“When the Sage thinks of something, it is like a fan that has been pulled out of the socket. It’s still turning, but there’s no power. The power is dead. The power has been cut off. In other words, the thoughts of a saint are dead. The thoughts of the Sage have no power, no power whatsoever. This is why it is said, a Sage does not think, a Sage has no thoughts. What it really means is that the sage’s thoughts are dead. When the thoughts are dead, you live in absolute reality. You live in pure awareness. When the thoughts are dead you live in sat-chit-ananda [existence-consciousness-bliss], in nirvana.

So what are you to do to also cease the thinking, so the thoughts can become dead? You simply do not attach yourself to the thoughts. By not attaching yourself to the thoughts, by not reacting to the thoughts, by not responding to the thoughts, they lose their power and begin to fade away. You do not give it any energy. You do not give it any power. Do not say to yourself, ‘I have to stop my thoughts.’ Do nothing like this. Just slow down, slow down, let the thoughts do what they may. Allow the thoughts to go their own way. Do nothing with your thoughts. Do not think about them. Do not fight them. And above all, do not try to stop them.

You may think this is sort of difficult, but it’s not. It’s like when you first wake up, before the thoughts come. You’re still drowsy from sleep. And when the first thoughts come to you, you hardly pay any attention to them. That’s the attitude to have. Do not pay any attention to your thoughts whatsoever. … There are so many practices [used to stop the mind]. You have Vipassana meditation. You have pranayama. You have so many different methods to stop your thoughts. All of these methods are good to an extent. They make you sort of one-pointed, but they will not stop your thoughts.

This is why people who have been practicing pranayamas, breathing exercises, Vipassana meditation, even Zen meditation, and other forms of yoga meditation, have been practicing for years, and years, and years and years. Perhaps they have achieved a semblance of peace, but they have not become liberated, due to the fact that they are using methods, whether it is a koan, or it’s watching your breath or your feelings, or whether it’s changing your thoughts to something positive, whatever you’ve been doing, you’re using your mind to do it. And your mind will always fool you. It will make you believe you’re getting somewhere, you’re becoming something great. But it’s really the ego. It is the ego that is controlling the mind.”

~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)