The Monk Who Was 117
I've been to India many times. And on several of those trips I went to the Maha Kumbh Mela, a festival held every 12 years that draws millions of pilgrims.
In 2001, I made a camp at the Maha Kumbh Mela for Westerners. It was called Jagashanti Camp, and about a hundred Westerners came to stay there with me.
It was at that Kumbh Mela that I met an ancient teacher. He was 117 years old. And he taught me a practice to clear my thoughts.
First he said to just breathe and close my eyes. Then he told me to imagine I was looking out of a large window that stretched across my whole view. He said the window was a bit dirty. So he told me to wipe it off with a cloth. Dusting it very slowly, back and forth, starting along the top, then working my way down. Going slowly, from the top to the bottom.
I was so concentrated on this task in my mind that I just fell into the state of no mind, easily. I guess it was about 15 minutes later when he said to open my eyes. And I was brought back to the normal mind state. It was amazing to feel that silence, in the middle of a festival of millions.
He suggested that I do it for an hour every day. Needless to say, it was very hard to do it for an hour every day without his help.
But years later, when I started to practice no mind more regularly, I discovered the effects it has. My intuitive senses were sharper. I was able to connect with my inner peace more easily. And as I was doing energy healing and muscle testing, I started to feel the answers. Just before the muscle testing answers came to me, I'd feel them. It really opened up my intuition, beyond muscle testing.
I learned the no mind practice from my mindfulness teacher, Andy Shaw, in his book Creating a Bug Free Mind. Andy says he didn't invent the method, he just found it helpful. And when I met that teacher in India, I learned that Andy was right about not inventing it.
The way I do it, you visualize that you're standing there in the middle of your mind with your hands up, like a traffic cop. No, no, no, stop. No, not even that. No, wait. Everybody stop. You stop. You stop. Everybody stop.
And you get to a point where your thoughts stop, and you hold it, just for about 15 seconds. It's really hard, just for 15 seconds. But once you start doing this, if you practice it each day, maybe a couple of times a day, you can extend it to maybe 30 seconds.
Now, you don't actually know it's 30 seconds, because you're not in your mind. But it's the idea that you're the one in control. You're deciding right now, nope, stop, we're taking a break. It's like rebooting your thinking, and then starting fresh.
Something to try
Close your eyes, and imagine a big window in front of you, a little dusty. Take a cloth and wipe it very slowly, back and forth, from the top down to the bottom. Or stand in the middle of your mind like a traffic cop, put your hands up, and say, "Everybody stop." See if you can hold that quiet for 15 seconds.
It gives your mind a break, and a little room for your intuition to come through. You can try it right now, or later when you have a quiet minute.
Some of you have already started on this path, and for some of you it's brand new. Either way is okay. Just try it and see.
If you want to know more, come check out my free Truth Whispering class. I teach it once a month, and you're welcome to come. And I tell the story of the 117-year-old monk in my third book, Truth Whispering Part III: Living the Truth.