Obstacles to Thoughtless Awareness and Tips

If you’re having trouble achieving thoughtless awareness or remaining in thoughtless awareness for a significant period of time, here are some tips that will help you overcome common obstacles and improve the quality of your thoughtless awareness state.

As you’re meditating…

Despite the power of the Kundalini energy, it may not be easy sometimes to establish thoughtless awareness consistently and for lengthy periods of time. Training your attention can help. Teach yourself to simply observe your thoughts during meditation and allow them to pass by, rather than reacting emotionally to them or allowing your mind to engage with them.

If the quality of thoughtless awareness is poor during your meditation, then you may follow the steps below, in addition to the usual Sahaja meditation technique of raising your energy and focusing your attention on the top of the head.

1. Place both your hands on or towards the ground, focus on the first energy center and quietly, within yourself, repeat several times: “Inner Energy, please make me innocent.” This forms the foundation for your meditation.
2. Then as you try to focus your attention on the top of your head and get into the thoughtless awareness state, repeat several times: “Inner Energy, please grant me the state of Thoughtless Awareness.” (You may also substitute the word “Nirvichara” for “thoughtless awareness.” Nirvichara, in Sanskrit represents thoughtless, the pivotal state of consciousness necessary for meditation as explained in ancient scriptures.)
3. If you’re still having thoughts, repeat the following several times: “Formless all-pervading energy, you are the supreme doer, please let my ego recede. I am not the doer.” The ego within us can greatly hamper our thoughtless awareness state, hence this affirmation.
4. Finally, repeating the following can help you settle down into deep meditation and thoughtless awareness, “O feminine all-pervading power, you are the power of evolution, the power of action and the power of desire in the Universe. You are the supreme source of the inner energy within me. Please grant me the state of meditation at my Sahasrara (7^th energy center).”

The goal of these techniques is to reach the thoughtless awareness state by activating specific components and powers of the subtle energy system by connecting your inner energy to the all-pervading universal energy.

In our subtle energy system, the liver represents the seat of our attention, thus keeping your liver healthy has a significant impact on your thoughtless awareness state. Excessive stress on the liver causes it to overheat and ultimately impacts the quality of thoughtless awareness. If you’re mentally and/or physically overactive and it’s causing difficulties in achieving thoughtless awareness, try placing ice packs on your liver for about 30 minutes at any point during the day to cool your heated liver. You’ll find that the steadiness of your attention and the quality of thoughtless awareness will gradually improve.

Also, a liver detox diet or a diet that reduces the stress level on the liver can help restore your attention.

Perhaps the most important contributor to high-quality thoughtless awareness is developing the trait of forgiveness, which incidentally is the trait associated with the Agnya chakra or 6th energy center. If you’re able to forgive people, move on, and let go of past situations that are provoking constant thoughts and emotional reactions in your mind, the quality, purity and depth of thoughtless awareness can be greatly enhanced over time. Even on a day-to-day basis, just being able to let go and forgive will help you achieve higher quality thoughtless awareness.

Lastly, acknowledging the greater force of the universe, being one with it, and surrendering to it will help you both achieve and enhance the quality of thoughtless awareness. In a way, this also serves as a method for achieving egolessness within. When we can be humble, we’re able to recognize that the thoughts and reactions that are impeding thoughtless awareness are emanating from our ego and superego. We become better able to emotionally detach from the sources of these thoughts and reactions.