Questioner: Sadhguru, I wanted to know that when we are silent, still we feel that mind chattering which always bothers us. And our thought always shifts back to past and future imaginations which will not be any of output. How to get rid of it? Sadhguru: There are whole lot of thought about this thoughtlessness. Thoughtlessness, no mind, these kinds of terms have been propagated all over the place. And these terms have been badly misunderstood and made into all kinds of things and people are striving how to stop my mind. It took millions of years of evolution to get a mind of this kind of capability, Hmm? Isn’t it? Millions of years of tremendous amount of nature’s work that today you have a mind of this kind of scope and now you want to stop it. Why is it that you want to stop it? If your mind was constantly producing absolute pleasantness for you, would you think how to stop this mind? Would you? No. It’s producing lot of unpleasantness, that’s why you’re thinking of how to stop the mind. This is the first thing, wherever you go in the world, this has gone so much into people’s mind if you tell them, ‘You meditate,’ they say, ‘But Sadhguru, I am not able to stop my mind.’ I said, ‘That will happen only after you stop your kidneys, liver, heart; you stop all these things, then the mind will also stop. Do you want it to stop?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then why do you want the mind to stop? Why do you have such a horrible prejudice against the mind? You don’t mind if your heart is beating, you can meditate. You don’t mind if your liver is working, you can meditate. Your kidneys are functioning, you can mediate. If your brain functions, you can’t mediate? What is the problem? You seem to have something against intelligence, isn’t it? (Laughs) This is the conspiracy of the stupid against human intelligence that to meditate means your brain must be frozen. No. You don’t have to freeze your brain. We were looking at this yesterday itself. We will initiate you into Shambhavi; it’s a simple process. There are many ways to do it, this is one simple way, but it’s a powerful process. If you sit here, you will see your body is here, your mind is somewhere, who you are is somewhere else. Once there is space between you and the mind, then what the mind is not doing, what the mind is doing, is not even a issue. It is like you’re stuck in the traffic jam, you know you’re struggling through the traffic, that’s one experience. Suppose you are either standing on Chamundi Hill or you are floating in a hot air balloon and look down at all the traffic, very peacefully, traffic, hmm!’ (Laughter) (Gestures) Why? There’s a distance, isn’t it? When you’re in it, traffic is a different experience. From really high up there sitting in a hot air balloon you look down, you can’t even hear the sounds, looks wonderful traffic, isn’t it? Yes or no? Because there’s a distance. So once there’s a distance between you and your mind’s activity, mind is not a problem. Mind is a miracle, it is not a problem. And anyway, if thoughts are going continuously, if you’re having a mental diarrhea, obviously you ate some bad food, isn’t it? Yes? You’re having a physical diarrhea, you ate some bad food, isn’t it? If you’re having a mental diarrhea, you obviously consumed something wrong. What this wrong thing could be is, the moment you identify yourself with something that you are not, then you’re finished; your mind is a continuou runs. There is no other way. Do what you want, try as hard as you want, it is not going to stop. If you do not identify yourself with anything that you are not, you know how to be with everything, you know how to use everything, but you’re not identified with it, then you will see if you sit here, simply mind will be like this – (Gestures) if you want to use it you can use it, otherwise it’ll be like this. Right now your hands are like this oh, you’re holding it tied up because it’ll go all over, is it? No, you can keep it like this. (Gestures) You can keep it like this; you can keep it like this. (Gestures) When you want to use it, you can use it. So it’s a useful instrument. Suppose your hands become like this (Gestures), you know some people have become like this? Yes or no? If it becomes like this, you will become ridiculous, isn’t it? If it happens to your mind, also you’re equally ridiculous. It is just that you are living in the comfort that nobody else can see it, but people can see it. If they watch you closely enough, they can see it, isn’t it? And whether they can see it or not, that’s not the point. The point is, the most important faculty of your life is out of control; it doesn’t matter whether they can see it or not, that’s not the issue, the issue is, the most important faculty in your life is out of control, doing its own rubbish all the time, not doing what you want it to do. So if you have to be freed from this ailment, you should stop eating bad food. Wrong food or bad food means you are identifying yourself with things that you are not. If you sit here, if you are not identified with this and with this, then you will see, everything is just fine. Then your mind will do what you want it to do, otherwise it’ll simply hang there and that’s how it should be. Mind should not be telling its own stories all the time. It should tell the story that you want it to tell, isn’t it? Otherwise it’s quite a nuisance.

100 thoughts on “How Do You Stop the Mind’s Chatter? – Sadhguru”

  40. This is so well put.. Just gave my mind another facet. Thank you for giving the right food for thought Guruji.. I wish I could touch your feet. Thanks again for the logical explanation.

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  51. You're not supposed to get rid of it. You're supposed to rein it. You have to breath. If you want to stop the world, just breath.

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  52. I wonder what does the first teaching of Yoga sutra β€œYogah chittavritti nirodah” – Yoga is resisting the waves of mind – mean? Why does he say β€œwhy do you want to stop your mind.”

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  55. If we stay in a air balloon distancing ourself from traffic don't we get bored in the empty sky with no people
    Cause after all human is a social animal

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  59. ΰ€§ΰ€¨ΰ₯ΰ€―ΰ€΅ΰ€Ύΰ€¦ΰ₯ ΰ€Έΰ€§ΰ₯ΰ€—ΰ₯ΰ€°ΰ₯ ΰ€œΰ₯€

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  68. Sadhguru i have watched your these videos and i got all the answers i was searching for but Sadhguru don't where my mind is stuck all the time. Please tell what could be the problem and solution.

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  85. but yesterday i watched a video where they told that if our mind will continuously imagine something it will weaken our memory and I found it related as now I can't even remember small little things?

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  86. Shut your eyes and simply observe your thoughts, the voice in your head, the mental images, and do this for a while and see what happens.

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  87. When I study a Night before of my exam.. althose concepts get repeated in mind, when I tend to sleep… Intially I thought mind disturbs my sleep, but nope it didn't disturb me it helped me to write my exams so good,, it relates many concepts together n I successfully finished my exams with one go n topper of the batch.. I just study just before exam n I don't listen to any classess

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  90. So, in summary, you stop your mind's chattering by keeping a distance to unpleasant thoughts and by not feeding your mind with crap information (i.e. bad food)?

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  93. Yay! Our mind is meant and grown to think, why stop it? That is one of our biggest resistance within ourselves. Let it ride the waves, lets it float on the clouds and shine with the sun. I love, why do you want your mind to stop? KOSHAS! It’s all about checking in and honouring the koshas, let the mind keep moving, its what its meant to do. Gently invite breathe between the identity of the mind and let it play with living curiosity and gentle observance. Namasgoddess; she achieve studio

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