Over 30 years ago I discovered my clear quiet mind on a backpacking trip out West. In this article, I share four simple cues you can use to instantly find the deep inner peace of your clear quiet mind.
In 1984, I had just graduated from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and I was inspired to take a backpacking trip. I was definitely a city-boy, hadn't done anything in the way of backpacking, and had never been west of the Mississippi.
For the month of August that year, I journeyed by car and on foot through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming with a friend. We explored the Canyonlands, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone National Park. We spent hours, day after day, in nature, without any TV, radio, news, music, or entertainment. The natural landscape was our primary stimulation.
What struck me most on this trip was the clear spacious sky (you can see for miles in that part of the country), the silence, and the stillness. I absorbed these three qualities deep into my body during that month.
To this day, I recall quite distinctly what I felt as I sat on the plane flying home. I had an overwhelming feeling of contentment. I was completely peaceful, my mind was still, and I felt no sense of worry or struggle. I felt completely free and at ease.
Out of this transcendent experience, three things became clear:
1) I discovered such a state is possible.
2) I found I needed to take a break from my busyness to arrive at this state.
3) I wanted to find ways to reproduce it, deepen it, and expand it. I wanted to cultivate this state as a reliable baseline to live from and return to whenever I need.
This led me on a quest of learning, practicing, and teaching in the disciplines of T'ai Chi, Qigong, Reiki, meditation, Centering Prayer, and other mind-body disciplines. From these years of study, practice, and teaching, I gathered specific techniques that reliably generate deep peace and calm clarity.
The first of these techniques is a set of four cues you can use to have an instant experience of your clear quiet mind. These cues give you a glimpse of what shifting to this perspective feels like, so you can get acquainted with it. You can build on these brief moments moving forward and cultivate a strong and unshakeable perspective of calm clarity that you can return to anytime you need or desire.
You can do each of the following techniques in just a few seconds or up to a few minutes-whichever you prefer. As you try them out, a few words of advice: see if you can let go of trying too hard or questioning what's happening. See if it's possible to let go of preconceptions and be open to what you can discover. Don't worry if you're doing these techniques exactly right. If one doesn't work for you, just move on to the next one.
Four Simple Cues to Find Your Clear Quiet Mind
1. Stillness: feel the stillness underneath all movements in the center of your brain.
Focus into the center of your brain-a point between your ears, directly under the crown point of your head, and halfway between your forehead and the base of your skull. You can imagine sitting in a comfortable chair there.
Once you are seated in the center of your brain, imagine and feel "stillness" there. Imagine sitting there as still as you can be. There is no thought in the center of your brain to disturb you or make you think you need to keep moving to get things done, so it's easy to imagine sitting still there. Go ahead and give this a try for about 15 seconds now.
Imagine and feel yourself sitting in stillness in the center of your brain...
Did your mind become still for a moment?
Let's add Cue #2.
2. Silence: listen to the silence underneath all sounds in the center of your brain.
Sit in the center of your brain again and see if it's possible to listen to the silence underneath the sounds there for about 15 seconds. Listen to silence in the center of your brain...
How did this feel? Did your mind become quiet for a moment?
Now, let's add Cue #3.
3. Space: focus into open, clear space in the center of your brain.
Imagine the center of your brain as open, clear, and spacious. Go ahead and try this for another 15 seconds. Sit in the open clear space in the center of your brain...
Are you getting a feel for what it's like to have a clear quiet mind-if only for a few brief moments?
Let's add Cue #4.
4. Who is having this experience?
Sit in the center of your brain again and ask "Who is having this experience?" Go ahead, give it a try and see what you discover. Ask yourself, "Who is having this experience?"
For a few moments, did your mind go blank? Did your thoughts stop, for just a second or two? Interesting, isn't it? When I do this, it makes me smile, as if I just discovered a secret treasure.
If you'd like to experiment with these four cues a little longer, and get more familiar with them, go ahead and spend a few minutes practicing them now. What happens when you sit in the center of your brain, feel the still, silent, space there, and ask, "Who is having this experience?"
As you practice these four cues together, over time, they'll blend into one experience of still, silent, spacious awareness. If you prefer, you can also use them individually, especially if you find one of them that really works well for you. I think you'll find this very relaxing.
These four cues come from my book "Clear Quiet Mind." They are just a taste of what the deep inner peace of your clear quiet mind is like. To learn how to deepen, live from, and return to this peaceful state of mind anytime you need, see the link below.
https://ezinearticles.com/?4-Cues-to-Find-the-Deep-Inner-Peace-of-Your-Clear-Quiet-Mind&id=9788583
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