to observe this gift through the human experience.

So when Patanjali writes in the Yoga Sutras Chitta Vritti Nirodaha often translating to “stilling the fluctuations of the mind,” what does he mean? If thoughts are normal and we shouldn’t suppress them, why are we trying to find stillness with them? What does having “still thoughts” even consist of?

It all seems so elusive, and that’s partly because it is. Meditation, in general, can be an elusive practice. Still, we can achieve a state of liner thought, or stillness so to speak when it comes to our mind. “Stilling” in this sense doesn’t necessarily mean abolishing, all it means is that we see our thoughts without running away with them. We observe, but we don’t ignore them, and we don’t attach to our thoughts either. We simply watch what thoughts pop in our head without labeling them, and allow our thoughts to come and go as they please. By watching rather than attaching, we start to see the dynamic nature of being human and recognize that our thoughts are not what create our being. It is what is watching our thoughts, our consciousness, that is heeding this reality. Our thoughts are simply a tool to navigate our experience.

The reason we meditate is to recognize this separation of self and thought. We meditate so we can step into our true power as conscious beings. When we are able to observe our thoughts without attaching to them, we are able to choose how we react to them. Our reaction, our choice moving forward, is how we shape the world around us.

So the next time you sit down and meditate, instead of trying to stop thinking, simply watch your mind as thoughts come and go. If you feel strongly about a thought, try not to ponder that feeling too long. Observe the emotion you’ve attached to your thought, and how that emotion feels in your body. Understanding how our thoughts affect our physical and emotional being helps deepen our awareness of our experience as conscious beings. Finding awareness within ourselves and the world around us is one of the many reasons we practice the philosophies of yoga and meditation.