A Brief Guide to Stilling the Mind

How I learned to stop my thoughts on command

I’ve never shared this before. But that’s half of what I’m doing here: sharing things I haven’t shared before.

After years of meditating, after countless sessions of watching my thoughts, I discovered something—an ability that feels like magic, but is absolutely real. I found a way to stop my thoughts.

When I say stop, I mean stop. Entirely. Not just being aware of them or letting them pass (although that’s great too), but stopping them completely, quieting the mind.

This little method allows me to experience a complete cessation of thought activity, and the feeling that follows is one of pure bliss—boundless and expansive. It’s a feeling of being both everything and nothing at all, a state I can now summon at will, in a matter of seconds.

In those moments, I realize deeply, experientially, that I am the universe experiencing itself through human form. Because when I silence the mind, I experience myself beyond the ego—beyond the collection of memories, thoughts, and stories that form the concept of “me.”

This discovery wasn’t immediate. I stumbled upon it after reading Autobiography of a Yogi. There’s a passage in the book that perfectly describes the experience I’d found but couldn’t yet recreate consistently. It’s a story about a blind man named Ramu who seeks the healing powers of a guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, to experience sight for the first time. The interaction goes like this:

“‘Master, the Illuminator of the cosmos is in you. I pray you bring His light into my eyes, that I perceive the sun's lesser glow.’

‘Ramu, someone has connived to put me in a difficult position. I have no healing power.’

‘Sir, the Infinite One within you can certainly heal.’

‘That is indeed different, Ramu. God's limit is nowhere! He who ignites the stars and the cells of flesh with mysterious life-effulgence can surely bring the luster of vision into your eyes.’ The master touched Ramu's forehead at the point between the eyebrows.*”

Now, a little sidebar—this spot between the eyebrows? It’s something I’d naturally focused on in my meditation practice before. It was inspired by Eckhart Tolle’s advice to watch for the next thought like a cat watching a mousehole.

When I watched for my thoughts this way, my focus naturally settled on that spot. And what happened? My mind became still. When I watched closely for the next thought, it didn’t come.

Since then, I’ve certainly become more familiar with this area, often referred to as the third eye and symbolized as an inner eye or eye of wisdom found in many spiritual traditions. Located on the forehead between the eyebrows, it is believed to be the center of intuition, insight, and spiritual vision.

The third eye is associated with the ability to perceive beyond the physical world, accessing higher states of consciousness and connecting with one's inner self or divine source. Activating or opening the third eye is thought to lead to deeper spiritual awareness, enlightenment, and the ability to see truth beyond illusion.

I had no idea of this at the time. All I knew was that this spot was familiar to me.

The passage continues:

“‘Keep your mind concentrated there, and frequently chant the name of the prophet Rama for seven days. The splendor of the sun shall have a special dawn for you.’

“Lo! In one week it was so. For the first time, Ramu beheld the fair face of nature. The Omniscient One had unerringly directed his disciple to repeat the name of Rama, adored by him above all other saints. Ramu’s faith was the devotionally ploughed soil in which the guru’s powerful seed of permanent healing sprouted.”

At the bottom of the page (p. 45), there’s a footnote about the space between the eyebrows: “The seat of the ‘single’ or spiritual eye. At death the consciousness of man is usually drawn to this holy spot, accounting for the upraised eyes found in the dead.”

Fascinating, right?

So, after reading this, I began to focus on this area more intentionally. I didn’t want to chant the name of some prophet, like the guru advised, so instead, I focused on “Om.”

Om, in many spiritual traditions, represents the sound of the universe—the vibration of creation itself. It’s a symbol of pure consciousness and unity. It made sense to me; it felt relevant and powerful.

So, in my meditation sessions, I began to direct my attention to that spot between and slightly above my eyebrows and silently repeat “Om” on each exhale. Suddenly, after several breaths, my mind fell silent. Completely still. Empty. Then there was bliss—an indescribable weightlessness, freedom, and peace, unlike anything I had ever known. I felt as if I was floating.

It was as if I had unlocked a doorway to another dimension of consciousness, one that was always there but hidden behind the constant noise of my thoughts.

I dropped away. The world dropped away.

Yet this wasn’t about escaping reality. It was about transcending illusion and experiencing something even more real than ever before, the essence of reality.

Consciousness itself.

After practicing this for a while, I realized I could reach this state quickly, like a destination I knew well and could return to effortlessly time and time again. Through this practice, peace and bliss became accessible in an instant, no matter what was going on around me or within me. Meditation became a direct experience of my true nature—pure consciousness, beyond the mental chatter of the ego.

And accessing this place within me was the greatest gift I could have given myself. It’s the greatest discovery I could have stumbled upon.

It was the knowledge, through experience, of the Truth of who I am, beyond all limitation, constraint, and fabrication. It was liberation from my mind.

Most people live at the mercy of their own thinking. They are trapped in patterns of thought, unable to escape the relentless restlessness, stories, and wounds of the ego. And so they seek to escape their thoughts through distractions—behaviors, substances, manipulating life to ease their self-generated discontent.

I know because I observe it in people all around me.

I know because that used to be me.

But it’s not anymore, and that’s largely because I discovered the ability to stop my thoughts on command. And this ability gave me another, deeper level of awareness, choice, and freedom.

That’s a freedom I’d like for everyone to be able to experience: freedom from themselves.

The choice that this freedom offers provides an opportunity to take a break from the ego, rest the mind, and bring harmony to our system whenever we want.

I don’t believe enlightenment is a permanent state, but a moment, because enlightenment exists outside of the construct of time. The Truth of the present moment is timeless. Always here, never there. And I believe those moments of presence, free of the ego, are experiences of enlightenment that we can drop into.

I also believe that, through consistency, this becomes more and more of our default state.

I believe we can rest there.

With practice, we can develop an intentional relationship with our mind as an instrument, a sophisticated tool we can pick up or put down. When it’s useful, we use it. When it’s not needed, we can let it rest and just be. And when we let it rest, we rest in our natural state. We are at ease, relaxed yet aware, grounded yet light, lucid and expansive.

At least, that’s been my experience.

And that’s why I’m sharing this. To share my experience, which has felt deeply personal, like my own little secret. But it’s too powerful not to share.

Tell me. Have you experienced freedom from your mind? Have you tasted mental stillness? Do you have your own method that you’ve stumbled upon? I’d love to know.

Or maybe, as someone just shared with me today, your experience with meditation and similar practices has not been so powerful. Maybe you Know a deeper level is available to you, a level where you can access profound states of being and levels of consciousness. And maybe it doesn’t have to be complicated. Maybe you’d like to try this.

If you’re open to it, sit down, close your eyes, focus on the point between and slightly above your eyebrows, and silently repeat “Om” on each exhale.

And see what happens.

I can’t wait to hear what you (don’t) think.