Is Quieting The Mind Enough?
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We all think we know what meditation is supposed to feel like.
Quiet. Calm. Less stress.
But what if that’s not the destination? What if that's only the doorway ?!
So let me ask the real question: is quieting the mind enough?
Only if your goal is simply to reduce stress. That’s valuable, of course,
But if you have ever recognized a longing within yourself to know why you're here, to see the truth of your own existence, to come face to face with the divine - then the answer is no.
I’m one of the few voices saying this plainly: no. Quieting your mind is never going to reveal the ultimate depth of your soul to you.
In fact, you aren't even able to begin to pull back the curtain until you learn the single most crucial inner skill: the ability to stop the mind.
Not just stop it for a heartbeat between breaths, or a brief moment of transcendence between mantra repetitions, or catching a pause as you engage in mindfulness. It is when the mind can be held in a stopped state, at will. And in some lineages — including the one I was trained in — mastery is described as the ability to hold this stopped state for long stretches of time, even hours. Not as a requirement, but as an act of freedom.
For a minute - imagine that! having the freedom to not think.
Can you glimpse what that says about the mind’s true capacity?! It is far, far greater than we’ve been taught to believe.
That is when the underlying nature of reality really begins to be revealed.
If you look honestly at the yogic literature the message is consistent. Listen to these:
Ramana Maharshi said: when there are thoughts, it is distraction when there are no thoughts. It is meditation.
Gurumayi Chidvilasanda said "the mind is amazing because it thinks. But when it stops thinking, that's when it is really amazing because it is then that we know everything."
Nisargadatta Maharaj said: "as long as you are a beginner certain formalized meditations of prayers may be good for you. But for a seeker of reality, there is only one meditation: the rigorous refusal to harbor thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation.
Swami Muktananda said: " Meditation means total stillness of mind - a silent, empty mind. In this stillness you go into the inner Self. When you get into that state of silence, that is the truest meditation. In real meditation, the mind becomes totally still. That is the highest Consciousness, the state of,Truth. The highest meditation is that where there is no agitation, no passion, an no thought. Merge into that.
And my teacher, Mark Griffin said: "the stopping of the mind is a spiritual event of unparalleled importance. Until the mind is stopped, you can think of everything that is going on in your spiritual life as leading up to the process of the stopping of the mind. Once the mind stops, everything changes."
And perhaps the clearest expression of this instruction is the very beginning of the Yoga Sutras by the great sage Patanjali over 2000 years ago: He said:
Yogas Chittah Vritti Nirodah.
Which translates as yoga is the extinguishing of the thought-activity of the mind. This is how he begins the whole treatise. And this positioning is important to appreciate. Stopping the mind isn’t at the end of the Sutras, revealed only as the culmination of a lifetime of practice. He puts it first. (*OK, technically it’s the second verse, but the first verse of the sutras is simply the opening “and now the study of yoga”).
Stopping the mind is the entry point. It's the prerequisite for making true progress towards yoga, union with the divine. Just as I said earlier:
You can't begin to pull back the curtain until you've learned the single most essential skill in navigating the inner pathways: the ability to stop the mind.
What is Patanjali's second sutra?
tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe-‘vasthānam -
Then the Seer abides in his own essential nature.
When you are abiding in your own essential nature, as he puts it - that's when that longing you've had within yourself to know why you're here, to see the truth of your own existence, to come face to face with the divine - starts to be fulfilled, and the meaning of life starts to become apparent.
If this is the universal teaching, why does it seem I’m one of the only voices saying "No! quiet is not enough! Aim higher. Learn to stop the mind."
Right? You seldom here this talked about and even more rarely taught, I think because:
1) the word meditation has become synonymous with simply dropping stress or getting quieter. There are so many apps for 10 minute meditations, or 5 minutes are done at the end of a hatha yoga class. And when we hear people say ‘"I jog, that’s my meditation" or "I knit, that’s my meditation." - it's clear that the word meditation has become diluted and watered down in our culture.
2) if you encounter the idea of stopping your mind, your first reaction is probably to think you can't do it, so you run it through a mental filter and begin watering it down to something you think you can do: quiet the mind. We all do that, we aim lower than our soul's true aspirations time and time again.
3) The community of meditation teachers don't offer this training because it's a goal that can't be paired with getting fast wins. It doesn't make for great youtube shorts. It doesn't even make for good weekend retreats. There are many quick ways to quiet the mind, and they make easy content and offer teachers of meditation much faster wins.
Whereas learning to stop the mind is a skill that requires a serious investment of time and dedication, not to mention comprehensive training, like I've set up here at my school Stop The Mind Meditation.
and 4) In truth, much of the technology for stopping the mind is held closely by only a few masters, behind the walls of ancient lineages. I had studied and practiced meditation intensely for over 30 years before I was introduced to this level of knowledge. And then it was just because I had the great good fortune to meet my teacher Mark who - as a westerner himself - was able to translate these ancient teachings into language that I was able to understand and synthesize. He would occasionally admit "I’m one of the few who will tell you how it is.".
And now that he's gone, I've gotten clear direction from him that it's time to bring these teachings forward in a way that is more widely accessible.
🙏 I don’t take this responsibility lightly. I carry this teaching with deep respect and I offer it simply to help those who truly long for the deeper path, who genuinely wish, as Patanjali says, to reside in their own essential nature.
In the next episodes of this podcast, I'll share more about what stopping the mind feels like and what the path to learning how to do this looks like. I invite you to subscribe to the podcast seeds of awakening and come visit my website stopthemind.com to explore the course syllabus.
Acknowledgment of Sources
The quotations shared here from teachers and sacred traditions are offered for study, reflection, and the transmission of wisdom. Short excerpts are presented under fair-use allowances for educational commentary. All teachings remain the rightful work of their original authors. Image of Sanskrit text: Patanjali Yoga Sutras manuscript, National Library of India (via Wikimedia Commons)
