quieting the mind

In order to make useful decisions or to have enough information from yourself or others you need to quiet your mind at some point or at many points. There are many techniques for doing this. Some people walk along the ocean or in the mountains or deserts. Some people jog and some do Hatha Yoga or meditate. Others have their own useful methods for getting out of the way of making useful decisions in their lives.

Often, when people makes plans they are not considering how many changes can take place in their lives. People are born, people die, people move, you change, you grow up and grow older etc.

So, often plans cannot work because you didn't have enough information to be able to make any plan work.

Sometimes you can make financial plans but even then unexpected things can result to change everything.

So, quieting the mind and learning to be adaptable is the way basically to survive almost anything in your life successfully.

One of the obstacles to clear thoughts and realizations are attachments and aversions. Mentally at least, an easy way to go beyond this is to "Search for the source of one's thoughts".

This is an exercise to basically allow the mind to throw up everything good and bad and everything neutral out of you and to leave the mind clear and pristine once again.

So, you allow every thought to go rushing by you without valuing it or holding onto it while you Search for the source of your thoughts. You stay so focused on searching for the source of your thoughts that you let everything good, bad and indifferent fly by to cleanse your mind of all thoughts just like you might throw up your lunch if it was bad to cleanse your stomach.

In doing this for a period of time you become more clear in your thoughts because you aren't trying to repress any thought. You are just releasing all thoughts sort of like throwing up your whole mind so you can be at peace once again like a little innocent child.

So, in this way you allow you mind to be free and unfettered the way it once was as a child so you start fresh as a renewed or new being through your meditations.