Can we have a thoughtless mind?
So is it possible to have a thoughtless mind so in the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna talks about the Samadhi state of Samadhi in 6.20 to 6.23 he talks about the stage of Yatra Uparamate Chittam Chitta is consciousness the material reality of consciousness Uparamate it seizes it just stops all material movements in the mind stop by the practice of yoga one comes to the stage of Nirodha so in the yogic analysis of the states of the mind there are various stages that are described so there is Kshipta there is Mugdha there is Kshipta there is Vikshipta there is Nirodha there is Ekagrata and there is Samadhi or Jagrata whatever it is so the point is that Mudha means that person's mind is just wandering anywhere and everywhere and just don't know what is doing sitting like a daze that's Mugdha so Kshipta means the mind is agitated the mind is just deluded and agitated I want this I want that I want that it's agitated and there is Vikshipta Vikshipta means I'm trying to concentrate when the mind is going elsewhere Ekagrata Ekagrata means mind is concentrated beyond that is Nirodha Nirodha means the mind just stops when they say the mind stops what does it mean? so many yogis many traditions especially those traditions those wisdom traditions which do not have a personal conception of God they consider making the mind thoughtless as the perfection because they consider that thoughts are what agitate the mind and thoughts are what cause dissatisfaction because thoughts give rise to desires and when desires are unsatisfied we become dissatisfied so they say that the perfection of the mind is just become free from all thoughts actually however in the yogic ladder this state of Nirodha of having the mind's material movement stopping that is actually a prelude to Bhakti prelude to directing the mind towards Krishna so Yoga's Chitta Vritti Nirodha the Patanjali Yoga Sutra is defined Yoga means Chitta Vritti Chitta is the material movement of consciousness that stops Chitta Vritti Nirodha same word as Nirodha stop the movement but there is a real light that the soul has so it's a little technical so consider that a person is sitting in a room and he's watching TV and on TV that person is watching a horror movie person getting horrified trembling, sweating, horrifying palpitating and then the mother is the child is there watching the horror movie is getting horrified and a mother is there nothing to be horrified you're safe you're comfortable so now what has happened the child's consciousness is caught in the TV now as long as the child's consciousness is caught in the TV the child will get agitated but if the child looks away from the TV the TV turns if the mother just turns off the TV child looks at the mother and says I am safe I'm comfortable I'm not in danger so similarly the soul is distinct from the body Purusha Prakriti Stho Hi soul is situated on the body but the soul is different the soul's consciousness is projected into the world through the mind and when this consciousness is projected into the world through the mind the soul suffers in various ways little pleasure comes but a lot of suffering also comes the soul starts watching the movie thinking it is a romantic movie the soul finds it's a horror movie so we think we'll get pleasure but we get trouble now in the yogic paths in the ashtang yoga and in the buddhist traditions the idea is just turn off the TV stop seeing things then the agitation will go but actually after we turn on the TV there is a real life also so our purpose is to move towards that real life so the Atma it is Sat Chit Ananda so the Chit is consciousness so consciousness is the innate faculty of the soul and consciousness cannot be wished away so the mind to be conscious means to have thoughts to have emotions to have intentions so they cannot be wished away but they can be directed away from the realm of illusion to the realm of reality so that means so technically speaking Chit is the faculty of the soul for consciousness but suppose say when the child is watching the TV not just watching the TV suppose there is some kind of control by which that there is a there's a pipe which directs the child's eyes which covers from goes from the child's face to the TV a child can't see anything else child sees only the TV so like that our consciousness is caught in the body so when you become purified when you become liberated then we can free our consciousness from the body and we can perceive at a spiritual level so the perfection of consciousness is not to become thoughtless is not to stop thinking but it is rather to stop thinking about illusion and to start thinking about reality the highest spiritualists their thoughts are filled with Krishna so in the transitional state temporarily it may be that some people can just stop all thoughts and they will feel some peace by that but actually we cannot in an absolute sense stop thoughts because even the even the thought that I should stop all thoughts is also a thought isn't it? so we can't we can't become thoughtless because thoughtlessness is also a thought that's why it is not absolutely possible but we can decrease the brittle infatuation of the thoughts that will give us some peace but real joy will come when we direct our thoughts to a session in the process of bhakti we focus not on stopping our thoughts but rather redirecting our thoughts to a session.