In this article, Sat discusses how to use Stop meditation to deal with repetitive and nagging thoughts.
Sat: Whenever repeated thoughts come at you, in any form, you must do Stop Meditation! Regardless of the appearance that the repeated thoughts take, whether they are in the form of upsetting thoughts, worry, anxiety, anger, stress, etc., sit down and don’t allow your attention to drift upwards. Do this by reminding yourself that you must sit in the silence without reading the thoughts or allowing your attention to move. Each time a thought comes to steal your attention, you calmly bring your attention back to the region of your heart.
Practicing this meditation is analogous to the story of the child who gets our attention with each one of his cries. After a while, the child learns that just by crying for no reason at all, he can get your attention and have you go to him. Now, if we don’t pay any attention to his cries, if we don’t look at him and we walk past his room without even looking in, eventually he will get used to this new way and quiet down.
As I have said before, silence and being quiet with respect to the thoughts is very important, because we have learned and were taught that the thoughts have power. This power came about because we felt weakness in the face of the thoughts. How did it happen? We either tried to push them away, showed interest in them, ran away from them, or decided to get rid of them. But Stop Meditation isn’t doing any of the above. It simply means that we do not give any importance to the thoughts. We don’t gradually push them aside, we don’t pull them in or push them away and we don’t converse with them, because often times without even realizing it, we are in constant conversation with our thoughts. Stop Meditation means not reading the thoughts and not giving them any importance; just “be,” “be,” “be.” Instead of being sick or weak, being strong or healthy, or being “this” or “that” just “be,” until your true existence or being, which is Divinity, takes care of being “this” or “that,” meaning “It” announces who you truly are and what you should do. This is healing; it is healing for the body, the emotions and the thoughts, because the healing center for all things is “that source of being.” The further we get from it, the weaker we become physically and mentally.
The thoughts are not separate from the images, meaning that if you identify with the thoughts, the images accompany them. In the beginning, each thought is just one thought and it is very subtle. When we give that thought individuality or personality, it also takes shape and form. And when we believe it, it gains power. When we go along with it, it becomes our companion and when we allow it to be our companion, after a while it converts into a repeated thought and then one thought becomes two, two thoughts become four and so on. In this manner, they create a battlefield, and you will be marching along with your own army of many soldiers, composed of repeated thoughts.
Now you can understand the value of Stop Meditation. This practice lessens the number of soldiers, takes the power from the thoughts, stops you from believing the thoughts and going with them, drops the forms, and finally the whole mind becomes empty and returns to its original state.
What is very important is that you don’t rush when it comes to mastering the art of Stop meditation by saying to yourself, “Why won’t I wake up? Why am I like this, etc.?” Because by doubting or rushing, we are once again marching along with the soldiers. With this wisdom in mind, go about your daily lives and allow Divinity to express itself within your being as It sees fit. Fighting and struggling has never led to anyone’s awakening.
From Sat’s book, "Silence of the Mind” (currently being translated from Farsi to English)