It has come to my attention that many of you are trying to stop your thoughts, control your thoughts. You cannot really do this.
Trying to stop your thoughts, as Ramana Maharshi says, is like a thief becoming a policeman to catch the thief.
In other words, the thief that becomes the policeman will not catch the thief, because he’s a thief himself. And so it is with our minds.
When we use the mind to stop the thoughts, the mind will not stop the thoughts at all, because the mind wants to go on living.
Stopping the thoughts is annihilating the mind, and the mind does not wish to be annihilated.
The mind wants to live on, to fill you full of nonsense, superstitions.
Therefore we do not try to stop thoughts.
*** What do we really do? …
We do absolutely nothing.
There’s really nothing you have to do to make the thoughts cease.
Always remember when you do things according to the sadhanas you’ve learned, the spiritual exercises you’ve practiced, the meditations, the yoga, this will make you free for a couple of moments, and then the thoughts will come back to you with full force, knocking you over.
You cannot stop the mind or control the mind with spiritual practice.
Again, you cause the thoughts to cease by doing absolutely nothing, by being your self.
Robert Adams